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This is something I've been pondering for a while. The colonial naval forces were lumped into the parent nations allocations in the Washington Treaty which efectively limited them to light cruisers and under. All of the major signatories had colonial possetions of some sort, that could have to hold off an attack until support from the Mother Country arrived and could use some more powerful ships to do it with. So if the treaty allowed heavy coastal defence ships, what would be a reasonable specification for such ships under the terms of the treaty?

My thoughts are ships of under 15000 tons displacement armed with no more than six intermediate caliber main guns (e.g British 9.2 inch) Heavily armoured with a max speed of aprox 20 - 23 knots but with a limited range to prevent them being used with the main Battle Fleet.

Actually getting the ships built would of course be another matter and there would be a great temptation to use the newer pre and semi Dreadnoughts or modified Monitors, and by the time rearmament started the growing power of the aircraft would likely be better suited to the task. Still the design and construction of such ships would keep skilled design teams and shipbuilders busy at a time when capital ship construction was forbiden.
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