BID TO CANCEL CRICKET TOUR

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32303, 22 May 1970, Page 1

BID TO CANCEL CRICKET TOUR

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

LONDON, May 21.

The Home Secretary (Mr James Callaghan) will meet Britain’s two top cricketing officials today in a lastminute bid to persuade them to cancel next month’s South African cricket tour.

Mr Callaghan said he would meet Mr M. J. C. Allom and Mr S. C. Griffith, chairman and secretary of the Cricket Council, less than 24 hours after the council had said it would continue with the controversial tour.

“I want to hear their reasons for going on with this tour after announcing that future tours should be cancelled,” Mr Callaghan said. Mr Callaghan, who is Minister in Charge of Police, was speaking at a Police Federation meeting in North Wales.

“There have been so many requests for me to intervene that I would be failing in my duty if 1 did not meet the Cricket Council,” he said. Mr Callaghan’s move won support from Mr Peter Hain, the expatriate South African student who heads the Stop the 70 Tour Committee. Mr Hain described the announcement as “a step in the right direction.” Britain’s West Indian community found itself split over the issue of the tour when the West Indies skipper, G. .Sobers, refused to denounce

it and said he was not worried by threats made against him.

But yesterday the county cricket champion, Glamorgan, said that two West Indians, B. Davis and T. Cordle, as well as a Pakistani, Majid Khan, would not be chosen to play against the South Africans next July as they had received threatening letters. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition Conservative Party, Mr Reginald Maulding, pounced on Mr Callaghan’s remarks immediately and said: "This is no way for a Government to behave.” Mr Maulding chided the Home Secretary for trying to force the council into banning the tour, and said that if Mr Callagahan thought

it was in the national interest he should ban the tour himself.

Election Effect

The Opposition speculated happily on the prospect of anti-Springbok violence threatening Mr Wilson’s General Election chances.

The polls will be held on June 18, coinciding with the first test between South Africa and England. The Stop the 70 Tour Committee has promised “the big-

gest wave of demonstrations ever seen in this country."

Mr Hain said: “We as a committee will do all in our power to prevent violence, but we cannot guarantee it. We are tired of meek petitioning.” Role Of Police The decision of the Cricket Council to go ahead with the tour, is known to have exasperated Mr Wilson and his Ministers, who took an open stand against it. They have apparently not given up hope of having the series called off. Mr Callaghan told a sometimes hostile audience of more than 1000 delegates' at the Police Federation conference in Llandudno that if the tour went ahead, he was sure the police would do all they could to see that the demonstrators were as peaceful as possible. “It would be a sad day if the Government had to ban collective dissent by demonstrators, because the next step would be to stop individual dissent,” he said. “This is what you are defending. You are in the middle. I am well aware that it will be a long hot summer and the tour is going to add to everyone’s burden.” The federation chairman (Mr R. Gale) told Mr Callaghan: “For years we have

been eyeball to eyeball with the fanatics, the lunatics and the hooligans. “The main sport will not be cricket and we will he at the receiving end, our manpower stretched intolerably.” The Fair Cricket Campaign led by the Bishop of Woolwich (the Rt Rev. David Sheppard) appealed in an open letter to Mr Callaghan to bring the parties together “in a final effort to prevent the serious consequences that might otherwise result from the deep emotions that this tour has engendered on all sides.”

The campaign said its opposition to the tour had not been altered by the council’s declared policy to play any multi-racial teams from South Africa in the future.

“Pressure Attempt”

Mr Maudling said that Mr Callaghan was trying to pressure the Cricket Council and interfere with their traditional right to carry on a lawful pursuit. “The Home Secretary has power to prevent the South African team coming here. If he thinks it would be contrary to the national interest for them to come here he should act on his own responsibility.

“Otherwise he should allow the Cricket Council to exercise their traditional rights to carry on their lawful pursuit of organising games of cricket for the public who want to watch them,” Mr Maudling said.

Australian Associated Press said the “Daily Express” reported that Mr Callaghan told the police: “You will have to do all you can. "With my support, ensure that the demonstrators, if peaceful, are looked after like any other citizen, but if they degenerate into hooligans, take charge and bring them before the courts. “But I don’t want it to come to that state.” Residents of St John's Wood, an exclusive suburb, who live within a big hit of Lord’s, are taking special precautions to protect their homes. Barbed wire and netting, new and stronger locks and an increase in security for blocks of flats are some of the defence methods being undertaken by residents. Scotland Yard detectives have made a survey of the area and have reported to the residents. Porters of blocks of flats have been warned to keep doors and hatches leading to the roofs locked so demonstrators cannot toss objects on to the ground.