Parliament challenged cruiser scrapping and treaty interpretation

Churchill challenged the prime minister over an earlier statement about the cruiser escalator clause. The reply distinguished destroyer leaders from cruisers and emphasized that negotiations concerned destroyer tonnage. A separate question contrasted the proposed seventy-cruiser program with scrapping existing ships, including overage cruisers. Churchill then asked who could decide whether five serviceable cruisers had to be destroyed. Thomas Inskip replied that no tribunal determined the use of the treaty's escape provision: governments had to exercise judgment and good faith, with legal advice available from the Crown's law officers.