Separate Dominion allowances could have made a formal capital-ship ratio misleading. Britain plus individual allowances for Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and India might have produced a much larger combined force than nominal Anglo-American parity suggested. Counting Commonwealth forces together closed that accounting route. It also bound Australia and New Zealand more tightly to the Royal Navy for security, showing how treaty ratios depended on constitutional definitions as much as ship totals.
Notable Point · 40:10-45:18
Why one Commonwealth navy mattered to the ratios
Treating the Dominions as part of one naval establishment prevented British strength from being multiplied through nominally separate fleets.