Call to place code on trial

Press, 17 November 1982, Page 6

Call to place code on trial

PA Wellington A test case was needed to show how the new Commonwealth Games Code of Conduct would work, . the New Zealand Olympic and Commonwealth / Games Association heard last ingThe association’s chair-. man, Mr Roy Dutton, told' delegates that untihthe code was put on. trial “it was anyone’s guess :what would come out of it.” ' But he said that New Zealand could' still be "in the ; clear” if the sport which had , contact with South Africa was not an association mem-, ber, and if the association carried out its obligations under the code. However, delegates were warned that it was in New Zealand’s interests to adhere to the code, thrashed out at a special conference at Brisbane, .and they were told they had underestimated the feeling against New ■ Zealand. . . ■ Mr Dutton said that he had managed to defuse a situation which had been “very anti-New Zealand,” by promising the Brisbane meeting that now the code had been adopted, the country would adhere to and support it. Mr lan Boyd, chairman of

the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association, and another of New Zealand’s three representatives at Brisbane, said.that if New Zealand had followed the Gleneagles Agreement more closely “we would not be in this pickle now.” “We very much underestimated the depth of feeling in the Commonwealth for the Gleneagles Agreement,”' he said. He believed, however, that New Zealand had gained ground at Brisbane., But the way the Brisbane meeting was run came in for scathing criticism from Mr Lance Cross.