On 5 October 1971, Lord Gladwyn Jebb, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party in the House of Lords and spokesman on foreign affairs and defence, sends a letter to Sir Thomas Brimelow, Permanent Under-Secretary at the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), and Lord Peter Carrington, Secretary of State for Defence, in which he summarises a discussion with French Defence Minister Michel Debré on Western European Union (WEU). The letter emphasises the different positions of the British and French authorities on the future of WEU and the issue of a concerted Western defensive effort. The Foreign Office seems to be of the view that in practice the various Member States will make very little move as regards WEU during the coming year.