A treaty as budget control and security policy

Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points and League of Nations represent a genuine peace-seeking strand in the effort to restrain armaments. Some governments also wanted relief from naval expenditure. France faced reconstruction and extensive postwar commitments, while Japan worried about the scale of American plans and the infrastructure bill required to match them. Britain expected to build to any agreed ceiling while doubting that the United States would appropriate the money or that other powers could afford to follow. The same treaty limit therefore carried very different meanings for each signatory.