"This is an internal matter of our allies, and this should not be the subject of discussion at this meeting. Russia now does not have the economic strength and necessity of aircraft carriers. Hipper retorted. But a drop of cold sweat had already run down his head. Russia did once put forward the idea of having an aircraft carrier, but then this construction was refuted, and under German pressure, the nearly 80,000-ton aircraft carrier quota jointly owned by the three countries was divided between Spain and the Ottoman Turkish Empire. Each country can have one large aircraft carrier and one small aircraft carrier. And now that construction had already begun, the Entente had taken advantage of the opportunity to make it clear that it was not just to sabotage the Allies' naval rearmament plans, but also to provoke some of them. After all, Germany is still not at ease with Russia, and it is still very suppressive in all aspects, especially in military construction. In the minds of the Germans, Russia was an insignificant ally that could provide a large number of distant allies, and there was no need to have too much power.

"And as compensation, Germany and Austria built two battleships for Russia, which were fast battleships equipped with 16-inch guns, and this used up more than half of the tonnage of the new warships that the three countries could build." Hippert retorted loudly. These two battleships were Russian, at least Russian, and the cost of construction was indeed Russian, but half of the officers and men on them were Germans after they entered service. Moreover, when building this battleship again, the Russians must "unconditionally" assign the fleet to the command of the High Command of the Allied Navy when necessary, knowing that in World War 1, neither Germany nor Italy can completely require the allied fleets to obey their command! The so-called unified command is only effective in battle, and the planning of specific battles needs to be discussed together. And the Germans did this, which is tantamount to invisibly "hacking" the two capital ships of Russia!

"Aircraft carriers and battleships cannot be confused and cannot substitute for each other, this is a key principle, otherwise. If you believe that aircraft carriers and battleships can be replaced on an equal footing, then I agree with your request, and at the same time I would like to warn you that we will stop the construction of 2 battleships and exchange their tonnage for aircraft carriers. Sims was not willing to explain too much, the situation was that the United States was strong, and Germany was far from recovering from the war, let alone digesting the fruits of victory.

In this case. The Americans could renounce the treaty, and the Germans had to do everything possible to guarantee that the treaty could continue! At the meeting in Beijing, the fundamental reason why the United States accepted the treaty was not because of the allies! Rather, it lies in Huaxia's vigilance about the expansion of the U.S. Navy. If China did not support Germany this time, the Allies would be at a disadvantage in the contest with Britain, the United States and France, and judging from the previous speeches, China would obviously be inclined to the Entente and Italy!

"We are gathered here to address the loopholes in the treaty. Since Marshal Hipper raised the question of the tonnage of the remaining capital ships of the three countries. Then we need to deal with him. It is true that what your country has done is contrary to the spirit of fairness and justice in the Treaty. But now things are irreparable, whether it is the aircraft carriers of Turkey and Spain, or the fast battleships built by Germany and Austria for Russia, they should have started construction. It was obviously very difficult for the Allies to dismantle these warships, and there was indeed a remaining quota of about 20,000 tons left in the capital ships of the three navies. Lin Yongsheng stood up and said.

"What we need to do now is how to satisfy both sides, the tonnage of capital ships is very valuable, but it should not be wasted, as compensation to Russia. The tonnage of these 20,000 tons of capital ships can be exchanged for a light aircraft carrier with a displacement of no more than 15,000 tons and handed over to Russia as compensation to the Entente. The three Entente countries share no more than 12,000 tons of mobile tonnage! At the same time, France and Austria-Hungary exchanged the remaining capital ship tonnage for 9000 tons of aircraft carrier tonnage. In this case, the tonnage of the new aircraft carriers of the two sides is almost equal. Fair enough, right? Lin Yongsheng proposed a solution on behalf of Huaxia, and there was no interest in competing for the tonnage of several thousand tons of aircraft carriers, and Huaxia would definitely not participate in the war at the beginning even if it participated in the war in the future, so Huaxia focused on the balance of power between the Allies and the Entente.

Of course, the current Allies may have to remove Italy, because Italy has expressed its attitude of taking the road of neutrality in many overt and covert exchanges, and it is not very likely that the Entente will push Italy to the side of the Allies. Let the Allies convert the excess capital ship tonnage into aircraft carrier tonnage as much as possible, and at the same time compensate the Entente for some additional aircraft carrier tonnage! In this case, both sides are the most acceptable!

