Section 2. Olympics.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I declare the meeting open and I take it you all have a copy of the agenda, so we'll take the minutes of our last meeting as read and get straight down to business.
Now, the proposal before you is that we should see if we can reduce the size of the Olympics Games in any way and thereby ease the burden placed on the host city.
We all know that each time we hold the Games this burden increases because of the vast undertaking it is to host them.
Today, however, I only want to sound out your opinion of this proposal, so this is really no more than an exploratory meeting.
Could I say something straight away, Mr Chairman? Yes, Mrs Armstrong.
I can't accept your proposal at all on the grounds that I feel that to reduce the size of the Olympic Games would seriously damage their character, detract from their universal appeal and penalize certain countries if we start arbitrarily throwing things out before...
Yes, Mrs Armstrong, if I may interrupt you for a moment.
I think we all sympathize with your point of view, but we mustn't overlook the main point of these meeting put forward by the chairman, which is to see if we can cut down the programme a bit, without in any way damaging the overall appeal of the Games, so let's not reject the proposal out of hand before we've had a chance to discuss it.
Very well, Herr Muller. But I'd like to state here and now that I'm totally opposed to any reduction in the number of events in the Games.