Acceptable face of riot
Sir: I was deeply astonished by your illinformed statement in your 29 August issue in the Notebook to the effect that in New Zealand the anti-Springbok rioters are being 'manipulated by a ragbag of political extremists'. We know that this is what our Prime Minister would like your readers to think. The truth is that the protest movement was not a 'riot' but an exceptionally well-controlled mass movement, the hard backbone of which was almost entirely middle-class — an astonishing phenomenon in the Western world.
Your 'ragbag' included the mayors of the large cities, archbishops, lawyers and other professional people whose representatives were appropriately received by the Governor-General. Our Prime Minister, who broke his Gleneagles promise by giving the tour his blessing in an official television speech of 6 July, would like all this not to be known. It is appalling that you should lend the columns of your good conservative paper to the propaganda of New Zealand's populist Prime Minister.
Peter Manz Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
Previous page
