AUST. SAYS NO; N.Z. TO DECIDE French nuclear testing blasts league tour

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33189, 31 March 1973, Page 48

AUST. SAYS NO; N.Z. TO DECIDE French nuclear testing blasts league tour

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON. I'he New Zealand Rugby League council is “almost certain” to decide next week whether the planned tour of New Zealand by France this year will be allowed to go ahead, the league chairman (Mr R. McGregor) said last evening.

The council would discuss the tour at its meeting in Auckland on Wednesday, basing its final decision on the likelihood of France resuming its atmospheric nuclear testing programme in the South Pacific.

The French tour is scheduled to start late in May and end in midJune. “We are still not certain whether the tests will be held," Mr McGregor said, “but it looks now as if we will not hear definitely before the council has to make a final decision on the tour.” The Australian Rugby League's decision not to allow the French tour of Australia to proceed if France went ahead with its nuclear testing would have no influence on the New Zealand decision, he said. “Any decision we make will be our own,” Mr McGregor said. “It does not mean that because Australia might stop the tour that we will not go ahead with it here. “It must be made quite clear, however, that we are opposed to the nuclear testing." Mr McGregor said that the council had already considered the implication of France resuming nuclear testing, and that the council

had hoped by now there i might have been a firmer indication on whether France would, in fact, stage the I tests. Although a programme for 'the tour had been arranged, the French League had not I yet confirmed it. The New I Zealand League was still I awaiting “a satisfactory reply.” Mr McGregor said that a (decision would have to be made soon. The chairman of the Australian Rugby League (Mr W. IG. Buckley) said in Sydney yesterday that his council would not invite a French team to tour Australia this year if the French Government went ahead with nu- ! clear tests. Mr Buckley was comment- j ing on a report from Paris' that a French team was ready to tour Australia and I New Zealand this year. Ac- | cording to the report, the 'President of the French Rugby League, Mr R. Mauries, said he had obtained Australian guarantees for the tour. “The Frenchmen are mak-|

ng arrangements but there is no tour at this stage,” Mr Buckley said. “They have not been invited to tour here. And they won’t be invited as long as the nuclear tests are on in the Pacific.” The Sydney “Morning Herald” quoted its Paris corres-

pondent, Richard Breeze, as saying that the French League had “decided to press on with the tour because it feared the threat of French Rugby Union more than a few thousand noisy demonstrators.”

The Frenchmen would play six matches in Australia, including three tests, and four matches, including one test, in New Zealand. Breeze said that a list of 45 players had been drawn up from which a 26-man touring party was to be selected. Breeze quoted from a letter he said had been sent to the French federation by Australian League secretary, Mr K. Stephen. The letter had said: “The local political situation concerning French nuclear tests in the Pacific area has to be taken into consideration. We have made inquiries at the highest political level and will keep you fully’ informed of the latest discussions between our two countries.” Breeze said that the Australian tour was approved after a lengthy meeting of the French federation in Toulouse. It ended with Mr Mauries telling journalists: “Okay, we go to Australia; we have obtained all the Australian guarantees.”