Sir Shridath Ramphal (Commonwealth Secretary General) decided that there needed to be a “convergence in point of view” (3). He organised a select weekend for the New Zealand Prime Minister and 4 other Commonwealth leaders at the Gleneagles Hotel, Scotland in 1977. He hoped that over the weekend attempts would be made “to clarify the Commonwealth position on sporting links with South Africa” to New Zealand Prime Minister Robert Muldoon in order to persuade him to stop the Springbok Tours planned until the end of the apartheid. Before attending, Ramphal had already drawn up a draft of an agreement. The agreement would mean that New Zealand would have to cut all sporting ties with South Africa which Muldoon resisted not wanting to commit to ending all such links. He suggested that by continuing to play rugby with South Africa would be good as they would “see how a country could have good race relations, and it would then willingly change its ways” (1) in what he called ‘bridge-building’. Muldoon negotiated the terms of the agreement so that he wouldn’t have to stop the Tours just ‘discourage’ the Rugby Union but ultimately it would be their choice as to whether Springbok Tours would continue or not. This was the Gleneagles Agreement. As New Zealand had no laws preventing sporting contact with South Africa at the time, the Agreement did not force the government to do anything. Many New Zealanders believed that although Muldoon showed that he attempted to prevent the Tours from taking place, he didn’t do everything within his power to stop them, which was what the Agreement meant saying “taking all practical steps”. This outraged many Kiwis who took to the streets to protest.
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