Remarks on Departure From Woolsington Airport in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England

Thank you very much, Mr. Prime Minister.

To my good friend, Jim Callaghan, and to Ernie, and to all those who made this visit so memorable in my life, I want to say thank you. And to the tens of thousands of people who have come out to see me on the sides of the highways, in the Newcastle Square, at Washington, I want to say thank you.

There's no way that I can express the sense of friendship and common heritage, common commitment to the future that I feel with the people of Great Britain. And I believe that this visit, as viewed on television and as read about in the news back home, will assure, again, the people of the United States of America that our common heritage that has bound us together in the past will be continued even stronger in the future.

There have been many people who have shaken my hand this day, hands of strength, hands with callouses from hard work. And the sense that I've felt of quiet determination and a spirit of hope and confidence, has been an inspiration to me.

My only suggestion to Jim Callaghan for improving this visit is to bring the leaders of the other five nations up here to northern England instead of going back to London for the summit conference. Perhaps next time we come we can make those kinds of arrangements, because I think to see here in the industrial region of England the quiet competence to produce goods that go around the world is a symbol of the strength of Great Britain.

The last point I want to make is this: My wife and I have initiated an exchange of American citizens. We hope that during the next 4 years that we might send a planeload of people from the different States in our own country to different nations of the world and to take back to our own Nation a couple hundred citizens to exchange ideas and knowledge about one another. And completely as a coincidence, the first trip from our own country to a foreign country will be from Atlanta, Georgia, my own State capital; and coincidentally, the first destination of that flight will be to Newcastle. We hope that this will be an additional indication of the sense of personal friendship that has been initiated on this fine visit.

So, to all of you, thank you. God bless you. I'm proud that you've become my new friends.

Thank you very much.