R.U. ‘not asked to call off tour’

Press, 5 August 1981, Page 4

R.U. ‘not asked to call off tour’

NZPA London The New Zealand Government had never specifically asked the Rugby Union to call off the Springbok tour, according to the London “Sunday Times.”

"It was in April. 1980, that the Government learnt that the tour was a real possibility." the newspaper said in a report on the Springbok controversy. -

"Consequently, the New Zealand Foreign Minister (Mr Taiboys) wrote to Cecil Blazey. the chairman of the New Zealand Rugby Union, pointing out that more was at stake than a simple game of football. , < ’ . . “Neither then nor subsequently. however. ‘ has the New Zealand Government specifically asked the Rugby Union to call off the tour, as did Mr Muldoon’s predecessor. the late Norman Kirk, in 1973.

“Had it done so, Blazey now says, the rugby authorities could have been obliged to comply, as they did in 1973."

The “Sunday Times" report says that there is plenty of evidence in New Zealand and in Britain that determined governments are able to dissuade even the most recalcitrant sports authorities from carrying out official sport fixtures with South Africa.

“With the exception of the Barbarians and the British Lions rugby tours of 1979 and

1980, there have been no official exchanges since Gleneagles,” it said. The newspaper said that New Zealand looked increasingly isolated as the tour moved into its third troubled week. "A more conciliatory and more diplomatic character would be tempted to step back and reflect." it said. "But that is not Mr Muldoon's style. Even in the earthy atmosphere of New Zealand politics, Mr Muldoon is known as a battler, better at making enemies ' than . friends” ; a - v ' ; ■:?. The Prime Minister did -noi seem to have jifjuch sympathy with the: mack -Commonwealth, report said: "He has admitted openly that he finds, it particularly hard to deal, with the Africans whom, he says, he has ‘given up trying to understand.’ \ “He is deeply patriotic and highly resentful of what he sees as a concerted attempt by the Commonwealth to interfere with New Zealand’s internal affairs.-” Two “Sunday- Times" writers Stephen Aris and Simon Freeway, said that Mr Muldoon had told them that . he had compiled a full dossier of human rights violations by Commonwealth countries which ■ .he would present to the Com- s monwealth Heads of Govern- ; ; ment meeting in Melbourne. He would also press for a

renegotiation of the Gleneagles Agreement. The “Sunday Times" report quoted Mr Muldoon as saying: “It will-be renegotiated on exactly the same . basis as last time. But this time I think I would want them to write in the accommodation of the New Zealand position rather more precisely." The Prime Minister .had shrewdly placed all the emphasis on the vexed question of visas in the escalating propaganda war over the tour, the report said. But he-had been less consistent in , practice and the ft. New Zealand; ■Government had r&fused visas ta sportsmen from Russia, Rhodesia, and Taiwan. However unpopular Mr Muldoon might now be with the . rest of the Commonwealth, his ft firm stand -appeared to have gained him significant ground at home, the report said. “The widespread violence has enabled him to turn the spotlight away from the - agonising moral issues to the simple, emotive one of law and order," it said. “New Zealanders undoubtedly feel strongly about the ethics of playing ball with South Africa. But the sight of their own policemeri -battling -r with long-haired demonstrators is one which most Godfearing, law-abiding Kiwis find even more distasteful."