Congress Hears Proposals That Soviet Union, Poland Be Barred from Olympics

Proposals that the Soviet Union and Poland be barred from participation in the Summer Olympic Games in Mexico because of their practice of discrimination against the Jews received a sympathetic ear in the House of Representatives where they were made.

Rep. Jack McDonald, Michigan Republican, who noted that the Soviet Union had voted to bar South Africa from the Games because of its racial policies, told the House that the International Olympic Committee should bar the Soviet Union because of its “systematic strangulation of the Jewish religion and culture.” He asked: “Is Russia’s long record of persecution of members of the Jewish religion less obnoxious than South Africa’s policy toward its black people?” Rep. Seymour Halpern, New York Republican, proposed later that Poland should be barred from the Games because “the systematic campaign of the Polish Government against the Jewish inhabitants of Poland is a flagrant example of racism.”