Other powers understood that American carrier figures were doubtful, yet calling out one violation could expose their own evasions and unravel the system. The treaty did not eliminate lying so much as place boundaries around the discrepancies that governments were willing to tolerate. This tacit restraint contrasts with a hypothetical Yamato-class breach inside the treaty, which would have triggered escalator clauses because its scale could not be absorbed quietly. Italian heavy cruisers exceeding 10,000 tons then show how difficult it was to combine the required armament, protection, and performance even for Mediterranean service. Mutual evasion remained survivable only while violations stayed within a shared understanding of what practical warships required.
Chapter · 30:33-32:42
Mutual evasion made unrealistic treaty limits survivable
Navies tolerated one another's discrepancies because each needed room to produce viable ships under ceilings that did not match operational requirements.