Cruisers for the British navy

At different points after WWI, British estimated that they needed 60 0r 70 cruisers to meet their operational needs and for commerce protection. One shortcoming of my friend Cliff's building program is that there were only small numbers of cruisers, and those that were in the plan were oddities, in many ways. The most normal cruisers were those that were 405ft long, with 4-6in guns. They were unarmored and could make 32 knots. The other ships formally classified as cruisers were the big, fast, and lightly armed and armored battlecruisers that he had planned. They had the drawback of having only 4-heavy caliber guns, along with a modest secondary armament. They did generally have a high speed, as 33 knots was the usual goal. The armor of the initial pair was only 4inches, on the vertical, and perhaps 2in deck. Later versions would have been better protected, especially the four with 13.5in guns. The only other possible ships for cruiser duties were the large gun-armed destroyer-like fast gunboats. The largest had 4-5in guns, and were on the order of 2000 tons normal displacement. They were fast, 35 or 36 knots. None of these really filled the need for normal cruisers for independent squadrons and for commerce protection.