What people think does matter

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32779, 2 December 1971, Page 14

What people think does matter

The arrogant attitude of the chairman of the Halt All Racist Tours organisation (Mr T. Richards) will do little to advance his organisation or its aims among the majority of New Zealanders. Discussing H-A.R.T.’s attempts to stop a New Zealand women’s cricket team from touring South Africa, Mr Richards was reported to have said this week: “ Public “ sympathy [for H.A.R.T.] is less important than “stopping racist sport We don’t really care what “ people think ”. The point is not new, but it is worth repeating: the right of HA.RT and other minority groups to express their opinions and to demonstrate within the limits of the law is unquestioned in this country: but no militant minority, however sincere its belief in the worthiness of its cause, can be permitted to pursue those aims heedless of the opinions of others and regardless of the rights of others to follow their lawful occasions. The distaste which most New Zealanders have for apartheid is undoubted; but it is equally clear from recent public opinion surveys that most New Zealanders also want sporting ties with South Africa to continue. Many believe, as does “ The Press ”, that contact by South African sportsmen with racially mixed teams from New Zealand is a more effective way of breaking down the facade of apartheid than a complete sporting boycott This is a debatable issue; but it remains for Mr Richards and his organisation to convince the public that theirs is the more effective approach. They will not do so by taking the law into their own hands and interfering with sports events of which they do not approve. Without going outside the law the members of HAJR.T. have a wide variety of ways in which to make known their views. Mr Richards has said that trials to select the cricket team will not be disrupted; but he seems to have left the way open for individuals associated with H.A.R.T. to disrupt the trials if they felt “ committed by conscience ”. “We “will neither condemn nor support these people”, he said. If H.A.R.T. expects its protests and its causes to be taken seriously it will have to be more explicit The Acting Attorney-General (Mr Marshall) said in Parliament last week, in reply to a question about disruption of the cricket trials, that provisions in the criminal law were designed to deal with people who wrongfully prevented or attempted to prevent others from lawful activities. Even if H.A.R.T. enjoyed a great deal more support than it does it would not be justified in acting outside the law or in failing to repudiate any of its members who did so. In the present situation it will do little to further the principle of majority rule in South Africa by pouting the principle in New Zealand.