In a note dated 31 October 1958, the Secretary-General of Western European Union (WEU) circulates the text of his letter to the Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), together with the text of the questions put to the Council by the Assembly Committee on Defence Questions and Armaments concerning the maintenance of British forces on the european continent, the draft replies from the Council to questions 1, 2 and 6, and the final reply to Recommendation 23. In this final reply, the Council notes that its only powers on the matter of the financial contributions of Member States to the common defence derive from Article VI of Protocol No II to the Paris Agreements, and that it could not encroach on the role of the North Atlantic Council in considering the contribution made by each Member State of the Atlantic Alliance.