‘Protest groups caused boycott’

Press, 28 July 1976, Page 10

‘Protest groups caused boycott’

PA Dunedin The Mayor of Dunedin (Sir James Barnes) has blamed H.A.R.T. and C.A.R.E. for the African boycott of the Olympic Games. He told a public forum on apartheid and the Olympic Games at the Caversham Methodist church on Sundaynight that he was not proapartheid. He outlined his experience as an international sporting competitor and administrator, and suggested that only good could come from sporting relationships with other countries.

“Many of those South African countries had never even heard of New Zealand before these organisations told them,” he said.

He also said that had the I All Black team left fori South Africa from Dunedin.! it would have received al mayoral farewell. Another speaker at the forum, Mr W. Fraser, Labour M.P. for St Kilda, accused .Mr Muldoon of harming this country’s good name overseas. An athlete, Stuart Melville, said he believed that the All Black tour of South Africa was justified, but he was saddened by its “byproducts.” He felt there were underlying reasons for the South African countries’ boycott vf New Zealand. “Perhaps if Dixon, Walker and Quax had been running for another country they w-ould have left New’ Zealand alone,” he said.