<P> The 1930 British Empire Games were the first of what later become known as the Commonwealth Games, and were held in Hamilton, in the province of Ontario in Canada from August 16--23, 1930 . In 1928, Melville Marks Robinson of Canada was asked to organise the first British Empire Games . Eleven countries sent a total of 400 athletes to the Hamilton Games . The opening and closing ceremonies as well as athletics took place at Civic Stadium . The participant nations were Australia, Bermuda, British Guyana, Canada, England, Northern Ireland, Newfoundland, New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa and Wales . The Hamilton Games featured six sports: athletics, boxing, lawn bowls, rowing, swimming and diving and wrestling and ran at a cost of $97,973 . Women competed in only the aquatic events . Canadian triple jumper Gordon Smallacombe won the first ever gold medal in the history of the Games . </P> <P> The 1934 British Empire Games were the second of what is now known as the Commonwealth Games, held in London, England . The host city was London, with the main venue at Wembley Park, although the track cycling events were in Manchester . The 1934 Games had originally been awarded to Johannesburg, but were given to London instead because of the potential for prejudiced treatment of black and Asian athletes in South Africa . Seventeen national teams took part, including the Irish Free State (the only Games in which they did take part) and new participants Hong Kong, India, Jamaica, Southern Rhodesia and Trinidad and Tobago . </P> <P> The 1938 British Empire Games was the third British Empire Games, which were held in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia . They were timed to coincide with Sydney's sesqui - centenary (150 years since the foundation of British settlement in Australia). Held in the southern hemisphere for the first time, the III Games opening ceremony took place at the famed Sydney Cricket Ground in front of 40,000 spectators . Fifteen nations participated down under at the Sydney Games involving a total of 464 athletes and 43 officials . Fiji and Ceylon made their debuts . Seven sports were featured in the Sydney Games--athletics, boxing, cycling, lawn bowls, rowing, swimming and diving and wrestling . </P> <P> The 1950 British Empire Games was the fourth edition and was held in Auckland, New Zealand after a 12 - year gap from the 3rd edition of the games . The fourth games were originally awarded to Montreal, Canada and were to be held in 1942 but were cancelled due to World War II . The opening ceremony at Eden Park was attended by 40,000 spectators, whilst nearly 250,000 people attended the Auckland Games . Twelve countries sent a total of 590 athletes to Auckland . Malaya and Nigeria made their first appearances . </P>

Discuss the significance of the commonwealth games for south africa