Evening star., 1939-10-30
Olympic Award
Big Surprise
To Detroit
Not Ready to Hold
Games If Finland
Gives Them Up
BY JUDSON BAILEY,
Associated Press Sports Writer.

NEW YORK. Oct. 30.-The 1910
Olympics became an international
guessing game today because of an
announcement from Olympic head
quarters in Switzerland that they
might be transferred from Helsinki,
Finland, to Detroit.
Nobody could be sure what it was
all about, inasmuch as Finland still
is planning to hold the games and
Detroit has not asked for them
recently, and isn't sure it wants them
on such short notice
There perhaps has been no more
startling "communique' since Eu-
rope S war began than the proclama-
| ton of the International Olympic
Committee in Lausanne yesterday
that the 1910 games would be held
in Detroit if Finland renounced its
right to stage them.
The committees communioue said
all national Olympic committees had
been polled as to whether they
would send teams to Helsinki and
that if their replies were negative,
! as many were expected to be. Fin
land would renounce and clear the
way for removal of the Olympics to
the United States. where many of
the neutral nations were certain to
compete.
The CONSERVATION this caused was
something to behold.
"Some Mistake" Says Brundage.
! Avery Brundage. president of the
American Olympic Committee, re-
torted, There must be some mistake
The committee would not award the
! games to Detroit without consulting
us and we've heard nothing about it.
In Detroit Mayor Richard Reading.
with great civic enthusiasm, de-
clared his city would welcome the
games with open arms But his
own chairman of a committee to
obtain the Olympics in 1914, Frederic
c. Matthal, expressed surprise at
the action and added:
There isn't sufficient time to make
plans for a bang-up Olympaid. and
! a track meet without France, Great
Britain and Germany in the conten-
ton would not be much of an at
traction Finland has a tremendous
investment in the games and it may
they are not held
| Word of the International Com
mittee action reached Finland in the
middle of the night and no official
comment was forthcoming imme-
dlately. But it was pointed out that
preparations for the Olympics, July
20 to August 4, had gone forward
increasingly during the current crisis
between Finland and Russia.
Finland Ready to Garry On.
| When the games were moved to
Helsinki earlier this year from Japan
because of the undeclared Asiatlc
war, the city appropriated S2,500OO0
and the nation twice that amount
to promote the affair.
A stadium designed to seat $4,000,
with $4,000 permanent seats, is in
the last stages of construction. The
first apartment houses of the Olym-
pic village, intended to house 1000
athletes, have been completed and
others are being run up speedily.
Twenty-four apartment buildings
are in the group and four are de-
signed as permanent dwellings.
Only few days ago the Olympic
Committee of Finland announced
that of the many acceptances re-
ceived from foreign nations, not one
had been withdrawn as result of
the war.
The confusion surrounding the
games extends also to the winter
Olympics, which were given Switzer-
land after Japan's withdrawal, and
then passed along to Garmisch-
Partenkirchen, Germany, because no
skiing was to be on the program
Now they are expected to be aban-
doned entirely.
Firms Not Relinquishing.
BY the Associated Press.
HELSINKI, Oct. 30.-Erik Frenck-
oil vice MAYOR of HelSinki and head