Mr Taiboys to discuss rugby tour

Press, 6 October 1980, Page 2

Mr Taiboys to discuss rugby tour

NZPA correspondent London The Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Taiboys') will meet the Commonwealth SecretaryGeneral (Sir Shridath Ramphal) over the proposed Springbok tour of New Zealand. No firm time has been set for the meeting, but Mr Taiboys intends to meet Str Shridath in London after his negotiating tour of the northern European capitals.

The tour issue was not raised in a meeting M.r Taiboys had in London with his British Foreign Affairs counterpart, Lord Carrington, but he later repeated his “hope” that the tour would be called off by the New Zealand Rugby Union. Mr Taiboys told British and New Zealand journalists that New Zealand continued to subscribe to the GIe j neagles Agreement, condemning sports contacts with South Africa.

“It is my hope that, through public debate in New Zealand at present, as a result of the expressions of concern from leaders in churches, women’s organisations, and the trade union movement, the Rugby Union will reconsider,” he said.

If it did not do so, the tour would go ahead. The Government would not withdraw entry permits. Asked why the apparent change of mood in New Zealand should have occurred, Mr Taiboys said, “I suppose I might even claim some success in seeking to persuade New Zealanders that we do not live in a white, Anglo-Saxon world. ~ “We live in a world in which New Zealand is seeking and developing relationships with people of other cultures. We must recognise their sensitivities,” he said.

Mr Taiboys said that the Government would not carry over its official displeasure to the All Black tour of Wales later this month. There was no suggestion that the assistance of the High Commission in London would be denied the All Blacks, in the way that the assistance of the Embassy in Moscow was denied the depleted New Zealand Olympic team. I( “It never occurred to me, he said. Stopping the test between Wales and the All Blacks would be “robbing the world of one of the great sports occasions."