§ 5. Mr. de Freitasasked the Minister of Defence whether he will make a statement on the proposed European arms pool so far as it concerns aircraft, missiles, warheads and associated equipment.
§ Mr. SandysA number of proposals for joint weapon development and production have been formulated by Her Majesty's Government and certain other Governments of the Western European Union. These have been discussed by experts recently in preparation for a further meeting of Defence Ministers next month.
§ Mr. de FreitasI welcome that statement, but is it not a fact that unless there is a great deal more co-operation and pooling among the European members of N.A.T.O. it would be wiser to cut their losses entirely and wind up Western European Union?
§ Mr. SandysI am as keen as the hon. Gentleman to see really effective co-operation of arms development and production. I have been pursuing this idea, not altogether successfully, for a number of years, both with the Americans and now with our European allies. So far as Western European Union is concerned, it exists for more things than co-operation in arms development.