Australian Prime Minister asks for Olympic boycott
Melbourne, Australia
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser said Tuesday he has asked his country's Olympic officials to boycott the Moscow Games if the Soviet Union does not withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. Australia has been adopting an increasingly tough stance over Soviet action in Afghanistan, cutting transport, fishing, cultural, and scientific links with the Kremlin.
Robert Muldoon, Prime Minister of New Zealand, announced Tuesday a wide range of measures against the Soviets for their intervention in Afghanistan. He is expelling the Wellington-based correspondent of the Soviet Novosti press agency and canceling fishing and other joint programs. Mr. Muldoon also says his government favors moving the Olympics from Moscow, even if they have to be postponed till 1981.
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher offered her country Tuesday as an alternative site of some of the Olympic events.