political
p. 21 · Read in the full issue
The Games as Guam's political football
From a Suva correspondent
Leading South Pacific sporting bodies are seriously perturbed about arrangements for the Fifth South Pacific Games in 1975. Guam has been given an ultimatum to decide by June 30 whether the Games will go ahead in that territory, as it pro mised to do after the last Games in Papeete in 1971.
Guam currently has an allocation of US funds sufficient to stage the Games, and has better facilities than any other Pacific Island territory.
The Guam Senate wants the Games to go ahead there, but in recent months there has been political in fighting which resulted in Governor Carlos Comacho in February calling the Games off because, he said, the money could be better spent else where, He has turned his back on Mr Ted Nelson, Chairman of the Organising Committee of the Fifth Games, who insists that the money already earmarked for the Games, SUSI.S million, should be used.
Leading Fiji sporting official Mr Les Martin, who was Chairman of the First South Pacific Games in Suva in 1963, flew to Guam in June at the request of Pacific sporting officials anxious to resolve the impasse. Mr Martin told PIM in Suva that he could see no reason why Guam couldn’t meet the com mitment it gave at Papeete, but ob viously the other Pacific territories, including Fiji, had to know just where the Fifth Games were to be staged if they were not to be staged in Guam.
He said that France had made it clear that the Fifth Games would not go either to Papeete or Noumea, as they had had their turn, and he per sonally couldn’t see how Fiji could become involved at such short notice.
It might be possible, he said, for a mini-Games to be held perhaps in Vila—something not on the large scale required for a full South Pacific Games, and attended by fewer sports men than the regular Games. He added: “If Guam decides it is defi nitely off, then all the territories will simply have to get together again and decide what to do for the best,”
Mr Martin said that the recent death of Mr Don Barrett of Papua New Guinea was unfortunate as he had done a lot of work on planning for a mini-Games if the Guam arrangements fell through.