Tonnage Proportionality of Capital Ship Decided in Washington Naval Conference

Almost all the domestic course books on world history and international relation history have so far recorded that the tonnage proportionality should be 5 :5:3 :1.75 :1.75 of the capital ships of the five countries:America,Britain,Japan,France and Italy,decided by the International Conference on Naval Limitation held at Washington during November 1921 and February 1922. However,the practical figures calculated from the five countries' tonnage proportionalities by the Treaty could only be 5 :5 :3 :1.67 :1.67,or 5.25 :5.25 :3.15 :1.75 :1.75,which is apparently different from the widely accepted percentages. In fact,the relevant document has no such explicit statement at all. The popular numbers are only a plan put forward by someone at the beginning of the Conference. The final decision displays that the limitations of the tonnage proportionalities of the capital ships of America,Britain and Japan outnumbered those in the tentative plan. Unfortunately,some of the then mass media just ignored the delicate change and reported the original numbers,which has misled the later studies per se,including the wrong recording in the Chinese course books.