London Naval Treaty
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The London Naval Treaty, officially the Treaty for the Limitation and Reduction of Naval Armament, was an agreement between the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
,
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
,
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
,
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
, and the
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that was signed on 22 April 1930. Seeking to address issues not covered in the 1922
Washington Naval Treaty The Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, was a treaty signed during 1922 among the major Allies of World War I, which agreed to prevent an arms race by limiting naval construction. It was negotiated at the Washington Nav ...
, which had created
tonnage Tonnage is a measure of the cargo-carrying capacity of a ship, and is commonly used to assess fees on commercial shipping. The term derives from the taxation paid on ''tuns'' or casks of wine. In modern maritime usage, "tonnage" specifically ref ...
limits for each nation's surface warships, the new agreement regulated submarine warfare, further controlled cruisers and destroyers, and limited naval shipbuilding. Ratifications were exchanged in London on 27 October 1930, and the treaty went into effect on the same day, but it was largely ineffective. The treaty was registered in '' League of Nations Treaty Series'' on 6 February 1931.


Conference

The signing of the treaty remains inextricably intertwined with the ongoing negotiations, which began before the official start of the London Naval Conference of 1930, evolved throughout the progress of the official conference schedule, and continued for years afterward.


Terms

The treaty was seen as an extension of the conditions agreed in the
Washington Naval Treaty The Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, was a treaty signed during 1922 among the major Allies of World War I, which agreed to prevent an arms race by limiting naval construction. It was negotiated at the Washington Nav ...
, an effort to prevent a naval
arms race An arms race occurs when two or more groups compete in military superiority. It consists of a competition between two or more states to have superior armed forces; a competition concerning production of weapons, the growth of a military, and t ...
after
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. The conference was a revival of the efforts that had gone into the 1927
Geneva Naval Conference The Geneva Naval Conference was a conference held to discuss naval arms limitation, held in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1927. The aim of the conference was to extend the existing limits on naval construction which had been agreed in the Washington N ...
at which the various negotiators had been unable to reach agreement because of bad feelings between the British and the American governments. The problem may have initially arisen from discussions held between US President President
Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...
and UK Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald at
Rapidan Camp Rapidan Camp (also known at times as Camp Hoover) in Shenandoah National Park in Madison County, Virginia, was built by U.S. President Herbert Hoover and his wife Lou Henry Hoover, and served as their rustic retreat throughout Hoover's administ ...
in 1929, but a range of factors affected tensions, which were exacerbated by the other nations at the conference. Under the treaty, the
standard displacement The displacement or displacement tonnage of a ship is its weight. As the term indicates, it is measured indirectly, using Archimedes' principle, by first calculating the volume of water displaced by the ship, then converting that value into wei ...
of submarines was restricted to 2,000 tons, with each major power being allowed to keep three submarines of up to 2,800 tons except that France was allowed to keep one. The submarine gun caliber was also restricted for the first time to with one exception, an already-constructed French submarine being allowed to retain guns. That put an end to the 'big-gun' submarine concept pioneered by the British M class and the French ''Surcouf''. The treaty also established a distinction between cruisers armed with guns up to ("
light cruiser A light cruiser is a type of small or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck. Prior to thi ...
s" in unofficial parlance) from those with guns up to ("
heavy cruiser The heavy cruiser was a type of cruiser, a naval warship designed for long range and high speed, armed generally with naval guns of roughly 203 mm (8 inches) in caliber, whose design parameters were dictated by the Washington Naval Tr ...
s"). The number of heavy cruisers was limited: Britain was permitted 15 with a total tonnage of 147,000, the Americans 18 totalling 180,000, and the Japanese 12 totalling 108,000 tons. For light cruisers, no numbers were specified but tonnage limits were 143,500 tons for the Americans, 192,200 tons for the British, and 100,450 tons for the Japanese. Destroyer tonnage was also limited, with destroyers being defined as ships of less than 1,850 tons and guns up to . The Americans and the British were permitted up to 150,000 tons and Japan 105,500 tons. Article 22 relating to submarine warfare declared
international law International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...
applied to them as to surface vessels. Also, merchant vessels that demonstrated "persistent refusal to stop" or "active resistance" could be sunk without the ship's crew and passengers being first delivered to a "place of safety." Article 8 outlined smaller surface combatants. Ships between 600 and 2,000 tons, with guns not exceeding with a maximum of four gun mounts above without torpedo armament and up to , were exempt from tonnage limitations. The maximum specifications were designed around the
Bougainville-class aviso The ''Bougainville'' class was a group of colonial avisos, or sloops, built for the French Navy during the 1930s. They were designed to operate in the remote locations of the French Empire. Design and description The ''Bougainville''-class av ...
s, which entering French service. Warships under 600 tons were also completely exempt. That led to creative attempts to use the unlimited nature of the exemption with the Italian
Spica-class torpedo boat The ''Spica'' class were a class of torpedo boats of the Regia Marina (Royal Italian Navy) during World War II. These ships were built as a result of a clause in the Washington Naval Treaty, which stated that ships with a tonnage of less than 600 ...
s, Japanese
Chidori-class torpedo boat The was an Imperial Japanese Navy class of torpedo boats that were built before and served during the Second World War. The design initially proved to have too much armament for its small displacement, and the capsizing of shortly after completi ...
s, French
La Melpomène-class torpedo boat The ''La Melpomène'' class was a group of 12 French torpedo boats built from 1933 to 1935. Ships in class After serving with Marine Nationale, the ships of the ''La Melpomène'' class saw service in World War II with the '' Kriegsmarine'', ''Ma ...
s and British
Kingfisher-class sloop The ''Kingfisher'' class was a class of nine patrol sloops of the British Royal Navy built in three groups of three each during the 1930s, that saw service during World War II, mainly on East Coast convoys in the North Sea. Design The ''Kin ...
s.


