The Parity That Meant Superiority: French Naval Policy towards Italy at the Washington Conference, 1921-22, and Interwar French Foreign Policy

Abstract

On December 16, 1921, Charles Evans Hughes (and President Warren Harding) pressed Aristide Briand to accept the famous 5, 5, 3, 1.75, 1.75 ratio on capital ships already reached by the United States, Great Britain, and Japan at the Washington Conference on the Limitation of Armament. France and Italy had been assigned the lower figures. Warning the French premier that the success of the entire conference hinged on his decision, the American secretary of state suggested that France ought to reconstruct its economy and country rather than build battleships-a threat from France's major creditor.' Briand and other French leaders responded positively as long as French demands in lighter ships (cruisers, destroyers, submarines, and others) were respected. Furthermore, although