The Washington times., 1935-07-26

That was the Interpretation
placed upon a statement issued to
day by Avery Brundage, president
of the American Olympic Com
mittee, in the face Of mounting
sentiment among amateur ath
letic leaders attacking discrimina'
ton against Catholic and Jewish
athletes by German Nazis.
Brundage's statement followed
an exclusive interview by Interna'
tional News Service in which Jere'
miah T. Mahoney, national preSi'
dent of the Amateur Athletic
Union, declared that he personally
was in favor of withdrawing the
American team upon verification
of religious persecution by the
Nazi government.
Although he averted any direct
declaration that the American
team would not be withdrawn
from the Olympiad, Brundage's at
titude was quite clear when he
said:
Amateur sport cannot, with
good grace or propriety, inter.
fere in the internal political, re-
Ngious or racial affairs Of any
country or group"
EXPLAINS GERMANY
Explaining Germany's relation
to the. Olympic Games, Bruhdage
declared:
"In order that there may be
no Misrepresentation, 1t should
be pointed out that Germany
has nothing whatsoever to do
with the management Of the
Olympic games. The Germans
provide the facilities and make
preliminary arrangements but
that is all. Every individual
sport on the program is under
the full and complete control Of
the international federation
governing tina: sport, and the
entire enterprise is under the
sole jurisdiction Of the Inter
national Olympic Committee"
With regard to changing the
site Of the games, the committee
president said:
"The time and place for the
Olympic games Of 1886 were
fixed by the international com.
mittee long before the present
German government came into
power. The Olympic protocol
provides that this must be done
at least three years in advance
since it takes at least that long
to prepare for this great enter
prise. It would therefore be
quite impossible to change the
venue now even If it were de-
sired"
Brundage told the writer he
visited Germany last fall and wit
messed international athletic
games whose participants and Of
ficials included both German and
Austrian Jews, adding:
Gas far as I could see there
was no objection to their parti-
cipation, either politically or
officially"
HAVE ASSURANCE
Continuing his statement, Brun-
dage said:
Both the International
Olympic committee and the
American Olympic committee
have every assurance, which
there is no reason % question at
present, from both German pO-
litical and sport leaders, that
there will be no interference
with the games and that all the
rules and regulations of the in
ternatiOnal committee will be en-
forced to the letter. The
strength and Importance of Or
ganized amateur sport comes
from its independence. 1t es-
tablishes and attempts to main
tain the highest standards in
its own field of endeavOr, and
will not tolerate political, racial
or religious interference of any
kind"
Brundage told the writer that
the international Olympic commit
tee thraShed out the matter Of
holding the games in Germany
last fall and that, after receiving
a full report on conditions there,
again approved Berlin as a site
for the 1886 games. To this, he
added:
"NO matter where the games
are held there is always some
agitation about racial or poll.
tical discrimination. Most Of
these complaints, however, are
based on exaggeratiOn."