POLITICIANS ON THE RUN

Kaikoura Star, Volume LVI, Issue 96, 7 December 1936, Page 4

POLITICIANS ON THE RUN

Physical fitness has many aspects (says the Evening Post). The country that holds the running and walking records for the time being may not be the country which possesses the greatest number of competent runners and walkers; for there, is no necessary connection between average athletic efficiency in a people and record breaking. Excessive athletics may “burn out” the exceptional man: but an athletic life properly pursued means a healthy and efficient middle age. Possibly one of the brighest things that Signor Mussolini has done is to try it out on his deputies. He put 409 into formation nine abreast and led them through Rome “at the .brisk running walk of the Bersaglicri, ” after which “tinpanting politicians” wore able to sing the Fascist song “Giovanezza,” a proof that they are not burned out, but sound in limb and wind. This is a challenge that the Moscow Cabinet and the Comintern can hardly afford to disregard. They should recognise that a great principle is at stake. The era of mental tests in schools and of physical tests in politics seems to be definitely at hand, and that appears to be about as far as we can go at present.