Rugby tour

Press, 19 April 1986, Page 18

Rugby tour

Sir, — The sneak rugby tour of South Africa will be seen as support for white fascism and racism unless the rebels are warned of a life-long ban and told to come home by the New Zealand Rugby Union. While the apartheid dictatorship persecutes, imprisons, tortures and murders blacks, a few New Zealanders provide a diversionary amusement for the whites, increasingly rugby is seen as a sport that develops the baser and more violent instincts of men, rather than sportsmanship, integrity and the higher values. If the rugby people cannot clean up their act, people will purposely turn to alternative sports. — Yours, etc.,

LARRY ROSS. April 16, 1986.

Sir, — If Bert Walker (April 15) wishes to promote tourism, he should choose some other way, rather than use the correspondence columns and suggesting apartheid South Africa. The only people who would be likely to relish a holiday in that place would be those who have something in common with the rebel rugby players who chose not to take a chance on the democratic procedure of consulting the rules of their various rugby clubs and-or the Rugby Football Union. — Yoiirs, etc., KENNETH EBER MARTIN. April 16, 1986.

Sir,—Mark Wells’ letter (April 16) shows confusion. Western political traditions are based on the understanding that individual rights and the collective good are not opposed ideals. The common good is best achieved by the recognition and defence of individual rights. The view of the world that leaves people to go freely to South Africa is the same view that defends Mark Wells’ right to express his views in freedom.—Yours, etc., N. B. DAVIES. April 16, 1986.

Sir, — Oh naughty, naughty rebel rugby players. They are a disgrace in the eyes of all rightthinking New Zealanders, those of us who have never told a lie, and those of us who are so knowledgeable about the South African situation that we can see clearly that black is always right, even when it is represented by a . threatening mob demanding 4-

blood. Being beyond reproach, as we are, gives us the right to castigate the rugby players and to point out the evil of their actions. They rightly acknowledge that we are entitled to our opinion but we deny them the same right in their own interests for we know that we have a monopoly on all that is good and right and decent. So they must suppress their desire for freedom of choice and return, chastened, to join us on our selfrighteous pedestals, unsullied by contact with South Africans of the white variety. — Yours, etc., S. M. WELLS. April 16, 1986.

Sir, —It seems that frustrated rage and a massive helping of sour grapes are the main diet of the anti-South African brigade these days. Rage because they were fooled completely by the sudden departure of the rugby team and sour grapes as no country is ever likely to invite any of them to tour — except, of course, Mother Russia. Rugby has always maintained that it has the right to play sport against anyone be they Rumanians or Springboks and has steadfastly refused to submit to blackmail from the likes of Abraham Ordia and Sam Ramsamy on this matter. Other sporting bodies have not done so. They have cringed before and kow-towed to some of the African members of the Commonwealth and now have only themselves to blame. Perhaps one day they will learn that a blackmailer’s demands always increase, no matter how often they are acceded to.—Yours, etc.,

W. R. DOBSON. April 16, 1986.

Sir,—When our Prime Minister, Mr Lange, visited East African one-party States, he assured us that his presence there did not signify support for their systems of government. Apparently, the visit by a sports team does. Therefore, does one ex-All Black’s position in Zimbabwe indicate our support of that oneparty State? Did the first visit of a Russian soccer team to this country display that country’s pleasure with our new system of government? Should we not, then, have sent an All Black team to the Philippines to reassure Mrs Aquino of our support? It is all most bewildering.— Yours, etc., P. JOHNSTON. April 15, 1986.