Stop the Tour!

Whether or not the government should intervene and stop the 1973 Springbok rugby tour is a question which is on many people's minds at the moment and ought to be on everybody's.

The New Zealand people are divided and the government's problem is whether to be progressive and lead the people by stopping the tour, or whether to act in the interests of the ruling class and let the tour go on.

The government must take a moral stand, a stand for once influenced not by parochial vested interest but by international opinion which has been stated so clearly in particular by leaders of Black African countries and in general by the United Nations. The moral, international point of view is unequivocal: the tour must not go on.

It cannot be stressed too much that despite the threat to Law and Order, and despite the threat to the Commonwealth Games, the tour must be cancelled because this will be instrumental in the struggle for the liberation of the African people. As long as the white supremacists in Southern Africa can secure their power and prestige by playing ball games with other nations, the voice of the oppressed Africans will not be heard and their lives will continue to be disadvantaged and miserable.

It does not matter for what reasons the tour is stopped. We can only echo Bob Scott, who when recently in South Africa, told the Africans that he thought the tour would be stopped, but for the wrong reasons. Scott reports "Doesn't matter", they say, "Just stop it".

It does matter, however, that we vociferously support the African Liberation movements, and that we continue to highlight the barbarous conditions the blacks live under, which result from the same political condition of Apartheid that dictates the selection of the white supremacist Springbok team.

And when the tour is stopped, it will be the responsibility of the government, the free press and progressive people, particularly the students, to educate the New Zealand public about conditions in Southern Africa, and to show the ways in which New Zealanders can take action to ensure that political power and economic wealth are restored to the masses of Africa.

Will Kirk Sell Out? Stop Press News from Ted Sheehan — Page Seven