§ The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government whether their attention has been drawn to a recent discussion in the Sports Council where the feeling was that any attempts to vary the Gleneagles Agreement at the forthcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference in Melbourne should be resisted.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of the Environment (Lord Bellwin)My Lords, we are, of course, aware generally of the discussion of sports contacts with South Africa which took place at the meeting of the Sports Council on 11th May, and I understand that the chairman of the Sports Council will be writing to my right honourable friend the Minister for Sport about this in the near future.
Lord ChelwoodMy Lords, is my noble friend aware of the widespread concern that is being expressed by many people who do not wish to see the Gleneagles Agreement amended and who see the sense of it about the so-called blacklisting of individual sportsmen which would surely be likely to harm rather than help the progress towards multiracial sport in South Africa? Arising out of that, is he aware that encouraging progress is being made? Association football, for example, is a sport which is now largely non-racial. Should we not encourage that in every possible way?
§ Lord BellwinMy Lords, so far as the blacklist is concerned, every country has the right to refuse entry to non-nationals whose presence it would regard as undesirable. That right cannot be denied. However, Her Majesty's Government are unable to accept any proposal which would oblige them to place limitations on the freedom of movement of its citizens or interfere with individual liberties.
§ Lord AveburyMy Lords, does not the Gleneagles Agreement oblige Her Majesty's Government to discourage sporting contacts with South Africa either as teams or as individuals? Is not the publication of this list by the United Nations therefore an essential preliminary in identifying the sportsmen who have engaged in such competitions, and will the Government now write to the individuals on this list expressing the displeasure of Her Majesty's Government at their continuing flouting of the ruling of the United Nations?
§ Lord BellwinNo, my Lords, the Government will certainly not do that at all. I shall not go further than my original Answer. The fact is that lists of this kind, in our view, are not helpful and contribute very little to a situation that everyone is sensitively trying to see improved.
Lord ChelwoodMy Lords, is my noble friend aware that I was not in my supplementary question thinking about the United Nations, which did not really enter into it? I was thinking about a private organisation known as SANROC which has published a list of individuals who have played games in South Africa and have sought to blacklist them from playing games in other countries. Is that not something quite beyond the Gleneagles Agreement of which we should strongly disapprove, in that it is contrary to personal freedom?
§ Lord BellwinMy Lords, yes. I thought I had said that in my original reply. I was also referring to the SANROC list that has been published. Beyond that, I entirely endorse the principles expressed by my noble friend.