The British Amateur Athletic Association at its annual convention here left the way open for withdrawal from the Berlin Olympics next Summer. A resolution urging withdrawal, offered by the National Workers Sports Association, representing 3,000,000 members, was neither rejected nor accepted by the convention. Instead, the E.A.A.A. at its session Saturday night offered to call a special meeting within two months to consider the question of participation in the games, if the National Workers Sports Association so desired.
In introducing the motion for withdrawal on the ground that the Olympic spirit would not be forwarded by participation, H. Helvin, chairman of the N.W.S.A., emphasized that sports were being used by the Nazis for military purposes and participation was limited to Nazis.
“If the Amateur Athletic Association is participating,” Mr. Helvin stated, “it will send members under its banner who are not wanted under the German banner. It will also condone all that has happened against the true spirit of sport in Germany.”
The convention, under the chairmanship of Lord Besborough, displayed great sympathy with the position of the Jewish athletes in Germany.
After several speakers had expressed their repugnance of the Nazi’s racial animosity, H. Abrahams, a famous sprinter, urged participation in the highest interests of sport. Explaining his stand, Mr. Abrahams declared he favored participation although “as an Englishmen and a Jew, I have no illusion on the position of Germany. If I had been born there, knowing myself as I do, I don’t think I should be alive today.”
After Lord Burghley, famous hurdler, had reiterated Germany’s guarantee that Jews would be allowed to participate in the games, Lord Besborough suggested that it was inadvisable in the present political juncture to deal with so important a motion. Upon motion of the secretary of the A.A.A., the resolution was withdrawn for discussion at a special meeting.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
