D’Oliveira May Not Go

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31783, 13 September 1968, Page 17

D’Oliveira May Not Go

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) PRETORIA.

The Prime Minister, Mr John Vorster, yesterday hinted that the Cape Coloured cricketer, B. F. D’Oliviera, might not be allowed into South Africa to report the M.C.C. cricket tour for a British newspaper.

He did not mention D’Oliveira by name, but told the Transvaal congress of his ruling National Party: “Guests who have ulterior motives or who have been sponsored by people who have ulterior motives usually find that they are not invited.” D’Oliveira, who was not selected for the M.C.C. team to tour South Africa this year, has since been hired by the London Sunday newspaper, “News Of The World,” to report the tour for it. Mr Vorster said: “When you visit a foreign country you are a guest and you are expected to behave like one. Guests observe rules—they don’t make them. “We value our relations with Britain and if possible we want to improve them,

although candidly some of the actions and decisions of the British Government make it very difficult for us to do so. “In spite of that, however, I want to repeat that we greatly value those relations, not only in the field of commerce but also in the field of sport. These relations will not be and have not been put in jeopardy by us.” The Prime Minister said he was pleased that it appeared that this view was shared by

leaders of commerce and sports administrators in Britain.

“That being so,” he said, “we cannot allow those organisations, individuals and newspapers to make political capital out of such relations and to use certain people or sportsmen as pawns in their game to bedevil relations, to create incidents and to undermine our way of life, which is perfectly known to them—a way of life which is acceptable to our people and has been practised by us for generations long before this Government came to power.” Political Move Denied

In London, Mr S. C. Griffith, secretary of the M.C.C., denied that D’Oliveira was being sent to South Africa by a British newspaper as a political move or that any political considerations were Involved.

A report from Pretoria said that as a reporter—and therefore a private visitor— D’Oliveira would raise difficult questions for the South Africans.

Questions which had to be faced were whether he would be given the same press privileges as white reporters at matches and at social functions afterwards or whether he would be treated as an ordinary Coloured resident