Treaty for the Limitation of Naval Armament

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The Limitation of Naval Armament included many separate treaties. In general, the treaties involved the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, and France.

One of the treaties, known as the Four Power Act, provided that the US, UK, Japan and France would help maintain peace in the Pacific Ocean, while another, the Five Power Treaty, stipulated that the US, UK and Japan would build ships in a 5:5:3 ratio. This was originally proposed by US Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes, and was rejected by the Japanese. Tokyo agreed, however, when a provision was added forbidding the US and UK to fortify their Pacific island possessions, but allowed Japan to do so. A third treaty, the Nine Power Treaty, emphasized maintaining an Open Door Policy in China.

The treaties came into effect as the result of the Washington Disarmament Conference, held by the US in 1921-22. All the major world naval powers were invited with the sole exception of Russia, which, under the Bolshevik regime, the US did not officially recognize.