Equally important as one of the origins of the Treaty were the deep cuts made to the Royal Navy after the Washington Naval Conference of 1921–22 and the London Naval Conference of 1930.[8] The cuts imposed by the two conferences, combined with the effects of the Great Depression, caused the collapse of much of the UK's shipbuilding industry in the early 1930s.[9] That seriously hindered efforts at British naval rearmament later in the decade, leading the Admiralty to value treaties with quantitative and qualitative limitations on potential enemies as the best way of ensuring the UK's sea supremacy.[10] Maiolo argues that it was actually of little importance whether potential enemies placed voluntary limitations on the size and scale of their navies.[11] In particular, Admiral Sir Ernle Chatfield, the First Sea Lord between 1933 and 1938, came to argue in favour of such treaties.