Britain's Sporting Prestige
Britain's Sporting Prestige is an article published in the Weekly Dispatch on 16 march 1913.
Britain's Sporting Prestige
New Procedure for Berlin Olympic Games.
"VETO" BOARD.
Purity of Amateur Sport and a National Fund.
Provided the public respond, a super-human effort is to be made by the athletes of this country to sustain British prestige at the Olympic Games is Berlin in 1916. Already a new committee has been formed, and the following official statement has now been issued:— It has been decided to constitute a "Special Committee for the Olympic Games of Berlin," composed in equal proportions of members and non-members of the British Olympic Council, which shall be charged with the control of the financial arrangements connected with the British preparations. The first task was to complete this new committee. It is hoped that the names finally adopted will command the complete confidence of the public. They are:
- Chairman ... J. F. K. Studd.
- A. E. D. Anderson.
- B. J. T. Bosanquet.
- T. A. Cook.
- E. Mackey Edgar.
- P. L. Fisher.
- J. C. Hurd.
- G. S. Robertson.
- H. W. Forster, M.P.
- Sir A. Conan Doyle
Famous Athletes on Committee
Of these, the chairman, apart from his fame as a cricketer, has had very considerable administrative experience as president and chairman of the Polytechnic, and will be generally regarded as singularly qualified to preside over the work which the new committee will have to undertake. Mr. Fisher and Mr. Hurd are the honorary secretary and ex-honorary secretary respectively of the Amateur Athletic Association and of the Amateur Swimming Association. Mr. Forster and Mr. Bosanquet are well known as all-round sportsmen, representing the best amateur traditions. Mr. Robertson has been associated either as a competitor or judge with many Olympic, Games. He was the first to revive the art of hammer-throwing at Oxford and is the honorary legal adviser of the council. Mr. Edgar, though associated with amateur sport, is present as the financial adviser of the committee. Mr. Cook is editor of the field, has captained an Olympic fencing team, and is a British representative on the International Olympic Committee. Mr. A. E. D. Anderson represents track athletics. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who has given much time and work to the forming of the new organisation, will serve upon it for at least a year. One other member will be shortly nominated.
Complete Veto.
It is now necessary to define the functions of the "Special Committee for the Olympic Games of Berlin." The chief function is that they shall be trustees of the public fund, that no portion of that fund can be spent without their assent and no measures involving an expenditure from the public fund can be adopted except upon their recommendation. Each branch of sport in this country is self-governing. Each makes its own arrangement for the Olympic contests. But where in those arrangements extra money is needed it has to come to the British Olympic Council for the means to carry out its scheme, and the British Olympic Council must refer the application to the "Special Committee," without whose consent no grant can be made. Thus the committee has a practical veto upon everything that is done, and the public has a guarantee that whatever sum it may subscribe will be expended to the utmost advantage.
