Letter from the British Foreign Office to the Ministry of Defence concerning the WEU agreement on the control of forces under national command in Europe (London, 10 July 1963)

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On 10 July 1963, Thomas Anthony Keith Elliott of the British Foreign Office sends a letter to L. J. Sabatini at the British Ministry of Defence in which he emphasises the importance of considering in detail how the Western European Union (WEU) agreement on the control of forces under national command in Europe will affect the United Kingdom. The letter outlines the reasons why the UK Government should press for a rapid implementation of this agreement. Firstly, WEU is the United Kingdom’s only organic link to the Six (the EEC), and secondly, the agreement will control the growing number of German forces under national command. In order to reply promptly to WEU, the Foreign Office stresses the need to identify which of the British forces under national command on the mainland of Europe fall into which of the WEU control categories, and to identify the armaments associated with these forces.

Source and copyright

Source: The National Archives of the UK (TNA). Foreign Office, Political Departments: General Correspondence from 1906-1966. WESTERN ORGANISATIONS & PLANNING (WP): Western European Union (WUW). Meeting of WEU Ministers at The Hague: Armed forces controlled by WEU: UK contribution to European forces; FRG forces. 01/01/1963-31/12/1963, FO 371/173486 (Former Reference Dep: File 1192 (pp 1 to 20)).

Copyright: (c) The National Archives of the United Kingdom

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