New Zealand is guilty, says U.K. paper

Press, 27 July 1976, Page 1

New Zealand is guilty, says U.K. paper

NZPA staff correspondent

London

New Zealand is the guilty party of the Olympic Games boycott, the ‘‘Sunday Times*’ said in a sports page editorial.

“An examination of the facts behind the New Zealand (rugby’) tour (of South Africa) leads positively to the conclusion that the International Olympic Committee should have had no other course but to ban New Zealand from the Olympics. “If they had had the courage to do so, the Olympic Games would still be worthy of the name,” the newspaper said. “Recourse to the excuse that Rugby is not an Olympic sport is irrelevant, and so, too, is the idea that in

some strange way New Zealand’s Olympic team and all its electorate need accept no responsibility. “New Zealanders are thus guilty to a man. They put sport before the requirement all should be prepared to acknowledge in a swiftly changing world: the equality of black and white. That equality is a basic tenet of the Olympic ideal, and the 1.0. C. has shirked its clear duty” The editorial was headed: “New Zealand is guilty.” It said: “The real danger of the African boycott of the Montreal Olympic Games is if its repercussions and the reasons for it are ignored. “Future Olympics could become festivals of sport

to which only white competitors go,” The editorial ended: “The time is ripe for some real leadership, and for ‘the friends of Africa’ to stand up and be counted.” The newspaper devoted most of a page to a background report headed: “These tarnished Olympics.” It said: “No-one is saying, but many people feel that this is the last rugby series between South Africa and New Zealand until apartheid is banished from South African sport. The boycott of the Montreal Games, many people in South Africa feel, will ensure this.” [South African view, Page 3]