On 2 March 1955, the Secretary-General of the Interim Commission of Western European Union circulates a memorandum from the United Kingdom delegation on United Kingdom methods of procurement of defence equipment. The document outlines the essential role of the Ministry of Supply and the Admiralty in procuring virtually all the country’s defence equipment, as well as the close link between these and the Service Departments to enable the rapid framing of decisions. The text also mentions that all the United Kingdom’s defence equipment is produced by private industry and that considerable attention is paid to standardisation between the three Services and with allied countries. The memorandum raises the question of the selection of foreign equipment and concludes that this is the exception rather than the rule, since the United Kingdom’s industry is in a position to meet the requirements of the armed forces.