London Naval Treaty

London Naval Treaty

The London Naval Treaty was an agreement between the United Kingdom, the Empire of Japan, France, Italy and the United States, signed on April 22, 1930, which regulated submarine warfare and limited naval shipbuilding.

Terms of the Treaty

It was an extension of the conditions agreed in the Washington Naval Treaty and is officially termed the Treaty for the Limitation and Reduction of Naval Armament. It was a revival of the Geneva Naval Conference of 1927 which had been unable to reach agreement because of bad feeling between the British Government and that of the United States. It arose from initial discussions held between President Herbert Hoover and Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald at Rapidan Camp in 1929. [cite book
last = Steiner
first = Zara S.
title = The Lights that Failed: European International History 1919-1933
publisher = Oxford University Press
date = 2005
pages = page 588
isbn = 0198221142]

The signatories agreed to build no new capital ships until 1937. A number of existing capital ships were scrapped. No existing vessels were to be converted to aircraft carriers. The construction of submarines was limited to vessels under 2,032 metric tons. The total completed tonnage of cruisers (split into heavy cruisers with guns exceeding 6.1 inches (155mm) calibre and light cruisers with smaller guns), destroyers and submarines to be built by 1937 was limited as was the individual tonnage in each category.

Article 22 relating to submarine warfare declared that international law applied to them as to surface vessels. Also merchant vessels which did not demonstrate "persistent refusal to stop" or "active resistance" could not be sunk without the ship's crew and passengers being first delivered to a "place of safety". [ [http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/FULL/310?OpenDocument Treaty for the Limitation and Reduction of Naval Armaments, (Part IV, Art. 22, relating to submarine warfare). London, 22 April 1930] ]

The next phase of attempted naval arms control was the Second Geneva Naval Conference in 1932. This was followed by the Second London Naval Treaty of 1936.

Circumventing the Treaty

The British, American and Japanese navies all sought to circumvent the treaty. For example, the "light cruisers" built by all three navies in the 1930s were such in name only. As the London Treaty defined a "light cruiser" as one having a main armament no greater than 6.1 inches (155 mm) calibre, the three major naval powers embarked on building "light cruisers" that were equal in size and effective power to heavy cruisers. These ships made up for their smaller calibre guns by carrying a larger number of them. As these cruisers fell just under the 10,000 ton standard displacement limit set by the treaty, they were theoretically compliant with the restrictions, but only barely. See British Town-class cruiser, Japanese "Mogami"-class cruiser, and American "Brooklyn"-class cruiser for specific examples.

ee also

*Treaty of London - List of treaties signed in London.

Footnotes

External links

* [http://www.microworks.net/pacific/road_to_war/london_treaty.htm Text of the treaty]


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