PLANNING FOR GAMES

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27636, 18 April 1955, Page 14

PLANNING FOR GAMES

COMPANY EXECUTIVE TAKES CHARGE

FULL-TIME DEPUTYCHAIRMAN (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) MELBOURNE, April 16. Mr Lewis Luxton, a prominent company executive, will take over the planning for the 1956 Olympic Games. The Olympic Organising Committee last night appointed him full-time deputy-chairman. Mr Luxton, who will work with the chairman (Mr w. S, Kent Hughes), is one of Australia’s two representatives on the International Olympic Committee. Organising Committee members said that Mr Luxton would be “the man with the say” in spite of his title of deputy. Swedish Report of “Chaos” Sweden’s special "contact man” on the spot has reported to the Swedish Olympic Committee that “chaos reigns at Melbourne,” according to the Stockholm newspaper, “Svenska Dagbladet,” quoted by the Associated Press in Stockholm. The newspaper says that Mr Carl von Knorring told the committee: “It is now clear, even to the most blueeyed optimist, that the arena, public stands, Olympic village and, above all, the sanitary installations, cannot possibly be completed by the time the Games open. “If Melbourne persists in organising the Gjmes the public win be watchW them from the most primitive stands and many entrants will be without dressing rooms and shower baths.” Mr von Knorring says that the Olympic shooting competitions will be a breach of the Australian law and alleges that the Melbourne police have confiscated the starting pistol imported from America.

Only a change in the constitution can save the shooting and the modern pentathlon from being excluded from the Games, he claims. He refers to the “appalling” housing situation, saying that the quarters for the athletes consist of only a few old sheet-metal huts, originally bunt as a transit camp for immigrants. ®^. a< y s that massage problems are practically insurmountable because there are so few trained masseurs in Australia.

He claims that the organisers plan 4,° with s o-ealled "rubbers,” bath attendants “who can use a brush, put know little or nothing about keepmg top athletes in shape.” The only solution, says Mr von Knorring, will be for the teams to take their own masseurs with them.