FEMALE FASCISTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 389, 25 June 1928, Page 9

FEMALE FASCISTS

MODERN AMAZONS OF ITALY j Tile announcement that Fascism was organising Italian girls from the | ages of 13 to 18 into athletes and ama- | z ons fell on deaf ears. Now that the ! first groups of the Advance-Guard of | Fascist girls are actually arriving in Rome this week, armed with rifles, I and are to give a display of their prowess in the new stadium, incredulity has turned to disapproval, says the Rome correspondent of the London “Observer.” The Vatican organ, “L’Osservatore Romano,” condemns “feminine ideals hung on a rifle,” and reminds the faithful that even Roman paganism did j not conceive the idea of “armed j womanhood.” I This new type of Italian girl in the ! making has been given a decalogue for her guidance, which lays stress on dis- ! eipline and the duty of service to ; Italy. One of the girl Fascist's first duties | is “to love the Duce, who has made Italy stronger and greater.” The Papal Press not only deplores that these commandments should not be preceded by the maxim of the Divine Decalogue itself, without which there can be no efficacious education, but ! that a public display of leaping and jumping, of javelin-throwing and shooting should take place in a stadium. Signor Turatti, the SecretaryGeneral of the Fascist Party, anticipating criticism, announces in the preface of the set of rules for the com- | petition, that “the female Fascists will answer all protests and murmurs by pointing their rifles toward ths j Sky of Italy.”