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GV PRIME MINISTER STANDING CROWDS APPLAUDING PRIME MINISTER SOF
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(SAME SHOT AS ABOVE)
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APPLAUSE
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GV PRIME MINISTER SOF
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PRIME MINISTER
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"Ladies and Gentlemen, I wonder if I might get one matter out of the way before I talk to you about local government. This morning I said in a meeting here that Mr Wilson had in a speech in Washington suggesting that Her Majesty's Navy might be put under the authority of the United Nations. He told me in the House of Commons this afternoon that he had made no such speech and of course I immediately accepted what he had said and unreservedly withdrew my mistake. I thought I would like to say this in public, now, and so get the matter out of the way. Of course I accept entirely what Mr Wilson had said about this. And, ladies and gentlemen, it is no part of my policy to misrepresent my opponents, why should I.?"



Turning to progress in education, the Prime Minister, said:



"We have done what no other government I think has done before. We have deployed our plans for education to take care of a generation ahead. And we have incorporated those plans and we shall put them into the operation and I will say to you what I have said to others, in very simple terms, what is our objective? It is that every parent in the land shall know that if there is a child in the family that can qualify for education at a technical college or a university, that there will be a place for that child to go to."



On the question of nationalisation Sir Alec said:



"I would like the electors to know, unequivocally exactly where I stand. If anyone wants our nation to be subjected to nationalisation, to direction and to control then he can go for them to the shop across the road, because he will not get them from me."




Initials DR/V/CR/SGM DR/V/CR/EEH



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Sir Alec Douglas-Home, Britain's Prime Minister, tonight (Thursday) withdrew publicly remarks he had made earlier in the day that Mr Harold Wilson, Leader of the Opposition, had said the Labour Party would put the British Navy at the disposal of the United Nations.

Mr Wilson, who was widely reported to have made the statement during his recent visit to Washington, has repudiated the report as "an invention."
After Sir Alec had made the statement to a Conservative rally in London this morning, Mr Wilson raised the matter in the House of Commons. He demanded that the Prime Minister withdraw his remarks. Sir Alec answered that if Mr Wilson said he had not made these remarks, then of course he withdrew his comments.

In the evening Sir Alec during his main address to the rally said: