When it comes to the arms race, Britain has a lot of experience, the United States and Japan are all novices, but Britain has trained itself with Germany.

Therefore, when the United States and Japan provoked an arms race, Britain was slightly slow to respond, and now it is only a project and has not actually invested in it.

If Britain really wants to participate in the arms race, Britain has the technology, southern Africa has the resources, India has the manpower, and Australia and Canada can provide enough strategic depth, not to mention Japan, the advantages of the United States are not enough compared with the United Kingdom.

So another world war is needed to completely break Britain's advantage.

"The naval meeting has been held for a month, and basically no consensus has been reached, is it difficult to control the total tonnage of the Navy's capital ships? Is it difficult to limit the caliber of the main gun to less than 16 inches? When Roque said this, he glanced at Yuzaburo Kato lightly.

Yuzaburo Kato suddenly became vigilant.

MMP, what do you mean by looking at me at this time.

Could it be that the real data of "Mutsu" and "Nagato" were leaked?

My family's main gun is really 406, not 410-

"- Is it difficult to limit the tonnage of capital ships to less than 35,000 tons?" Roque takes one look at Albert Sarau and then at Carlo Yamaza.

Albert Sarau and Carlo Yamazawa looked serious.

No matter how serious it is, it's you, don't be like no one, even if you don't have this, you two can't build a battleship of more than 35,000 tons with scrap wood.

"If you don't care, then our British Empire doesn't care, isn't it just a battleship, a few million ships, if London agrees, Southern Africa can build a dozen or so ships for fun, Australia can build two, can Canada also build two? India donated 100 million in the world war, and it should be no problem to donate another 10 million or 20 million now-" Roque made a big fuss, a dozen or so ships are all jokes, just listen to it, don't take it seriously.

"Australia can build three." Viscount Gladstone is powerful, and in recent times, the Australian government has made a fortune by selling land.

"Canada is no problem." Bowden followed up and said that Australia may not have the need to equip battleships, Canada really has, and the Americans are still eyeing it.

Sustri didn't speak, during the world war, India was fooled by Britain to donate 100 million, but after the end of the world war, India didn't get anything, so India can only support the British Empire spiritually now, and the donation is really no money.

Bainbridge Colby and Albert Sarau and Carlo Yamazawa looked at each other.

The last time the Commonwealth was so united was during a world war.

After Balfour fell ill, although Roque had a high knighthood, because he was Chinese, he would definitely not be able to convince the public, and delegations from all over the world were actually waiting to see the jokes of the British delegation.

Unexpectedly, after Roque served as the British delegation, the British delegation not only did not fall into chaos, but showed a sense of unity-

This is terrible, a united Commonwealth, worthy of the vigilance of all countries.

But it is understandable, after all, Roque was the commander-in-chief of the British Expeditionary Force during the World War, the Canadian Legion, the Australian Legion and the Indian Legion were all Roque's subordinates at that time, and Southern Africa is now the most powerful dominion in the British Commonwealth, vaguely on an equal footing with the United Kingdom, Roque's influence -

Far bigger than other countries think.

"This resolution should be limited to a validity period, such as 15 or 20 years, and those who want to engage in an arms race should wait for 15 or 20 years to come back, because the world war has just ended, and the economic crisis has enveloped the world, and now we should focus more on restoring the national economy and people's livelihood, rather than creating new contradictions." Roque is talking about the United States and Japan, Britain, France and Italy, forget it, and now they are too busy to take care of themselves.

"If Britain and the United States can commit not to build or expand military bases in the Western Pacific, then the Japanese Empire can accept this outcome." Yuzaburo Kato seemed reluctant, but in fact he finally breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.

Don't look at Japan's aggressiveness on the surface, in fact, of the five countries participating in the naval conference, Japan's strength is the weakest.

Judging purely from the strength on paper, France and Italy are indeed inferior to Japan, but in fact, when it comes to life and death, the strength of France and Italy is not necessarily weaker than Japan.

To put it mildly, after all, it is the old imperialism and the old colonialism, which is much stronger than Japan, a country that has just risen for more than a decade.

The rise of Japan began after the Russo-Japanese War.

"If Italy is willing to accept this result, then France can accept it too." Albert Saraau took the initiative to give in and really gave France 300,000 tons, and France really couldn't use it up.

"If France is willing to accept this result, then Italy can accept it too." Carlo Yamazawa-for-tat, why should we Italy accept it first, and then you France will accept it, never, Italy will never give in.

Nima's words are not sorry!

