Silent Maoris

So the Rugby "war" has really started this time, after a false start late last year! The Rugby Union has made its decision and Mr. Rolland O'Regan and his Citizens' All Black Tour Committee have taken up the gauntlet. We can now confidently expect much emotional and confused discussion for the next few weeks.

Mr. M. R. Love, Maori member on the Rugby Council, has defended the Union's policy in a long statement in which he lays great emphasis on the desirability of the Maori people's retaining their "identity."

However, he concludes by saying that Maoris should retain their identity "till such time as [they] can merge into the community as one people."

Not only is this a result that he was apparently opposing before, but the various measures of which he approved (Maori scholarships, religious organisations, etc.) are the very things tending to prevent such a merging of Maori and white.