§ 42. Mr. Warbeyasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what proposals have been submitted to the Council of Western European Union for an amendment to the Brussels Treaty to permit West Germany to manufacture parts of Hawk missiles in excess of the size permitted under the treaty; and what decision has been reached.
§ Mr. ProfumoThe Council of Western European Union has given its approval in principle to a German request to be permitted to manufacture the Hawk missile. The terms of an amendment to the Brussels Treaty are at present under consideration.
§ Mr. WarbeyIs this another step in the process which The Times Bonn correspondent describes as the circumvention of the Brussels Agreement by the West German Government? Is it not time that the Government made a full statement to the House—so that we could discuss it properly—about their policy of steadily encouraging the undermining of the agreements reached in Paris and London?
§ Mr. ProfumoThere is no question of undermining any of the agreements arrived at in Paris or London. The Hawk is a defensive anti-aircraft missile.