Original Correspondence.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XXVII, Issue 1360, 14 May 1895, Page 4

Original Correspondence.

We do not identify ourselves with the opinion s expressed by our correspondents.] THE FOOTBALL AFFILIATION QUESTION. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Your Bannockburn correspondent, like all our opponents on the question of affiliation with the New Zealand ilugby Union, is nothing if not disingenuous. He argues that, because the affiliationiats have won the day, up country football is to receive no encouragement from the O.R.F.U. Executive as at present constituted, simply because I stated that my party had put forward a “ ticket ” and secured the electing of most of the men on it;' 'And he further declares that because of the success of that “ticket” all against affiliation “ will have to go to the wall or else form another union.” Nobody but he would venture to suggest such a sequitur, but I venture to affirm that the present executive will be found quite as anxious as any of their predecessors to deal with every section of the constituency whose affairs they administer. Let me tell up country footballers that the party of affiliation were forced in self defence to organise in order to capture the executive. We have on every previous occasion won decisively by the votes of the delegates, but the then executive threw their entire strength into the scale against us, even though on one occasion, they stood committed to their own report, which left the determination of the question to the delegates themselves, In the face of such a breich of faith, surely I and those who thought with me were entitled to do our level best, as we did, to secure for our party a fair share of representation on the governing body of the union. And it cannot be seriously contended for a moment that the party who voice the opinions of the bulk of the playing members of Otago should he denied a fair share in the conduct of football in this provincial district. More than that, we have not obtained, as your veracious correspondent can ascertain for himself if he troubles himself to analyse the composition of this year’s Executive. So much misrepresentation of our actions and motives has been in dulgcd in by our opponents that I could not allow your correspondent’s observations to pass unchallenged. Mark Cohen, Dunedin, May 4.