EMPIRE GAMES TEAM

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 20, 25 January 1938, Page 6

EMPIRE GAMES TEAM

AUCKLAND PROTESTS

j"CAVALIER TREATMENT"

!(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

AUCKLAND, January 24.

A final discussion on the methods of the selection of the Empire Games athletic.team was held by the Auckland Amateur Athletic Centre and concluded with the framing- of formal protests against the methods employed. Several members attacked the; statement by the chairman of the New Zealand council, Mr. R. W. McVilly. . ■ ' •

i "It is absurd and inconsistent of Mr. iMcVilly to say Miss Munro had her 'opportunity in the trials and failed to take it, and to suggest in this connection that an athlete might put up one I brilliant performance and never repeat it. Miss Munro's jumping was consistently better than the record and1 better than Miss Strachan's best, !>r said the Rev. F. de Lisle. "The trouble all through seems to have . been a question not Sof • ability but of parochialism." Exception was also taken to the fact that neither of the Auckland 'delegated was informed of the meeting called in response to the centre's appeal and: at which Miss Munro's claims ■were discussed. '

It; was decided to place on record appreciation of the services of the centre's delegates. The following resolutions were adopted unanimously:— "That this centre places on record a strong protest against the methods of selection of < the 1938 Empire Games team, which it considers to have been inconsistent and unfair, suggesting incompetence and bias. Further, that the centre protests at the cavalier treatment accorded its representatives in trying to secure justice in the rectification of an obvious mistake."