INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24636, 18 June 1941, Page 8

INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL

ARMY OFFICERS V. ITALIAN PRISONERS A LESSON IN DEMOCRACY (N.Z.E.F. Official News Service) CAIRO, Apl. 30. There was an enthusiastic crowd pressing on the sidelines, but they were not held back by the police and it was not a match for the Ranfurly Shield. It was something that would have made the Duce, leader of the nation of Fascists, who has so often spoken about Italian bayonets and what they can do. extremely angry, for it was an international fixture, at which only a limited number of Kalians could be present. Quite naturally more would have been welcome, for it was a game of football between the Italian prisoners and the Imperial officers attached to the staff of the camp. It might have been some small comfort to the leader of the blackshirts to see his side run out victors by a comfortable margin; but to see them learning the game of democracy would have made, him turn black with rage. One could not avoid, the impression that a big experiment was in progress that might eventually expand far beyond the high fences of a prison camp and bring some sense of proDortion ana fair play to a troubled worid. Certainly the enemy must be and will be beaten on the field of battle, but they may. also learn that other men who live in countries not under the 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 be left until the days of peace, Boys and young men who to-day, instead of enjoying the sun of their homeland of Italy are spending their lives in captivity are learning that democracy is not some form of weakness. Perhaps they had already come to that conclusion by the' very reason of their capture. But their time is not being wasted for they are coming to respect the ways of the freedomloving countries. They are - meeting men from the ends of the British EmDire and finding out for themselves thai these sons of liberty are very different from the derisive pictures painted bv the Nazi Propaganda Ministry Fascisti removed from interference oy their political leaders are learning things. For them the end of the war will mean that they will return io 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. For the moment they are better fed than if they were with their regiments; they are happy outside the strife nf war—this much they volunteer of their own free will But they are still in a prison camp and they cannot forget that, for the wire walls constantly remind them that they have failed tc overcome the Imperial forces. I' would be untrue to say that for them it is just a big picnic; but it would be equally untrue to say that, when they are released and return to their homes they will not remember what they have learned in this most unusual of all schools, for in its essence that is what this camp amounts to.