Japan and France could use the cap to catch up

Japan could concentrate its yards and supporting infrastructure on a defined class of ship larger and more powerful than anything it already possessed. A common ceiling would remove the immediate danger that richer rivals answered that effort with an even larger design, although Japan would still seek another qualitative advantage. France had not yet laid down the Courbet class, and the Dantons would not enter service until 1911. If Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary also accepted the ceiling, French factions might find enough shared interest to support it. Both navies gain breathing space to modernize, but only by accepting that they cannot leap beyond the common limit.