EMPIRE GAMES SWIMMING

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26196, 21 August 1950, Page 6

EMPIRE GAMES SWIMMING

CHARGES AGAINST OFFICIAL

ACTION BY N.Z. ASSOCIATION (New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, August 20. Because of incidents connected with the British Empire Games in Auckland in February, the chairman of the Auckland Swimming Centre (Mr W. O. Stockley) has received official advice from the New Zealand Amateur Swimming Association requiring him to show cause why he should not be expelled. Four charges have been made against Mr Stockley by the council of the association, through its honorary secretary, Mr Baxter O’Neill, of Christchurch, and the hearing of these is to be held in Christchurch on September 1.

Mr Stockley held an official position in the swimming ..events of the games as house manager of the Olympic pool in Newmarket. This appointment was made by the organising committee of the Games. He also held an appointment through the council of the Swimming Association of press steward. He was one of the three selectors of the New Zealand swimming team which competed aft the Games. Charges Against Mr Stockley

The first of the four charges made against him by the council is that as an officer of the association he upset or connived at upsetting an arrangement between the association and the organising committee for the exclusion of spectators from the concourse of the baths.

The second charge is that he interfered with the proper conduct of the swimming by the unauthorised use of a loud-speaker,' in defiance of instructions issued by the authorised officers of the association.

Mr Stockley is next charged with having defied the authority of the council in that when directed by council authority' to remove children from the concourse of the baths he refused to do so.

The final charge is that he misused a council document, a copy of council minutes, to spread inaccurate reports to the detriment of the good name of the association. “This is the most shafheful affair in the history of the association,’ said Mr F. W. Grey, of Otahuhu, joint honorary secretary for the swimming at the Games, in commenting on the charges against Mr Stockley. “I am appalled that the principles of British justice have been consistently disregarded by the council in refusing Mr Stockley’s request for an independent investigation of the charges in Auckland, the scene of the alleged offences. The council has put every difficulty in the way of his successful defence by deciding to hear the charges in Christchurch.”

The true facts of the second charge against Mr Stockley, said Mr Grey, were that at the final session of the swimming, a telephone call was received from a man who wished to get in touch immediately with his wife because he had just received news that their son had been drowned. The diving referee. Mr F. J. Coyne, of England, who at that time was conducting the diving, was asked by Mr Stockley at Mr Grey’s request to make a suitable announcement. Mr Coyne handed the microphone to Mr Stockley with the suggestion that as he knew the details Tie should make the announcement himself.

1 “These facts were given to the council by the Auckland delegate,” said Mr Grey. “In spite of this the council has persisted with {his contemptible charge. In the many years that I have been associated with amateur sport, I have never known such trivial yet sinister charges to be made against so hard-working and enthusiastic an official-” Mr A. F. Candy, member of the Auckland centre, said that six months ago, without giving Mr Stockley a chance to defend himself, the council had censured him for his conduct at the Games. Its reply to the Auckland centre’s protests against this injustice was presumably “to repeat three charges on which it had already censured Mr Stockley, together with a fourth.” “The council’s action will, I fear, gravely split the swimming movement m this country,” said Mr Candy. Mr Stockley’s Comments “I feel that to go to Christchurch would be futile, and I shall reply to these charges only if an impartial inquiry is held in Auckland,” said Mr Stockley. “I am somewhat out of my depth when faced with the vendetta waged against me by members of the council. I had not realised until now how strong was their aversion to the presence of children at the Games. There is nothing I did at the Games that I would not do again, with the honest conviction that it was for thegood of competitors, officials, and the children."