Tanzania describes Mr Muldoon as committed Rightist

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34045, 8 January 1976, Page 1

Tanzania describes Mr Muldoon as committed Rightist

f N Z.P.A -Reuter—Copyright)

DAR-ES-SALAAM, January 7. The Tanzanian Government newspaper, the ‘’Daily News,’* said today that the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) was going against the wishes of the people of New Zealand by allowing the resumption of sports ties with South Africa.

An editorial in the paper calls Mr Muldoon “a committed Rightist” who is not bothered by the sensitivities of Africans on issues such as apartheid.

The editorial explains {Tanzania’s decision, announced yesterday, to cancel a New Zealand tour by the world 1500 m champion. Filbert Bayi, unless New Zealand withdraws an invitation to a South African softball team to compete in a tournament in Wellington this month.

Bayi was due to leave for New Zealand on January 15, for an eagerly-awaited clash with the world mile recordholder, John Walker. The “Daily News” says that the New Zealand Government “seems to be fully committed to strengthening ties with Pretoria. “We know this is not the wish of the genera! public in New Zealand, who have shown considerable inclination towards liberal politics.” The editorial says that some New Zealanders have expressed surprise at Tanzania’s action. It asks: "Was it not expected that anyone who stoops low to conquer the favours of the racists must be condemned?”

The "Daily News” says that “Tanzanian sportsmen and women will have no truck with South African racists, or with those others who cultivate good relations with those racists.” Mr Muldoon said in Auckland this evening that he had no comment to make on the Tanzanian report. The Government’s views on South Africa were well known, he said, and the subject had been a major election issue. The Government fully intended to carry out its policy. •Eleventh-hour tactics’ The Softball Association is standing firm on its invitation to South Africa, which has been accepted, in spite of Bayi’s cancellation and the withdrawal of the Mexican team from the championships. The Philippines has also threatened to withdraw from the tournament. The secretary of the association (Mr G. F. Vincent) said "In sympathy with the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association we have to deplore the eleventh-hour tactics of these countries who seek to coerce other countries to their way of thinking through sport. “We dare say that New

Zealand would fail to meet Tanzania’s criteria in other respects than softball. We might as well say at this stage that we believe South Africa’s chosen softball team (which is not yet known to us) to be selected on merit by means of a series of separate trials.” Without Mexico or the Philippines, the January 31 to February 8 world series will include only seven teams — Canada, the United States, Japan, Guam, South Africa, New Zealand, and Taiwan. Mr Vincent said he had received guarantees from the seven countries that they would come. The sudden succession of cancellations because of New Zealand’s renewed contacts with South Africa has raised speculation of a more widespread boycott, but the chairman of the Olympic and Commonwealth Games organ-1 isation (Mr Lance Cross) said today that it was unlikely New Zealand would become isolated. “I think it unlikely that New Zealand would be singled out when so many counrties have sports contacts with South Africa,” said Mr Cross, who is also a member of the International Olympic Committee.

“I don’t think New Zealand would become a scapegoat.”

He contended that New Zealand would be protected from such blackmail by a statement made recently by the chairman of the 1.0.C.,' Lord Killanin. ‘Disappointment’ He said that any country that threatened to boycott the Montreal Olympic Games to prevent a country competing, faced the prospect of suspension from the movement. The Auckland Athletic Centre, which issued the invitation to Bayi and a Tanzanian team to come to New Zealand, will accept any decision made by the Softball Association. Mr Graham Davy, the immediate past president and spokesman for the Auckland centre, said: “We don’t want to exert any pressure on the Softball Association. Any decision it makes regarding South Africa’s entry in the world series will be accepted bv us, even if it means the Bayi tour is off.” The New Zealand Amateur

Athletic Association has also said that it will make no attempt to influence the Softball Association. The chairman of the management, committee (Mr Ces Blazey) said he was still awaiting the “normal courtesy” of official word from Tanzania that Bayi’s tour is off. The Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr Highet) today deplored Bayi’s cancellation. “I'm sure the general disappointment will be more than a little tinged with annoyance and a sense of injustice. It is against the New Zealand sense of fair play. "It is a deplorable situation and detrimental to the development of sport in New Zealand when the activities of one sport can willy-nilly jeopardise opportunities in others. “C.A.R.E. and H.A.R.T.. acting as intermediaries or as stirrers, take upon themselves, a tiny minority, to act as the conscience of all New Zealanders.”

‘Tremendous changes’

A South African tennis player, Ray Moore, who is in New Zealand criticised what he calls the “armchair liberals” who sit back and criticise his country’s apartheid system without offering any other solution as an alternative.

Building bridges and keening lines of communication open to exert pressure on the South African Government were the only ways countries like New Zealand could help get rid of the apartheid system. “I have never agreed with apartheid. I do not like the system. But over the last five years a lot of things have been done to change it,” he said. "For example, the tennis circuit there is now fully integrated, and there are more blacks playing tennis than in any other country. Tennis visit He believes that the visit by the black American tennis professional and Wimbledon champion. Arthur Ashe, brought about tremendous changes to apartheid in South Africa. The secretary of the Golf{ Association (Mr David Sutton) said in Wellington tonight that his association might be host to the Eisenhower Trophy world amateur golf championship in Christchurch this year, and would expect South Africa to compete.