OLYMPIC GAMES ENTRY South Africa Making No Concessions

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31363, 8 May 1967, Page 3

OLYMPIC GAMES ENTRY South Africa Making No Concessions

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright) TEHERAN. South Africa will make no concessions in order to be allowed to compete in next year’s Olympic Games in Mexico Citv.

Mr F. Braun, president of the South African Olympic Committee, said in a statement on Saturday that his committee’s delegation had told the 1.0. C. executive that South Africa would have to be accepted or rejected “on the position as it now stands.”

He denied that South Africa’s Olympic Committee leaders were seeking to ease the application of apartheid to sport in the countiy. Mr Braun also denied that his country had offered to stage mixed trials or white and non-white athletes outside the country if allowed to compete in the 1968 games. Statements Diverge

Mr Braun’s statement was in part a complete reversal of what another committee member, Mr D. Mclldowie, had told A.A.P.-Reuter and other South African and world journalists on Friday. Mr Mclldowie said then that South Africa would take two teams—one white, the other non-white—for pre-Olympic trials abroad—ideally in Mexico City—if allowed to

compete in next year’s games. The South African issue is one of the questions dominating the 1.0. C. session which began at Teheran on Friday.

Fourteen African national Olympic committees have threatened to boycott the Mexico Games if South Africa

is allowed to enter a team which does not fully comply with the Olympic charter. South Africa was barred from the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo on the grounds that its policy of separate white and non-white participation in sport was contrary to Olympic principles. Last month it offered to send a racially-mixed team to Mexico after segregated selection trials. Mr Mclldowie and Mr R. Oppermam discussed their country’s case with the 1.0. C. executive on Thursday and pressed for a swift decision. Mr Braun did not attend that meeting because of illness. ■ Mr Braun’s statement on Saturday said the delegation had learned of South African press reports on the 1.0. C. meeting which can only be based on serious misunderstandings. The statement of South Africa’s case, submitted in writing on Thursday, was supposed to have said that the new approach was intended to ease the application of the policy of separate development in sport within South Africa.

In fact. Mr Braun said, the 1.0. C. executive had been reminded of a South African Olympic Committee statement on March 21, “wherein it was emphatically stated that the principle of separate participation and administration in sport in South Africa would be maintained. “It was emphasised at the executive of the 1.0. C. that South Africa will have to be accepted or rejected on the position as it now stands and that no concessions could be expected.” Of the reported offer to hold trials outside South Africa, Mr Braun said this could only have been a false deduction from a statement that in the case of certain boxing events two competitors could be sent, from whom one would be chosen. But Mr Braun later told A.A.P.-Reuter that both whites and non whites would be able to make their individual nominations for sports such as athletics. Each could take to Mexico all their nominees and it would be decided there which would run an which would act as reserves. Sit-Down Strike

Earlier in the day, officials from North Korea staged a sit-down strike during the conference, demanding their country’s name be changed to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Associated Press reported. The three North Koreans made their demand to the 1.0. C. and then refused to leave the conference hall until a firm answer was given. The 1.0. C. declared a fiveminute recess, and left the three North Koreans sitting alone and determinedly in their seats. They left when the 1.0. C. returned .to the hall. The committee decided to postpone a decision on the matter.