Would Britain have preferred a 16.5-inch treaty limit?

Would the Royal Navy have welcomed a 16.5-inch gun limit while keeping the 35,000-ton treaty displacement?

Yes. The panel expects Britain would have used the larger calibre and produced some very interesting treaty battleships.

The Royal Navy would have welcomed the larger calibre while working within the unchanged 35,000-ton displacement ceiling. The panel describes the 16.5-inch weapon as an enlargement of the established British 13.5-inch and 15-inch gun lineage rather than a wholly new departure. It could have fired a correspondingly enlarged Greenboy armour-piercing shell. That route is contrasted with the actual British 16-inch development, which the answer links to tests of German guns.