On 10 January 1964, John Barnes, Head of the Western Organisations Department of the Foreign Office, sends a note to Frank Stanley Tomlinson, Minister on the United Kingdom Permanent Delegation to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), in which he outlines the British position on the German proposal to use NATO document MC 26/4 on force requirements for 1966, as a basis for revised Western European Union (WEU) force levels, thus enabling the Federal Republic of Germany to meet agreed NATO requirements. The note shows the British Government concerns to accept MC 26/4, which is only a planning document that has never received the full approval of the North Atlantic Council and about which a number of countries entertain reservations. The Foreign Office proposes to postpone any decision on the subject for a further year in order to reach a more satisfactory agreement.