Percy Noble and proportionate strength in a naval crisis

Percy Noble has repeated experience of dealing with Japan and later succeeds in difficult alliance work with U.S. Admiral Ernest J. King. His approach combines refusal to yield with proportionate force, the judgment behind assigning HMS Birmingham to the initial response. Available ships alone do not determine how this alternate-history crisis unfolds. The theatre commander's experience and temperament shape which risks are accepted and how quickly a local incident can widen.