CHANGING IDEAS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23994, 18 June 1941, Page 8

CHANGING IDEAS

LEARNING DEMOCRACY ITALIAN WAR PRISONERS (N.Z.E.F. Official News Service) CAIRO, April UO A football match between Italian prisoners and the Imperial officers attached to the staff of the camp resulted in the vanquished running out victors by a comfortable margin. Oho could not avoid the impression that a big experiment was in progress which might eventually expand far beyond the high fences of a prison camp and bring some sense of proportion and fair play to a troubled world. Certainly the enemy must be beaten on the field til battle, but they may also learn that other men who live in countries not under tho shadow of the Roman or German Eagles are human beings ready to play with them and enjoy the good things of life, which are in abundance for everyone. The first lesson can be learned only on the battleground, but the second need not In; left until the days of peace. Boys and young men who to-day are spending their lives in captivity are learning that democracy is not some form of weakness. They are coining to respect the ways of the freedom-loving countries. They are meeting men from the ends of the British Empire and finding out for themselves that those sons of liberty are very different from the derisive pictures painted by tho Nazi Propaganda Ministry. Fascisti removed from interference by their political leaders are learning things. For them the end of the war will mean that they will return to their country after the closest contact with the men of the democratic races to' find a ruin of totalitarian institutions, and they will have the problem of having to put something in their place. When they are released and return to their homes they will remember what they have learned in this most unusual of schools, for in its essence that is what this camp amounts to.