Could a minor navy trigger the treaty escalator clause?

Did any treaty navy consider encouraging a minor power to build a ship large enough to trigger the escalator clause?

Yes, but the minor powers most open to pressure generally lacked the shipyards needed to do it.

The escalator clause made an outside capital-ship program strategically attractive to treaty navies seeking more freedom. British, American, and other planners considered whether a smaller power's construction might justify larger ships for themselves. The practical obstacle was industrial rather than imaginative. States most open to pressure or inducement rarely owned slipways and heavy engineering facilities capable of constructing a vessel large enough to trigger the clause.