On 2 July 1971, Lord Thomas Bridges, head of the Western Organisations Department in the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, sends a letter to Sir Christopher Audland, Counsellor and Head of Chancery at the British Embassy in Bonn, in which he outlines the debate within the British Government over the future of Western European Union (WEU). Lord Thomas Bridges emphasises that as a forum for political consultation, WEU could lose its ‘raison d’être’ once the United Kingdom joins the European Economic Community (EEC). The letter also covers other WEU activities in the area of standardisation and control of armaments. In this context, Lord Thomas Bridges raises the issue of a potential conflict with the French, who see WEU as vital to maintaining the aspects of the Brussels Treaty that deal with control over German rearmament.