SOCCER.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 30 August 1924, Page 11

SOCCER.

The visit of the Chinese team of soccer footballers to Hamilton (says the Times) is an event of the past,

and we think it will be freely admitted that the reputation whic-li they had established prior to their arrival was fully inaintained, if not enhanced, during their stay in our town. They deported themselves as gentlemen should when off the field, and in the men a They proved themselves sportsmen. They put up an excellent tight, they played cleanly, and they strove Lo win, but they dir 1 not whine because victory . did not come their way, and they won the respect, and goodwill of the immense' crowd which assembled to watch them. The dinner given in llieir honour by their countrymen residing in Hamilton on Tuesday night, to which representative men were invited, proved a pleasant function, and it afforded evidence to the visitors that the restriction which the Dominion places upon the ingress of their countrymen to New Zealand are not based on race prejudice or the conviction that they are an inferior people, but upon grounds which they, as observant students, will probably be able to appreciate when they compare and contrast .the living conditions of the mass of the people in the respective- countries. Writing of the second test, the Times says it was the finest- performance that the Chinese team has pul up. and with a little less had luck rather than a little luck, they would have won by at least two clear goals. There were from ten to eleven thousand spectators, but after the display they gave on Saturday, if it should lie necessary to play another test in Wellington at the close of the tour the attendance would probably be double.