Draft reply from the WEU Council to the preliminary report of the Assembly’s Committee on Defence Questions and Armaments (London, 6 June 1956)

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In a note dated 6 June 1956, the Secretary-General of Western European Union (WEU) circulates the draft reply from the WEU Council to the preliminary report of the Assembly’s Committee on Defence Questions and Armaments. The Council believes that it is important to give a brief summary of how the question of collective defence in Western Europe has developed before replying to the additional questions, so that the Assembly can clearly understand how tasks are divided between WEU and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). The WEU should be seen only as the depository of the solemn undertaking to afford mutual assistance embodied in Article V of the modified Brussels Treaty and as the guardian of the procedure laid down in Article VIII. Consequently, the Council is not in a position to reply to matters relating to the maintenance and the defence of peace in Western Europe, which are the responsibility of NATO. But the Council is able to reply to any questions relating to its subsidiary bodies, the Standing Armaments Committee (SAC) and the Agency for the Control of Armaments (ACA).

Source and copyright

Source: Council of the Western European Union. Secretary-General’s note. Supplementary Questions of the Assembly. . London: 06.06.1956. C (56)113 (2nd Revision). Copy N°60. 8p.

Archives nationales de Luxembourg (ANLux). http://www.anlux.lu. Western European Union Archives. Secretariat-General/Council’s Archives. 1954-1987. Organs of the Western European Union. Year: 1955, 19/12/1955-22/04/1958. File 202.415.20. Volume 1/1.

Copyright: (c) WEU Secretariat General - Secrétariat Général UEO

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