The Press WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 1972. Segregated Rugby

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32860, 8 March 1972, Page 16

The Press WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 1972. Segregated Rugby

The Prime Minister (Mr Marshall) probably has the backing of the great majority of New Zealanders for his decision not to intervene in the negotiations for the 1973 tour of New Zealand by a team of white South African Rugby players. A public opinion survey conducted throughout the country last September showed that 74 per cent of people believed that the 1973 Springbok Rugby team should come to New Zealand. It is worth recalling a somewhat similar statement, made in rather different circumstances by his predecessor, Sir Keith Holyoake, six years ago.

Normally the Government does not comment on the affairs of sporting organisations because they are outside the field of government intervention. Nevertheless I also believe that where important moral issues are involved—fundamental to our national integrity—the Government has a duty to state clearly the principles which in its view New Zealanders should observe at home and abroad. I do not think the Government should seek to impose standards of conduct, but it should proclaim those standards.

Three weeks after that statement by Sir Keith (then Mr) Holyoake, the New Zealand Rugby Football Union declined—and rightly declined—the invitation of the South African Rugby Board to send a team to South Africa in 1967. Since 1966 the South Africans have conceded New Zealand’s right to choose Maori players for any All Black team to tour South Africa; and this has been hailed as a notable concession by the South African Government. Yet many New Zealanders remain uneasy about the morality of accepting in this country touring teams from South Africa selected from only one of the three main ethnic divisions of that country’s population. Mr Marshall maintains that it is “ better to build bridges of communication ” with South Africa than to cut off all contact, a view that “ The Press ” has long held and still holds—up to a point That point is passed when it no longer appears that the “ bridges of communication ” serve to span the gulf set between races in South Africa by the abhorrent policy of apartheid.

South Africa obviously values its sporting contacts with the rest of the world and has made some concessions to maintain them—concessions that certainly would not have been made if the Republic had at once been isolated and shunned. The history of the last 10 years nevertheless suggests that major South African concessions to world opinion are to be won only by constant pressure, under threat of withdrawal of sporting contacts.

In his first statement on this issue as Prime Minister, Mr Marshall has indeed suggested, as his predecessor did, an acceptable line of conduct for the New Zealand Rugby Union to follow. The union could ask the South Africans to arrange for the next All Blacks in South Africa to play matches against Bantu and Coloured teams. The next Springbok team to tour New Zealand might then, if New Zealand pressed hard enough, be a multiracial team.