Postwar Planning: Parliamentary Politics and the Royal Navy, 1919-22

The end of the First World War found Britain in dire economic straits, burdened with the costs of converting a wartime economy and straining under an enormous load of debt. As is often the case in such situations, politicians and the public looked to the budgets of the armed services for a large portion of the savings that would presumably enable economic recovery and restore fiscal rectitude. The Royal Navy was a major target of the cost-cutters in post-1918 Britain. Their demands for steep reductions in its budget, however, ran counter to the navy’s pursuit of parity with its new major rival, the USA, and its mission of two-ocean imperial defence. This article examines the budget battle that ensued through a close study of the 1919-1922 debates over Royal Navy appropriations bills in the British Parliament and in the British public at large.