The Rise Of Australasia-Chapter 1033 - 776: Naval Arms Race

As time entered mid-March of 1931, the Powers faced a difficult choice: whether to renew the Naval Limitation Treaty or not.

It must be admitted that the Naval Limitation Treaty had been quite beneficial for world peace.

Under the constraints of the Naval Limitation Treaty, the investment in military expenditure by various countries was reduced by at least 30%, also avoiding competition caused by naval expansion.

But the problem was that this so-called Naval Limitation Treaty was not equally fair to every country.

The naval size ratios agreed upon at that time were 60:55:35:35:30:17.5.

After the fall of the United States, the naval size limitations no longer applied to the smaller nations that emerged from its dissolution.

After all, those small nations didn't have enough scale, and their economies could not sustain a large fleet.

As a result, the Naval Limitation Treaty became a restriction for the currently stronger nations, namely the United Kingdom, France, Australasia, Island and Italy.

British, who held the largest share and whose allotment nearly equaled the sum of the second and third, naturally would not oppose this treaty.

But other countries might not feel the same way.

Firstly, there was France. After the United States' fall, the Frenchmen, under the push of Australasia, firmly secured the world's second place.

Regardless of what other countries thought, the Frenchmen firmly believed in this ranking and occasionally prided themselves as the world's second superpower.

For the Frenchmen, being the world's second superpower, it was acceptable to be behind Britain in naval share, but only having slightly more than half of Britain's was unacceptable.

However, the Frenchmen did not think about tearing up the treaty, but rather took advantage of the treaty renewal time to opportunistically increase their naval size.

Normally such demands wouldn't be a big deal, at most causing some back-and-forth between Britain and France, with a compromise being reached in the end.

But the Frenchmen happened to face the Islanders who wanted to tear up the treaty.

The Islanders' naval size was limited to 300,000 Tons, falling behind France and Australasia by 50,000 Tons.

Although they were now the world's fourth power, to the ambitious Islanders, this naval size was too small.

The ambition of the Islanders could be seen from the battleships they constructed. Their largest battleship had already exceeded 40,000 Tons, and the 300,000 Tons naval size didn't even amount to eight battleships.

Compared to the Frenchmen who only wanted to increase their naval size, the Islanders preferred to tear up the treaty completely, developing their navy without restraint.

If it were peacetime, the Islanders would not have dared take such action under British and French surveillance.

But now, the Island Nation was not alone in having designs on the treaty. The French request to amend the treaty was like opening Pandora's box, leading to a stalemate in the renewal of the Naval Limitation Treaty.

After the French expressed their demands, the Island and Italy also pointed out many issues with the treaty they had previously signed.

The French demanded their naval size limit be raised to 450,000 Tons, while the Islanders also requested that their naval size be kept at the same level as the French, around 450,000 Tons.

Italy demanded their naval size be doubled, to match that of Australasia, around 350,000 Tons.

This meant that the Naval Limitation Treaty would need a significant overhaul to satisfy these countries' desires.

The issue was, would Britain agree? Would Australasia agree?

Clearly not. The French request would greatly narrow the naval size gap between the United Kingdom and France, which is what the British did not want to see.

For Australasia, having France and the Island leapfrog in naval size ahead of themselves, even allowing a country like Italy to match their level, was simply unacceptable.

Add to that, Arthur had been intending to refuse to sign the renewal of the Naval Limitation Treaty, which all but ensured the failure of the treaty's renewal.

On March 21, 1931, as the third renewal negotiation for the Naval Limitation Treaty failed, all nations had no choice but to announce a temporary suspension of talks regarding the treaty.

Since negotiations failed to produce a result, the best outcome would be for the countries to reach a private compromise and then re-sign a Naval Limitation Treaty within a range that everyone could accept.

But things were not as easy as imagined.

The Naval Limitation Treaty was signed in 1921, with a ten-year term, set to expire in 1931.

As long as the countries had not renewed the treaty, theoretically, the Naval Limitation Treaty would have no restrictions on shipbuilding plans for any country after 1931.

With this in mind, the Islanders decided to exploit a loophole, constructing two extra-large battleships before the new treaty was signed.

But to the Islanders' surprise, their every move was already under the strict watch of Australasia.

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The goal of Arthur was straightforward. The first was to have the Island Nation be the first to break the treaty.

While many countries may have had ideas, the country that took action first would certainly be targeted by the British.

For Arthur, having the Islanders take the lead was definitely advantageous.

Secondly, having the Islanders stir up this mess was also a good thing for Australasia.

A naval arms race often also meant an army arms race. This indicated that once the waters became muddied, countries would have to start heavily investing in military preparation.

If the strengths of Britain and France could be increased a little more, they would be in a better position against Germany in the future.