1956 OLYMPIC GAMES

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27011, 10 April 1953, Page 7

1956 OLYMPIC GAMES

FINAL DECISION ON SITE THIS MONTH INTERNATIONAL BODY TO MEET (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 10 p.m.) NEW YORK, April 8. A detailed report, which may save the 1956 Olympic Games for Australia, has been received by officials of the International Olympic Committee. The committee’s chancellor, Mr Otto Mayer, who arrived in New York today from Lausanne on his way to a meeting of the committee in Mexico City, said he had not yet read the report, but if it contained the guarantees expected, he would assume that there would be no question of moving the Games from Melbourne. Mr Mayer said he was assuming the report was favourable.

He added that the 1.0. C. had been awaiting assurances from the Melbourne organising committee that it had enough money to stage the Games. He said: “In the four years since we gave the Games to Melbourne, they have done nothing. Now we must know once and for z all if they can organise the Games. I think this report from them may well have these guarantees.”

A decision will be made during the meeting of the committee, which will open in Mexico City on April 17. Mr Mayer, who as chancellor, acts as general secretary of the 73-nation committee, said that if the general committee decided the Melbourne report was not satisfactory, he thought it would be necessary to call another meeting this summer to decide upon an alternative site. Melbourne Delegates The Melbourne City Council has decided to send Cr. William Barry to Mexico City to represent it at the meeting. Newspapers in Melbourne described the decision as a surprise move made in an attempt to ensure that Melbourne keeps the 1956 Games. Speakers at the council meeting said that Melbourne was responsible to the Olympic authorities for holding the Games, and the council should be represented at the international committee’s meeting to give assurances on what the city was prepared to do. Other Australians who will attend the meeting are Mr A. W. Coles, chairman of the Games Control Committee, and Mr Hugh Weir, the senior representative in Australia of the International Committee.

EQUESTRIAN EVENTS

AUSTRALIA MAY.PROVIDE HORSES (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 10 p.m.) MELBOURNE, April 9. The Amateur Equestrian Union of Australia has submitted a plan to the Australian Olympic Federation for solving the quarantine problem affecting overseas horses for the Olympic Games. The secretary of the union (Mr W. A. Wheatland) said today that if the ban were not lifted, Australia could provide horses for overseas riders. It was proposed to buy Australian horses and have* them trained to Olympic standards by an expert. To ensure that every rider had an equal chance, they could draw for the horses daily. The main equestrian event, the crosscountry contest, would be over three days, but this would not make any difference as it was the rider who was judged and not the horse.