Manawatu Evening Standard. MONDAY, MARCH 21, 1938. THE NEXT OLYMPIAD.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 95, 21 March 1938, Page 8

Manawatu Evening Standard. MONDAY, MARCH 21, 1938. THE NEXT OLYMPIAD.

The Council of the International Olympic Federation lias decided in a common-sense manner to hold the 1940 Games at Tokio. The question of what support the Western nations will give is an entirely different matter. For the Council to have acted otherwise would have been accepted by the Japanese people as an insult, and the breach between Japan and some leading Western Powers would have been widened. The Japanese who have developed a remarkable keenness for sports have in no way disguised their enthusiasm since the Games were allotted to them two years ago. The president of the Amateur Athletic Association immediately paid homage at a national shrine “to report Japan’s success ami to express gratitude.” The municipal authorities of Tokio expressed their pleasure in a celebration with a lantern procession. The decision was also made that the Games should be held not only for the sake of sport, but also to have “those foreigners who come to Japan understand the actual state of things in .lapan, paying regard to the promotion of Japan’s national spirit and to the introduction of Japanese culture, on the occasion of the 2600th anniversary of the founding of the Empire.” “In view of the true objects of the Olympics,” read another resolution, “we should respect simplicity, avoid frivolity, and strengthen the esprit de corps of the participants and benefit the younger generation in mind and body.” Preparations were then set in train for the holding of the Games in 1940. Since then, however, Japan has embarked upon her war of aggression in China, and several nations have thought that she might wish to cancel the Games. Japan, however, regards the war as of little account and is determined to hold the Olympiad. In the circumstances the Federation felt it could not depart from the charter given in 1936.

However much other nations deplore—and rightly so—the ruthless invasion of China by a powerful military machine, the brutal massacre of innocent people, and destruction of great cities, and admire the very gallant resistance of the Chinese armies and the stoical determination of the people to fight to the end, Japan is at peace with the rest of the world, and she had the right to say whether she still desired to hold the Games. Hut the question of support from other countries is a very different matter. The English Amateur Association inclines to the view that there will be little support from Britain. A similar opinion has been expressed in the United States and in other ath-

letic countries. Moreover, nccording to a British view, “many clubs are taking the line that the Games have ceased to fulfil their original purpose and should be discontinued. They have come to be regarded as a gigantic advertisement \for the promoting countiy. Some competitors are trained at the public expense to maintain the national rather than the sporting reputation of their country.” The truth of this assertion cannot be denied, and it might very well be said that Japan is more keenly desirous of staging the Games to win greater national prestige than of promoting the ideals of sportsmanship. But 1940 is still some distance away. The war in China drags on and Japan is being economically ruined by the drain on her resources to maintain a vast army in the field and to consolidate her gains. The end is not yet in sight, and China is determined to resist the invader to the very ritmost of her power, keenly conscious that time is on her side. In Europe there is the gravest tension, and unless flie world becomes more settled within the next eighteen months the 1940 Olympiad has few hopes of success.