Aftermath

The next phase of attempted naval arms control was the
Second Geneva Naval Conference The Conference for the Reduction and Limitation of Armaments, generally known as the Geneva Conference or World Disarmament Conference, was an international conference of states held in Geneva, Switzerland, between February 1932 and November 1934 ...
in 1932. That year, Italy "retired" two battleships, twelve cruisers, 25 destroyers and 12 submarines; in all, 130,000 tons of naval vessels were scrapped or put into reserve. Active negotiations among the other treaty signatories continued during the following years."Naval Men See Hull on the London Talks; Admiral Leigh and Commander Wilkinson Will Sail Today to Act as Advisers"
''
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.'' 9 June 1934. That was followed by the
Second London Naval Treaty The Second London Naval Treaty was an international treaty signed as a result of the Second London Naval Disarmament Conference held in London, the United Kingdom. The conference started on 9 December 1935 and the treaty was signed by the parti ...
of 1936.


See also

*
Treaty for the Limitation of Naval Armament The Treaties for the Limitation of Naval Armament were numerous accords in the 1920s signed variously by the United States, Great Britain, Japan, Italy and France. The treaties were an outgrowth of the Washington Naval Conference, held by the US i ...
*
Washington Naval Treaty The Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, was a treaty signed during 1922 among the major Allies of World War I, which agreed to prevent an arms race by limiting naval construction. It was negotiated at the Washington Nav ...
*
Second London Naval Treaty The Second London Naval Treaty was an international treaty signed as a result of the Second London Naval Disarmament Conference held in London, the United Kingdom. The conference started on 9 December 1935 and the treaty was signed by the parti ...
– List of treaties signed in London. * Treaty of London – List of treaties signed in London. * May 15 Incident - attempted coup in Japan


Notes


Further reading

* * Dingman, Roger. ''Power in the Pacific: The Origins of Naval Arms Limitation, 1914–1922'' (1976) * Goldstein, Erik, and John H. Maurer, eds. ''The Washington Conference, 1921–22: Naval Rivalry, East Asian Stability and the Road to Pearl Harbor'' (Taylor & Francis, 1994). * Maurer, John, and Christopher Bell, eds. ''At the Crossroads between Peace and War: The London Naval Conference in 1930'' (Naval Institute Press, 2014). * Redford, Duncan. "Collective Security and Internal Dissent: The Navy League's Attempts to Develop a New Policy towards British Naval Power between 1919 and the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty." ''History'' 96.321 (2011): 48-67. * Roskill, Stephen. ''Naval Policy Between Wars. Volume I: The Period of Anglo-American Antagonism 1919–1929'' (Seaforth Publishing, 2016). * Steiner, Zara S. (2005)
''The Lights that Failed: European International History 1919–1933.''
Oxford:
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
.
OCLC 58853793


External links


Text of the treaty
{{Authority control 1930 in France 1930 in Italy 1930 in Japan 1930 in London 1930 in the United Kingdom 20th-century military history of the United Kingdom Arms control treaties Naval treaties British defence policymaking History of the French Navy History of the Royal Navy Imperial Japanese Navy Interwar-period treaties Japan–United States relations Naval history of Italy Naval history of Japan Treaties concluded in 1930 Treaties of the Empire of Japan Treaties of the French Third Republic Treaties of the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946) Treaties of the United Kingdom Treaties of the United States United States Navy in the 20th century 1930 in military history