Why Britain studied capital-gun autoloaders first

Would true autoloaders have been more suitable for cruiser-caliber weapons than for capital-ship guns?

They were technologically easier at cruiser caliber, but the Royal Navy's interwar focus remained on capital ships.

Cruiser-caliber systems were technologically easier to automate. Institutional priority still directed British work toward larger weapons. During much of the 1920s and 1930s, the Royal Navy concentrated its design attention and funding on the capital ship. Its autoloader studies therefore followed the weapons whose rate of fire most needed improvement and whose programs carried the greatest strategic weight.