Banning order

Press, 11 August 1982, Page 12

Banning order

Sir,—The history of New Zealand-South Africa: rugby contacts belies Susan .M. Howat’s belief “that free and open contact in sport will foster these rights in other countries and uphold them in our own” (August 7). During the years embracing exchanges of tours between New Zealand and South Africa, 1921, 1937, 1956, 1965, South Africa,to New Zealand; 1928, 1949, 1960, New Zealand to South Africa, were precisely those years (particularly post-World War II) when the subjection of South Africa’s black majority to the white minority was concretised in an enacted legal code. During those years New Zealand tolerated the insult to the Maori people of excluding Maori players from selection to tour South Africa. The cancellation of the projected tour of South Africa in 1967 because the South African Government would not allow Maoris to tour with the All Blacks was the most compelling argument inchanging South Africa’s policy. — Yours, etc., . M. CREEL. August 7, 1982.