§ 48. Sir J. Hutchisonasked the Minister of Defence to what extent it is proposed that this country should co-ordinate research on armaments and rockets along with West Germany, France and Italy.
§ 49. Mr. Youngerasked the Minister of Defence whether the United Kingdom was invited to the meeting of German, French and Italian Ministers in Bonn on the standardisation of weapons; and what relationship these discussions bear to the work being done on the same topic in Western European Union, of which Great Britain is a member.
§ Mr. SandysDuring the past year I have had meetings with the Defence Ministers of France, Germany and Holland, following which bi-lateral172W studies are being made of ways to coordinate our efforts on weapon research and development. I hope shortly to arrange a meeting for the same purpose with the Defence Minister of Italy.
Similar bilateral discussions are taking place between various European Governments within the framework of W.E.U. When sufficient progress has been made, it is hoped to set up appropriate multilateral machinery to bring all these efforts together.
The British Government was not invited to be represented at the recent meeting in Bonn, but we welcome this and any other initiative to secure an object which is common to us all.