The Press THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1948. The Empire Games.

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25589, 2 September 1948, Page 4

The Press THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1948. The Empire Games.

The executive of the New Zealand Olympic and British Empire Games Association decided last night that the Empire Games of 1950, allotted to New Zealand by the British Empire Games Federation, are to be held in Auckland. That decision will be particularly disappointing to the officials of athletics and sports bodies in Canterbury who, since soon after the end of the war, have worked steadily with a view to the games being held in Christchurch as part of the celebration of the centenary of Canterbury. It is not easy to see the decision as a just one. Apart from the advantages of associating the event with the centenary, the Christchurch claims seem in no way inferior to Auckland’s. Only while Christchurch still wants a swimming pool of Olympic Games measurements are the facilities it offers unequal to Auckland’s. In many respects they are superior; and, as appears in a telegram from Wellington printed this morning, the Government had cleared the way for this single shortcoming to be made good in time. There can be little doubt of the games paying their way whereever they are held. It is possible that the sports bodies which comprise the New Zealand Olympic and British Empire Games Association were influenced by the possibility—it is not a probability—of attendances being larger in Auckland because of the concentration of population there and because Auckland is more directly connected with other countries by sea and air. That reason should not have been decisive.

Auckland now assumes the responsibilities which Canterbury was willing to take and was confident of discharging creditably. These responsibilities are not light. The accepted standards of organisation and accommodation for international athletic events of this kind are extremely high; and nothing beneath these standards will serve. The athletic bodies concerned will no doubt consult and will receive willing help from those who were responsible for Britain’s thoroughly satisfactory conduct, austerely for the austere times, of the recent Olympic Games. There is little enough time to do all that is needed. Any nation fortunate enough to be allotted the Olympic Games prepares intensively for them through the four preceding years; and the Empire Games require very similar organisation, although on a smaller scale. No one will under-estimate the difficulties. Up to 600 athletes and officials will have to be housed, not in “ Olympic “Villages” of the 1936 Berlin pattern, but at least in comfortable quarters where each national group can live its own community life and enjoy all the facilities for training and for medical care which world-class athletes are accustomed to and expect. Up to 50,000 visitors from other parts of New Zealand and from oversea, it is estimated, will need accommodation. Beside this, all the other problems, great as they are, seem insignificant. Auckland may be better placed than Christchurch to attack it successfully. In either case it would require the vigorous co-operation of the central and local authorities and, indeed, of the whole community.