"Very well, then do it, don't think that you have all made great sacrifices and made great contributions to world peace, according to this ratio, the British Empire is the country that has made the greatest concessions." Roque didn't give Albert Sarau and Carlo Shan Ze a chance to quarrel, and the British Empire was really great.

Of course, this "greatness" was not voluntary by Britain, but Britain had to be "great".

Before the World War, Britain had undisputed maritime supremacy on a global scale.

Now this hegemony is shared by the United States and Japan.

Japan is better, the United States has obtained the same tonnage of capital ships as Britain through the Washington Naval Conference, which also means that Britain has ceded at least half of its maritime supremacy.

"Britain's contribution deserves to be remembered by all of us—" Bainbridge Colby was satisfied, and if he had been able to broker the Washington Naval Treaty, then Bainbridge Colby would have been given the right to go down in history.

On the premise that Britain made huge concessions, the delegations of various countries quickly agreed on the tonnage of capital ships, and eventually the United States could retain capital ships with a total tonnage of no more than 525,000 tons; The British Empire, like the United States, was 525,000 tons; 175,000 tonnes both in France and Italy; Japan received 315,000 tons.

After the delegations agreed on the total tonnage of the capital ships, there was finally good news from Pretoria.

After intense discussions, the Southern African Congress agreed to purchase the hulls of four Normandy-class battleships from France on the basis of not violating the Naval Treaty.

Not counting the slowest "Béarn".

The keel of the "Béarn" was laid in 1914, and now it has been six full years, the hull is only 25% complete, the main engine is only 17% complete, the boiler is 20% complete, and the turret rotation is 8% complete.

The four Normandy-class battleships were purchased by the Kingdom of West Africa and Mozambique, commissioned by the Edward Shipyards and the Walvis Bay Shipyards to complete the construction, and according to the needs of the Kingdom of Mozambique and West Africa, the Nyasaland Naval Institute will make modifications to the Normandy-class battleships, including: the replacement of a more powerful power system, which is partly provided by the British Royal Shipyards; At the same time, the number of secondary artillery was reduced and the anti-aircraft defense was increased, which was partly the responsibility of the Nyasaland military industry; It is also necessary to install the latest radios and sonar, which is partly the responsibility of Transvaal Electric; Finally, there is room for future upgrades.

In the future, this part will definitely be the radar.

In short, the tonnage of the renovated Normandy-class battleships will be reduced to about 20,000 tons, and the speed will be increased to 32 knots, and at the same time it has a certain sea attack capability and strong air defense capabilities.

After all, even with weakened protection, the Normandy-class battleships were still standard dreadnoughts.

For southern Africa, the protection of battleships is not much of a problem, and in the future, battleships will definitely accompany aircraft carriers, and the enemy's battleships are basically unlikely to approach within the range of the battleship's main guns.

In other words, the Normandy-class battleships after the completion of the transformation may not have a chance to participate in the war at all, and they are simply four training ships.

It is also for this reason that the quadruple 340 mm guns are too much, the original design of the Normandy-class battleships was ten twin 340 guns, and then 12 were modified, and now the number of main guns is further reduced, Roque means to reduce to 6 guns, which can reduce the weight without wasting it.

This plan was strongly opposed by the Naval Academy, and the admirals were looking forward to the battleship, and now it is finally possible to have a battleship, but it has been reduced to only 6 main guns, compared to other countries that often have more than a dozen 406 main guns, and the 340 caliber of the battleship main guns in southern Africa is too small, and now the number is being reduced to 6, and it is estimated that no one wants to be the captain.

Even if Roque is authoritative, he must take into account the opinions of the admirals, and even Buck sends a telegram to Roque, asking Roque to save some face for the navy.

This telegram was mostly sent for Patton.

However, Buck also underestimated Patton, if the Southern African Navy is equipped with both battleships and aircraft carriers, then Patton is at least qualified to be a fleet commander, the captain or something, in the past two years, Southern Africa will successively launch battleships and aircraft carriers, just want to be a captain, it is really unambitious.

After comprehensive consideration, Roque decided to change the three quadruple 340 mm guns to three triple 340 mm guns, so that a total of nine guns can not only ensure the stupid and thick black attributes of the battleship, but also satisfy the vanity of the southern African admirals, the carrier-based seaplanes designed by the French have also been canceled, and the future battleships will be dispatched with aircraft carriers, and there will be no need to carry seaplanes again.

As Roque envisioned, the purchase of Normandy-class battleships by the Kingdom of Mozambique and West Africa did not arouse strong opposition from the United States, and the French spared no expense in order to dismantle the British Taiwan, and the hulls of the four Normandy-class battleships together cost only 2 million rand.

Southern Africa doesn't have to pay money yet, pay off the debt!