Nothing Can Stop 1960 Tour, Says Craven

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29071, 7 December 1959, Page 12

Nothing Can Stop 1960 Tour, Says Craven

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyrigntl

(Rec. 8 p.m.) JOHANNESBURG, December 6. The president of the South African Rugby Board (Dr. Danie Craven) has told the Johannesburg “Sunday Times” that nothing can stop the New Zealand All Blacks’ tour of South Africa in 1960, in spite of a growing volume of protest in New Zealand.

Dr. Craven said he could not disclose what was going on between the South African Rugby Board and the New Zealand Rugby Union, but he was emphatic the All Blacks would keep their engagements in South Africa next year.

He declined to make a statement on the Maoris.

In reply to a question as to whether South Africa had ever asked for Maoris to be excluded from the All Blacks team, Dr. Craven replied: . “The South African Rugby Board would rather keep out of this. Whatever I say will create bad feeling either in South Africa or in New Zealand.

“If I say that we in South Africa stipulated nothing about Maori players, the New Zealand Rugby Union will be blamed for doing it —or the reverse. On this issue, therefore, I simply have nothing to say. “The position is that the South African Rugby Board has invited the New Zealand Rugby Union to send a touring team to South Africa in 1960. They have accepted. “We have gone to a lot of expense in preparing for the tour,

and the position is positively that the All Blacks’ team will come to South Africa next year to keep its fixtures,” Dr. Craven said. A statement would be issued shortly on the tour. “The president of the New Zealand Rugby Union will come to South Africa during the visit of the All Blacks, and we will then have discussions with him about the future,” he said.