The minutes of the meeting of 15 March 1957 give a detailed account of the discussions held in the Council of Western European Union (WEU) on the changes to the pattern of United Kingdom forces on the mainland of Europe. After the remarks by French representative Jean Chauvel, Lord Samuel Hood from the United Kingdom mentions the changes that his government has agreed to make to its first proposal contained in document CR(57)8, which raised a series of observations in the North Atlantic Council. Lord Hood has no intention of claiming that the British forces that would remain on the European continent would have an equivalent fighting capacity to those under the command of SACEUR, but the shortfall should not be calculated by ‘counting heads’, since the 50 000 men that would remain on the continent would represent a powerful military force and a substantial contribution to NATO. It would therefore be wrong to think that the United Kingdom is ‘tip-toeing’ out of Europe, since the government is actually showing signs of moving closer to Europe, even if public opinion is not always favourable. If the other WEU members prevent his government from implementing its proposals, this could lead to a break-up of WEU. Lord Hood notes that the changes made to the initial proposals demonstrate the fact that the British Government does not wish to present its allies with a unilateral decision.