Thus the Washington system limited naval arms, but did nothing to eliminate underlying national rivalries. It allowed for their construction, but set an upward bound on their size and armament at 10,000-tons displacement with guns no larger than 8-inch. The treaty was not silent about cruisers. These limits terminated World War I construction programs and even required the scrapping of some existing battleships, thus the renewed interest in cruisers. It also banned new battleship construction for 10 years, a restriction later extended to 1936.
The treaty placed a cap on the total tonnage of battleships each major power could maintain, setting the 5:5:3 ratio between the United States, England, and Japan that became the basis for all subsequent negotiations (Germany at the time was meant to be disarmed France and Italy’s limits were both set at 1.67 with respect to the above). Following the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 (and roughly four years prior to the construction of the HMS Cornwall), cruisers became a focus of the interwar naval arms race, no less keenly felt by the British, whose survival depended on the sea-lane.
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