NOTES AND COMMENTS

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 18084, 17 November 1924, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS

m-r'f' ■■ Confounding the Criticsi Onco again the victorious All Blacks have confounded and disappointed tho English critics. “The newspapers aro keenly discussing the Now Zealanders’ iirst game in London against, the Combined Counties,” tho cable messages from London tell us ibis morning, discussing tho prospects nt Saturday’s match, the day beture i.lio contest. “London critics express I.lio opinion that tho Home side will heat the All Blacks in the .scrums, hut tin. tackling and speed of the visitors are count or balancing i actors. J ml ua t ions/' tin.' message continued, “point to a soaked ground, on which tho critic., mould not ho surprised to soo tin; visitors beaten alter their close, escape in the mud against Cambridge.’’ Tho All !!lacks may not dazzle the spectators m every mulch, hip. ; he '-plemlid roi-ol lb- 1.l I lII' til'll • 'mM I hat ah icm .•!. lie b ‘ . • i.,. .1 opljolivli i - and make se-mc" •••'' - '-uiuiiotfc.

more difficult, the reports of the matches, principally notable ior their •meagroness and one-sidedness, very clearly indicate that the All Blacks* defence is almost impregnable in a slow gruelling contest. In every match where the New Zealanders’ score has been below ten points, their opponents have not been able to pierce the visitors’ defence; moreover sinoe the close shave” against Newport, in ti e early stages of the tour, the ‘New Zealanders have had only 35 points scored against them—and this in

twelve matches. Not only so, '-oit it might be claimed that unfavourable climatic conditions more than the calibre of their opponents have been and still nro the Homeland Rugby players’ best defence. “Double Blue” writing in “The Daily Mail” early in October, said: Nothing succeeds like success, and perhaps that is one of the chief reasons why the All Blacks go on from victory to victory. Then again they have the tradition of that great New Zealand side of 1905 to uphold them. The hour is not ripe for n genuine comparison between tlio present All Blacks and tiioso stalwarts who only capitulated once during their tour in that memorablo match with the strength of "Wales. This season’s players are in the adolescent stage of their tour,, when they are gradually blending themselves into a perfectly working machine. Like their pre-war brothers, they nre wonderful specimens of superb manhood, from the nineteen-vears-old hack, Nepia, to the brothers Brownlie, massive giants at forward. All the members of the pack are six feet or over, one of the Brownlies being six feet three, and it is a sheer delight to the eye of the true Rugby enthusiast- to watch these hefty men break away from the scrum or leap with remarkable agility to reach the ball from a lineout.

Eighteen matches have been played—andf won! Ten matches to play! Can the All Blacks vanquish the flower of English and Welsh Rugby football? If the Clerk of the "Weather favours the wearers of the Fern Leaf, arrd gives them fine weather and playable grounds for the remaining matches, the 1924 All Blacks should give the illustrious 1905 team a rare “go” to excel that wonderful record. Invariably the critics have shown themselves to be false prophets. “Wait until the All Blacks meet the Welsh teams,” they said. Then Cumberland was expected to give the visitors the fight of the early stages of the tour. The Irish Inernationals, the “Light Blues” oi Cambridge University,-.-.and then -the Midland Counties catching..them on a sodden ground were to vanquish the hitherto invincible All Blacks. Despite exasperating climatic conditions against Ireland, Cambridge University and in other matches, the All Blacks have maintained-their unbeaten

record much to the’discomfiture of t'.e critics.

* * *

Dominated, but not Dominator: In spite ,of Signor Mussolini’s possible good intentions and the delicate and difficult situation in which lie stands, the common-sense people cf Italy are beginning to realise that he is losing ground every day in the popular consideration, because lie appears not now as dominator but a* the dominated. The latest news from Rome indicates that the Opposition parties are refraining from attending the Chamber of Deputies and intend carrying out a boycott as a protest against the arioganee and intolerance of the Fascist majority and the viola' tiou of constitutional government in suppression of the people’s rights. Early ill October the famous historian Gaglielmo Ferrero made these observations in the Rome “Mondo”: The simple naked and terrible truth is this: The coup d’etat by which Parliament was humiliated | and g ggecl in October, 1922, and I from .toll many of inferior mind I exc i security" to come, on tlio | ..y paralysed the State which i already worn out by the war. . o have no Government any more, and we shall not get one so long as we proceed on present lines. . . . . The Fascist Government, whether it.will or not, is being dragged by tlio extremists toward the adventure of constitutional ‘reform.’ which, if put into effect, would mean the actual suppression of statutory liberties, the abolition of Parliament and tlie •setting-up of a regime more tyrannous than Russian Bolshevstn or the regime of the loung 'lurks before the war. It would mean also tlio end of unity in the nation and tlio removal of Italy from among the western Powers. j Signor Mussolini is discovering, as "Mr ] Ramsay Macdonald discovered to his j j discomfiture, that a political party which makes friends of extremists, ini variably discovers that tlio centre of j control shifts from the nominal head, j to irresponsible groups within the i partv. Mr Macdonald" repudiated | Gumimmism and denied lie was a Com- j muni-st ; bur. he fell because tlio people j of Britain mistrust a Government j which shows tenderness towards the • enemies of political' stability. - After! tlio emphatic promises made by Signal’ | Mussolini before the Chamber of Deputies, the Italian Senate, and the Nation that lie would have Lis party cleansed and normally restored in tlio country, the common-sense people of Italy, who overwhelmingly outnumber Fascism’s 900,000 Black Shirts, nre becoming restless and resentful under Signor Mussolini’s uncontrollable terrorists who indulge in the revolutionary boasts to “end the Liberal stnto and create an undisputed J Fascist regime.” But the creator of | the Black Shirts is menaced by the j evil forces with which ho has flirted. A | new phase has corno to view which J consists substantially of powerful pressure exerted by the Fascist extremists j over the outstanding figure of the I Italian Government. If ho surrenders, . as did Mr Macdonald, what then? H j lie does not, trie wild beast ho has . nurtured to servo him may break the leash and tear him to pieces! j