In 1931 the Admiralty got word about the Deutschland class and wanted to reply but they couldn't due to the treaty's
.After a bit of thinking they remembered about the old large light cruisers sitting in a reserve as barrack hulks, They had been useless ships with only 4 main guns so couldn't range anything and thin protection and then they had been through about for conversion to aircraft carriers so lurking in the background nobody had named them in the WNT text as they where assumed to be useless apart from for conversions By the RN had gone for new builds after the work and learning done on HMS Furious (and the unwillingness to have second rate smaller ships than the ones for the USN/IJN).
This had left them in limbo used as training hulks semi striped of the guns nobody had really cared about them officially down on the RN strength lists as ACs, then the admiralty had its bright idea sell them to Australia and New Zealand who would then have the rearmed with 8" guns to hunt PDs
12x 8"
6x4" (later 12x4")
3x8x2pdr (later more and 20mm/40mm)
Everybody else was furious but the RN maintained that they didn't break any treaty as they where pre-existing ships (so not new builds over 10,000t*) and not named in the WNT and they made some noise about it all being the ANZACS fault that wasn't really supported by GB (not that anybody believed them), by the end of 34 Japan had anyway signalled it's withdrawal from WNT and Italy and France had not signed into the later LNT so GB only had to grovel to the US about it anyway.
The 2 served through WW2 with only minor refits of twin 4" and radar, of the two one was lucky HMNZS New Zealand killing herself a PB early on (Admiral Scheer on 5 November 1940) and later survived to see the final signing in Tokyo bay and one was not HMAS Australia was being lost off Malaya after a relatively uneventful life.
* Article XI
No vessel of war exceeding 10,000 tons (10,160 metric tons) standard displacement, other than a capital ship or aircraft-carrier, shall be acquired by, or constructed by, for, or within the jurisdiction of, any of the Contracting Powers. Vessels not specifically built as fighting ships nor taken in time of peace under Government control for fighting purposes, which are employed on fleet duties or as troop transports or in some other way for the purpose of assisting in the prosecution of hostilities otherwise than as fighting ships, shall not be within the limitations of this Article.
Article XII
No vessel of war of any of the Contracting Powers hereafter laid down, other than a capital ship, shall carry a gun with a calibre in excess of 8 inches (203 millimetres).
)
