The concern of New Zealand naval servicemen and Phipps was on living conditions, recruitment,5.25 AA shell resupply in the Pacific and an affordable schedule of new frigates. The New Zealand Department of External Affairs viewed the British Treasury as getting rid of a unique cruiser and getting New Zealand to pay for the refit and other RN warships "Then Whitehall thought of New Zealand!" However, as with "Bellona" and "Black Prince" in 1946, transferring "Royalist" was arguably a backdoor supplement to Australian defence. By 1955 the RAN had only light 4.5-inch gun, Battle-class and "Daring"-class destroyers (building) and the light carriers, HMAS "Melbourne" and "Sydney", with obsolete Sea Venom fighters just for Melbourne, the "Royalist" provided the only escort for "Melbourne" and "Sydney" and its surface 82 lb shells some deterrence to "Sverdlov" and "Royalist", alone among RN cruisers had all turrets manned. Centreline 5.25 DP guns good in AA and GFS role with modern two-channel fire control and in the later 1950s the best British cruiser for radar processing and communications with the RN/ RAN Fleet air arm Australian PM Robert Menzies was dubious that RN policy in the age of nuclear deterrence was simply "minor fleet to the Far East in peacetime only" and no real counter to piecemeal communist erosion in SE Asia. The Radical UK Defence Review released 10 July 1953 in the wake of the new hydrogen bomb which lessened the likelihood of a lengthy broken backed war cut the cruiser modernisation programme, and the enormous cost and difficulty of both medium-range missile or AA gun development meant Britain had decided to concentrate on Seaslug missiles and abandon new AA guns- Mountbatten publicly defended "Royalist" as the most modern British cruiser in Auckland when it arrived in 1956 and regarded Phipps as inexperienced and unsuitable. Mountbatten viewed New Zealand's Cabinet and officials as out of touch with the Cold War need to maintain ready, broad-based naval and defence capabilities and frequently visited New Zealand to make appeals.