TRADE UNIONS MAY APPROACH PAKEHA ALL BLACKS

Grey River Argus, 8 September 1948, Page 3

TRADE UNIONS MAY APPROACH PAKEHA ALL BLACKS

Withdrawal From Tour is Requested WELLINGTON, Sept. 7. A fresh development in connection vvith the already-expressed opposition of the New Zealand industrial Labour Movement to the exclusion of Maoris from the All Black team for South Africa was reported in Wellington to-day. Some officials in the industrial Labour Movement, it is stated, are already considering approaches to individual All Blacks who are likely to be asked to decline nomination as a protest against racial discrimination. Union officials who are considering this manoeuvre state they are confident that a good many of the chosen players, especially those who are trade unionists or who were in the services, would promptly decline to go to South Africa. The officials made no secret of their expectations that the All Blacks would be decimated and that the team, deprived of Maori footballers and a considerable number of eligible pakehas. would in no’ degree be representative of New Zealand. PLAYERS’ GESTURE Pakehas who accepted nomination, even after being invited to stand down as ‘‘a gesture to democratic beliefs”, would be placed in an extremeiy unpleasant position, state union officials, in that they would lack the support of a great deal of public opinion. . -. There is some belief, although it is not confident in trade unions, that the New Zealand Rugby Union, after reconsidering the subject, will decide to abandon the tour rather than persist in excluding Maoris. Although there have been denials, it is known on very good authority that some trade union opinion strongly favours drastic measures if the tour is continued on what they term a discriminatory basis. Interested union officials have emphasised that their discussions so far had been personal, and cannot be considered as the official attitude of the industrial Labour Movement, but they believe that very little effort would be needed to organise the trade union movement behind their ideas. Otago Trades Council Criticises N.ZXU. P.A. DUNEDIN, September 7. The Otago Trades Council at its monthly meeting discussed what was termed “the attitude of the New Zealand Rugby Football Union in accepting terms laid down by the South African Union excluding Maoris from being members of the touring AU Black team”. The Council decided to record its strongest protest against the decision, and to point out that some of the most talented footballers in New Zealand were of Maori extraction. The Council also was of opinion that the invitation, in its limited form, should not have been accepted, and that, if eventually a team were sent from New Zealand to South Africa, it certainly should not be classed as an All Black team. The Council also expressed its disgust at what it claimed was “the subservient action of the New Zealand Rugby Football Union”.

Kippenberger’s Remarks Resented In Transvaal JOHANNESBURG, Sept. 6. The leading Transvaal Government newspaper, the Transvaler, suggests that the New Zealand Rugby Union’s tour of South Africa should be cancelled in view of the statements ny Major-General Sir Howard Kippenberger, criticising the decision to exclude Maoris from the All Blacks’ tour. The article says that m view of General Kippenberger’s “insulting remarks”, the matter is no longer one for the football authorities only, but has assumed wider aspects. Die Berger says: “The decision to invite only white All Blacks is in the interests of the Maoris themselves. We cannot imagine they would .find the toux* enjoyable. The Maoris would find how different things were in South Africa compared with New Zealand”.. Mr H. J. Constable, honorary agent for New Zealand in South Africa, has sent a cablegram to the New Zealand Rugby Union stating: “Consider Major-General Kippenberger’s statements regarding Afrikanders unfortunate, injudicious; entirely unwarranted in the light of conditions here, and likely to create ill-feeling on the tour. There are unfavourable repercussions of opinion, especially among New Zealanders in South Africa”.

General Expresses Regret at Remarks WELLINGTON, Sept. 7. Major-General Sir Howard Kippenberger, in a statement to-day in reference ’to his remarks last week concerning Afrikanders, said: — ‘“I. suppose I am due for the cane now being administered. My remark about 'damned Afrikanders’ was quite improper, and I ' unreservedly express my regret for having made it. “The occasion was an informal meeting at which I discussed various ex-servicemen’s problems with about 80 members of the Christchurch Returned Services’ Association, it was not a public meeting. I emphasised that my opinions as to whether we should acquiesce in the exclusion .of Maoris were my own, and not the accepted opinion of the association. 1. am very sorry indeed that I allowed myself to make these objectionable remarks”. Cape Communists And Colona" Bar CAPETOWN, Sept. 5 The secretary of the Cape Town Communist Party (Mr F. Carneson), at a meeting called for 200 volunteers to make the Apartheid (Segregation) Regulations unworkable. Numbers plcoloured men afterwards deliberately entered coaches on suburban trains reserved for white passengers.