Cawley may avoid ethnic pressure

Press, 25 September 1980, Page 34

Cawley may avoid ethnic pressure

NZPA Sydney An Australian tennis official said yesterday that she feared another Aboriginal rights attack on the Wimbledon champion, Evonne Cawley, might lead her to pull out of the Australian and New South Wales open tournament. Helen Hawton, one of the organisers of the New South Wales Open, said that Evonne was a big drawcard for both competitions and her withdrawal would mean heavy cuts in the gate takings. The latest attack on Evonne came in a poem written by her own cousin, an author, Kevin Gilbert, and published in the latest issue of the Australian magazine, the “Bulletin.”

In his poem, Mr Gilbert asked Evonne did she ever look back to catch glimpses, ’of her grandmother in hell or open her eyes when whites victimised her family.

He asked her toremems ber the poverty and oppression of her upbringing and to use her position to support the ; cause of the Aboriginal people. Mrs Hawton said she could' not understand why. people kept playing on Evonne’s ■ ethnic background. She said nobody wanted to know the background of the Newcombes and Rosewalls of' tennis and she was at a loss to understand why it was so important in Evonne’s case. 1 ;

She said she was trying to get in touch with the Cawleys at their American home and hoped then to clarify the situation with them.