FOOTBALL IN CHINA

TEAM MAY VISIT NEW ZEALAND
AMATEUR GAME. WELL DEVELOPED.

AUCKLAND, .This Day. There ia a prospect of a team of Chinese Rugby footballers from Hong Kong touring the Dominion next season. Efforts are now being made-to arrange for the team to play a series of games in both New Zealand and Australia. The project is more or less "in the air" at present, but it is stated that an emissary from New Zealand ia in Sydney negotiating with the New, South Wales Rugby League authorities with the object of arranging the tour. As far as can be ascertained, no basis has been established for carrying out the tour in New Zealand, but if the negotiations with the New South Wales authorities axe satisfactorily concluded, no doubt details of the scheme will be submitted to the New Zealand League.
In the discussion on the proposal, Mr Clement Ah Chee who recently returned from a visit to China, stated that he understood the arrangements for the tour were now being made. The team would play under League rules. Asked to express an opinion as to the standard of football in China, Mr.Ah Chee said the teams he saw in Hong Kong played a fast game, very similar, he thought, to that of the Australian League players. The players, were mostly students and young fellows engaged in office work and associated with >the V.M.C.A. The Rugby footballer of Hong Jtong, he added, had already demonstrated their prowess on foreign fields. One team had successfully toured California, and another had visited the Straits Settlement and played a series of matches. Both these teams had been so successful that' the football authorities of Hong Kong were anxious to match their champions against the players of the British Dominions, who were recognised as the best exponents of a worthy code. He did not think there would be much difficulty in arranging the tour.
The Chinese players would, Mr Ah Chee thought, compare favourably with the New Zealand footballers in phjsique. Some of the backs he had seen playing were perhaps a shade on the light side, but they were fast and tricky, and had cultivated the passing game to a high standard. Football in Hong Kong was purely on an amateur basis,S*and was played as a recreation, and not as .a business.' The young men who played the game were of good standing, and belonged to an advanced school of Chinese who had assimilated the most progressive ideas of western civilisation. Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 87, 10 October 1922, Page 8