Tour issue seen as threat to Vorster

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32895, 19 April 1972, Page 18

Tour issue seen as threat to Vorster

The chairman of the Halt All Racist Tours organisation (Mr T. Richards) said yesterday that a prominent South African writer had told him in a letter that if the 1973 Springbok tour of New Zealand were cancelled, it could result in the defeat of the Vorster Government.

He said he could not give the name of the writer for fear of recrimination in South Africa, but in the letter he had said that in Rugby circles there, people were sick and tired of the “Vorster-Waring antics, and just want to get on with the game-accord-ing to anyone else's rules." The letter added: “At long last, there is a significant anti-racist sport attitude; this is One issue that could make or break the present Government and let loose all sorts of possibilities.” The writer added that there had been a “moderately successful, completely multiracial tennis tournament with integrated spectators as well as players. But a privately organised cricket game between a white university side and an Indian league team has brought down the wrath

of Frankie Waring who is threatening legislation to close even that loophole." The letter added that it seemed South Africa was out of the Davis Cup, but Hassan Howa and supporters were sticking to their guns on cricket and Rugby with surprising support from unexpected white quarters.

“We have always said that pressure on the South African Government in the form of boycott is substantial and much greater than merely 'building bridges,’” said Mr Richards. “But I did not realise the pressure was as great as indicated here and take it as a vindication of the stand we have taken.”