British use of water as armor is offered as a reason to question an uncomplicated picture of Royal Navy treaty compliance. A navy that found ways to bend displacement rules had reason to suspect other navies of doing the same. The criticism extends to intelligence assessments that assumed foreign compliance while recognizing exceptions at home. In this interpretation, confident estimates of compliance could overlook the accounting practices already familiar to the estimating navy.
Notable Point · 2:47:02-2:48:59
How treaty accounting could mislead naval intelligence
National accounting choices made official displacement figures an uncertain basis for judging another navy's treaty compliance.