Tour Decision “Suggests White Group Alliance”

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29067, 2 December 1959, Page 16

Tour Decision “Suggests White Group Alliance”

(New Zeaiana Press Association) WELLINGTON, December 1.. Including Maoris in the Rugby team to tour South Africa next year would be a happy gesture, Sir Evelyn Wrench, founder of the English Speaking Union and the Overseas League, said in Wellington today.

Their deliberate exclusion could only suggest New Zealand was allying itself with the dominant white group and that could not be a good thing for longterm Cbmmonwealth relations, he said.

Sir Evelyn, who is chairman of the “Spectator,” a weekly journal of which he was once

editor, had a long association as a journalist with one of Britain’s biggest newpaper groups, the Northcliffe group. He arrived in

Wellington yesterday for a short visit as part of a fact-finding tour of Australia. New Zealand and Asia. “I have always admired the way you people have helped the Maoris and enabled them to become self-respecting citizens,” he said. Sir Evelyn said he was disturbed at events in South Africa, a country he knows well. “Whatever solution is found, I hope it will be one that will enable citizens of all races, especially the Bantu and the Indians, to feel they are part of the state.

“I also realise the white section has special problems, but there are certain rules which one must follow to prevent racial strife.” One answer, he feels, would be to give the vote, not to everybody, but to all who had the education or who proved their worth, as they were trying to do in the Central African Federation.