Athletes Petition Against Tour

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32166, 9 December 1969, Page 1

Athletes Petition Against Tour

Nearly 70 per cent of registered senior and junior athletes in Canterbury have opposed the proposed tour of New Zealand by South African athletes next year in a petition sent to the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association in Wellington yesterday.

The N.Z.AAA. will meet this evening to deride whether to go ahead with the tour but may not recognise the petition from the Christchurch athletes because it has not gone through the Canterbury centre.

cans tell the N.Z.AA.A. that they cannot now put on a meeting or have the South Africans at a meeting already arranged. Whatever the reply the N.Z.A.A.A. receives from South Africa and the centres it is likely that the tour will not go on and the threat to the Commonwealth Games at Edinburgh will be averted.

The petition, organised by athletes from four Christchurch clubs, P. T. Brown, (St Martins), T.- Preece (Toe H), R. Fleming (Christchurch), and S. V. R. Young (University), opposes the tour on the ground that New Zealand should support the stand taken by the International Olympic Committee and the United Nations Human Rights Conference against participation in sporting activities with teams selected on a racial basis. The organisers say in their letter to the N.Z.A.A.A. that they have more than 130 signatures from registered athletes in the Canterbury Centre. The secretary of the centre (Mr I. Teague) said last evening that there were 193 seniors and juniors registered this season. ' OTHER OPPONENTS Opposition to the tour is much larger than the number of signatures suggested, the tetter says. Others who opposed the four on moral grounds would not sign the petition for various reasons;

other athletes could not be contacted to find their opinions; and others opposed the tour because they considered it inexpedient on grounds other than moral ones.

But the organisers said that they would not hestitate to say on oath that a majority of athletes approached opposed the tour. They asked the N.Z.A.A.A. to consider the letter carefully. MORE DIFFICULT However, the N.Z.A.A.A. will be faced with a more difficult matter. It is waiting for information on the athletes which South Africa might send before it decides whether to go ahead with the invitation. If the South African letter arrives in time and contains the information the N.ZJLA.A. wants, it will have to decide if it will send the official invitation approved at the annual meeting last month.

But tiie invitation may still not be sent if the centres which indicated earlier that they were prepared to hold meetings for the South Afri-