Why treaty disclosure mattered more than small tonnage overruns

The nominal 1,850-ton Tribal design and the different real displacements of individual ships show how yard practice, stores, and later additions create unavoidable variation. Every major navy found treaty workarounds, so a limited and openly acknowledged overrun was not automatically treated as grounds for confrontation. A candid declaration only a few hundred tons above target could have established a usable tolerance for other powers. The larger political problem was the loss of confidence caused by an implausibly exact declaration and attempted concealment.