THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS WEDNESDAY, MAY 30, 1928. TOUR OF THE ALL BLACKS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19959, 30 May 1928, Page 10

THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS WEDNESDAY, MAY 30, 1928. TOUR OF THE ALL BLACKS.

The New Zealand Rugby football team opens its tour of South Africa with the match to be played to-day. The account of its arrival and almost triumphal progress from Durban to Capetown shows that there is at least one other country where interest in this football code is as keen and general as in New Zealand. Each side realises .that a high athletic honour is at stake in the tour, especially in the test matches to be played. New Zealand, with an unequalled record of successes in international football, has a great reputation to uphold. For South Africa there is the opportunity of doing what many other countries have tried in vain to do, lowering the colours of the redoubtable All Blacks. Those two elements in the position explain the excitement and the fever-heated interest with which the New Zealanders have been received. To those whose memories can carry them back so far, it is a striking contrast to the manner in which the original All Blacks began the tour which established New Zealand's football fame. The team landed in England almost unheralded. The first few matches were played in an atmosphere of lukewarm interest. The New Zealanders had not long taken the field when the ease with which they disposed of all opponents, the huge scores they made in their earlier matches, awakened realisation that a new athletic force had appeared over the horizon. Since that day there has been no chance of a Rugby football team entitled to the name All Black appearing in any country where the game is established without its arrival being noticed. The welcome in South Africa is only typical of what would occur in any country interested in football. The position as between New Zealand and South Africa is an interesting one. The players of the Union are recognised as no mean antagonists in any international event. They, too, in tours of Britain, have had striking successes, even if their record is not quite equal to that of New Zealand. Some seven years ago a South African team toured this Dominion. On actual results of the play, honours were even. There were three test matches, of which each country won one, the third being drawn. In spite of formal results, candid critics of the game considered New Zealand lucky not to'have lost the rubber. It can be pleaded, with some justification, that the South African visit came at a lean time for players of true international calibre. Few would contend that the Dominion team then put in the field was equal to the combination that subsequently toured England. Allowing so much, granting that the standard has risen since, it does not follow that an easy victory over South Africa now can be expected. It was abundantly proved then that the Union could produce players whose weight, pace, elusiveness and knowledge of Rugby tactics entitled them to the respect of any international team ever fielded. It cannot be assumed that the game has deteriorated in South Africa since, or that it has even stood still. New Zealand has no right to assume itself to have been the only country making progress since the last meeting with South Africa. Certainly the All Blacks have had the great advantage of a European tour since then, and its lessons are still fresh. Judging by the qualities of the South Africans who played during the New Zealand tour the experience thus gained will not come amiss when the test matches are played. Finally, lest it be thought the All Blacks have all the advantages in this way, let it be remembered they now meet the South Africans in Africa, under African conditions. This is a factor to be counted seriously before anyone concludes that victory New Zealand is a foregone conclusion. Naturally New Zealand wants to see the All Blacka win as often as possible, and to return, if possible, as from the last international tour, with an unbroken series of victories. South Africa, just as naturally, wants to see the reverse happen, or at least, wishes whole-heartedly for victory in the test matches. There would not bo much point in Rugby football, of all games, if it were played in any spirit but one of whole-hearted enthusiasm for victory. It must not be forgotten that there is more in these international visits, however, than the mere winning of games. The good they do in promoting friendship and understanding between the countries engaged has been quoted again and again, until there is little left to be said about it. Apart from that possibility of good as a general circumstance, football is a very useful point of contact between South Africa and New Zealand in particular. The two countries tend to be remote from one another. New Zealand is a near neighbour of Australia, and the two necessarily stand in close relationship. Canada is on the most important traffic route from this Dominion to Great Britain. There is no similar connecting link with South Africa. Some New Zealanders on their travels do journey bv the Cape of Good Hope, but ocean traffic is not a very evident link. It is no exaggeration to say that the exchange of football teams has made the Union and Dominion more conscious of one another as fellow members of the Empire than any other relationship for years past. The present visit carries the process one stage further, and from that viewpoint it is to be hoped the tour will leave guests and hosts with pleaßant memories, whatever the results when New Zealanders and South Africans meet on the football field.

LEAGUE OF NATIONS UNION. At the annual conference of the Dominion Council of the League of Nations Union there has been emphasised the desirability of spreading knowledge of the principles and work of the League. There is certainly a great need for this. In spite of the fact that the League has frequent public mention, there is evident much ignorance about it. Often it is confused with the League of Nations Union. It was a member of a Dominion branch council of the Union who declared not long ago that it took a keen analytical mind to distinguish between the League and the Union. After that, anything in the way of ignorant speech about the League seems possible. The idea of including in school teaching facts about the League is excellent. This would not entail more than the acquisition of a little accurate knowledge by teachers; and literature on the subject, most of it in a very simple and handy form, is abundant. Probably, some teaching of the kind is already given, as it is quite impossible, for example, to give an intelligible account of recent changes in the map of Europe without reference to the past and present operations of the League. That there is a cognate need among adult citizens is also apparent. The present insignificant membership of the Union —2340 members in the Dominion is a confession of failure on the part of the Union —cannot be due to lack of sympathy with its objects. No cause to-day is making so wide and deep an appeal as that of international peace. To make this interest not merely vocal, but intelligently vocal, is the obvious task of the Union, and it could wish for no better. It has attempted the task, but it has a long way to go before the claim can be made that it has fulfilled the task. It is to be hoped that the Union's coming year will see more effective work done.