Canada, Australia, India, New Zealand, and South Africa could buy small carriers while the Washington Treaty left ships below 10,000 tons outside numerical limits. A later London treaty would then face completed ships owned by separate Dominion governments. Britain could defend them as anti-submarine, convoy, and maritime-security assets after failing to secure a ban on ocean-going submarines. That rationale fits a cruiser-carrier built for reconnaissance and air defence, not a bare escort carrier. The ownership question shows why an apparently simple tonnage rule could become hard to reverse once several governments had ships in service.
Notable Point · 12:29-14:16
Dominion carriers complicate treaty limits
Carrier purchases by the Dominions could preserve extra imperial flight decks through treaty negotiations, especially when Britain presented them as ASW and maritime-security ships.