"The Entente side expressed its support." After some discussion, the representatives of Britain, France, and the United States agreed that Italy could convert the tonnage, which had been agreed before the meeting, after all, Huaxia had greeted Britain, and Italy expressed its willingness to cooperate with France in some aspects, and exchanging the remaining capital ship tonnage of 1.5 to 18,000 tons for the tonnage of aircraft carriers of 1.2 to 15,000 tons, in the eyes of the Entente, would be more able to maintain Italy's neutral status. The additional 12,000 tonnes of tonnage given would have fully offset the impact of the Confederate tonnage conversion, so the Entente accepted it. And the Allies? It's not a loss, but more importantly, in the case of Huaxia mentioning yì and the Entente expressing support, it is useless for the Allies to oppose it, after all, if the Americans are forced to be anxious, they will directly announce that they will not play, I will build my own ship, and it is the Allies who will suffer!

If the final result of the first issue is acceptable to both sides, then the second issue is a bit tangled with the Allies, more precisely Germany! "Limiting the armament of the navies of various countries, especially sea-based aviation, is a top priority. After limiting the tonnage of aircraft carriers, we should also limit the number of aircraft carried by other warships. If some countries build aircraft carriers in the name of building other warships, it is obviously unfair to other States parties. Although the British representative did not say it explicitly, it was clear to everyone in the countries against whom the Germans had planned to build an aviation cruiser that could not be airtight. Although it is not clear the specific performance number, if a standard 15,000-ton warship is loaded with aircraft, then the number will not be small.

"The carrier-based aircraft of an aircraft carrier are its main combat weapon, but the carrier-based aircraft on the cruiser are for reconnaissance and anti-submarine and to complete some life-saving work. Therefore, the fact that the cruiser is loaded with aircraft cannot be considered a violation of the treaty. However, the number of aircraft carriers does need to be limited. Although Huaxia did not build a special air defense cruiser like the Germans, it also built 9 main guns stacked on the front deck, and a large number of decks were vacated behind as seaplane hangars and mooring positions, and the specific design ideas refer to the Tone-class cruisers in Japan during the 2nd World War. And the number of carrier aircraft has reached 12!

"Our government considers that it is advisable to have less than 10 aircraft on board such an aviation cruiser. As for the number of such cruisers? I don't think the proportion of this type of battleship in the total tonnage of cruisers should be more than 3 percent! And the light cruiser could not carry more than 6 aircraft! The British were still very satisfied with the ambiguous attitude of China, so they proposed the next specific restrictive measures, which pierced Germany like a sharp sword!

"There is no limit on the number of cruisers that can be carried in the treaty, and your country's proposal is clearly contrary to the spirit of the Beijing Naval Arms Limitation Treaty. My country does not intend to accept it. Hipper immediately said. Joke, the Germans planned to build the first batch of 4 aviation cruisers, which would be the main force of the German high seas fleet in the future to break the diplomatic battle, an indispensable part of the entire naval strategy, and Hipper would naturally vigorously oppose it. "And our warships have already started construction, and they must not be abolished because of this halfway clause." Privately, at meetings within the delegation of the German Navy, the Germans set the tone.

And in the same way, this mention of the British also limited Huaxia, after all, Huaxia planned to use some of its cruisers as anti-submarine reconnaissance cruisers! This clause does conflict with the original treaty, which does not mention restrictions on cruisers, and although the British delegate does have some truth in his opinion, it still needs to be flexible in terms of specific settings. And for the warships that have already started construction, we also need to open the net. "The Germans planned to build 4 ships, and the Chinese were no less, and in the entire naval construction program, the number of such heavy cruisers with a large number of seaplanes was at least 6! That's almost half of the number of cruisers of rated weight! And if you count the light cruisers, then the number may be increased!

In fact, in general, the original "Beijing Naval Arms Limitation Treaty" did not impose too many restrictions on cruisers, firstly, because everyone was staring at capital ships and aircraft carriers at that time, and secondly, because all countries wanted to exploit some loopholes in them. The fundamental reason why the Entente countries raised this issue today is that they found that in order to ensure the control of the North Atlantic and the Indian Ocean, they needed cruisers with poor single ship performance but a large number, so they came up with a plan to limit the performance of cruisers on a single ship, and limiting the aviation capabilities of cruisers was the top priority. After all, in the US Navy's exercises, it is very dangerous for a cruiser to run into a squadron (12 aircraft) without sufficient destroyer escort.

"We have put the meeting to a temporary adjournment, and the opinions put forward by the British delegates have changed too much, and some decisions need to be studied by the government and re-discussed within the Allies." Faced with the aggressive posture of the British, Hipper decided to stay out of the way. At the same time, looking at Huaxia's attitude, if Huaxia is willing to join forces with the Germans, then the Allies will naturally have a much better chance of winning.

Thanks to the book friend hukaikaka for the reward~~, as well as the book friend Hell Princess, Heavenly Dream, Soaring Universe Constellation, I Kill Me, Philippo Monthly Pass Support ~~~. This book has a starting point client recommendation next week, and this recommendation seems to be the first time the author has come across it. There is a more ~~ this afternoon, I hope you will support a lot ~~~. (To be continued......)