At the 234th meeting of the Council of Western European Union (WEU), held at ministerial level in The Hague on 25 and 26 October 1963, British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Richard Butler emphasises the role played by the Middle East as a source of European oil supplies. Given the disappointing results of the search for oil outside the Middle East, Richard Butler draws his colleagues’ attention to the fact that the British Government sees the protection of oil sources from the Middle East as a task of vital importance.