June 12, 1969

Royal comm headed by Lord Redcliffe-Maud urges radical reorgn of Eng local govt to keep pace with country's changing patterns of life and work; calls for abolition of 39 historical counties and their 1,210 local govt units, such as county boroughs and rural dists; would replace counties with 8 provinces, coinciding with econ regions and exercising coordinating functions; real power would rest with 58 'unitary authorities' and 3 Met govts centered on Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool; comm excludes Scotland and Wales from rept; finds tendency toward centralization of power in London threatens health of modern soc and that stronger local govt is needed as counterweight; says 19th-century div between town and country has been invalidated in age of high mobility and suburban living; will combine rural and urban areas into 1 unit; map; Wilson says Govt accepts in principle main recommendations and intends to offer bill after consultations; Rural Dist Councils Assn fears rural voice would be weak in large town-and-country units

Tran Buu Kiem announces new revolutionary provisional govt, which takes over NLF's foreign and internal policy, will replace NLF at conf table, news conf, Paris; says he has been named min to chmn's office of new govt; outlines new govt's policy, which is said to have no differences in substance from NLF's policy; indicates private meeting between new govt and Nguyen Van Thieu Govt would not contribute to solution of conflict; Mrs Nguyen Thi Binh named foreign min of new govt; Walsh to head US delegation at next session of talks in absence of Lodge, who is resting in US after his recent trip to Midway; Tran Buu Kiem emphasizes new govt will demand US enter into serious talks on basis of Vietcong 10-point program; US and S Vietnamese delegations react calmly to change in NLF; US officials say key problem of talks between Communists and Nguyen Van Thieu Govt remains unchanged

US Foreign Aid Admr Hannah defends proposed Overseas Private Investment Corp, assures reprs agency will not operate counter to US foreign policy nor against interest of recipient countries, HR com hearing

Ital Communist party deputy sec gen Berlinguer denounces USSR stand on invasion, s, Moscow conf; Husak tells conf that Czech party leadership was disunited before invasion; says criticism of Czech affairs at conf displayed only 'superficial knowledge' of events; referring indirectly to Dubcek, says 'naivete and pol romanticism' prevailed; links Czech interests to ties of Communist internatl brotherhood with USSR and other socialist countries