I hope you will give it sympathetic consideration because I believe
there is an opening here for constructive work which will help
politically to unite Western Europe.
Enclosure
As explained in the memorandum handed to the State Department by
H.M. Embassy, Washington on March 16,3 the United Kingdom would like to
co-operate more closely with other W.E.U. countries over
armaments research, development and production.
Such co-operation would have the strategic advantage of promoting
the efficient armament of our allies and the economic advantage
of sharing the load and streamlining the use of our scientific
resources. Our principal purpose, however, is political: to
prove our resolve to cooperate with Europe, to give greater
reality to the concept of a united Europe, and to offset the
effects of our force reductions.
We are well aware of the difficulties inherent in such
co-operation, notably the security risks. We have, however, made
a start in the W.E.U. Standing Armaments Committee and offered
to discuss any of the items listed in the Annex to the Embassy
memorandum of March 16. We have at all stages made it clear that
our co-operation with the W.E.U. countries must be without
prejudice to our association with the U.S.A. and the European
countries fully accept this.
We would now like to extend the field of W.E.U. co-operation. We
would still exclude all atomic matters, but we would like to
exchange information about new weapon projects, such as guided
missiles, and discuss future co-operation in their development
and production. This would involve discussing with W.E.U.
countries items which incorporate information we have obtained
from the U.S.A.
Before embarking on this course, the United Kingdom would
therefore like to know whether the United States Government is
willing:—
- (a)
- to adopt a liberal attitude towards the release of
information, derived from American sources, to
individual W.E.U. countries on a limited basis and
subject to proper safeguards;
- (b)
- to give an assurance that our association with W.E.U.
will not prejudice the release of American information
to us.
We hope very much that the United States Government will give a
favourable response to this request, in view of the political
dividend which we believe can be gained from this type of W.E.U.
co-operation.
[Page 764]
A list of the projects we would propose to discuss with our
European allies will be communicated to the United States
authorities by H.M. Embassy in Washington.
