HC Deb 24 July 1972 vol 841 c1300
14. Mr. Dalyell

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will put in the Library a copy of his speech to the South East Asia Treaty Organisation conference at Canberra.

Sir Alec Douglas-Home

I did so on 12th July.

Mr. Dalyell

As a matter of curiosity, may I ask why the Foreign Secretary inserted into his brief on this occasion a rather snide attack on the Americans for, of all things, helping to run down the British Empire too quickly, and why was this subsequently denied in a great flurry by the Foreign Office?

Sir Alec Douglas-Home

I do not think it a bad thing to remind the Americans occasionally of what they did.