ITALY: Fitting Fig Leaves

Surly Roman stonemasons spent the week in “dressing” with colossal fig leaves 70 nude statues of young men, each in an athletic attitude and all some 25 ft. tall. Pope Pius XI was said by Fascist officials to have suggested the fig leaves, since the 70 virile statues adorn the upper rim of a new Roman Stadium which will be used not only by Italian sportsmen but also by Italian sportswomen. To open the stadium on Italy’s Armistice Day last week, Il Duce approached with quick strides a monstrous object 55 ft. tall, swathed in bunting and sprouting upward from a base of equal height. Pulling the ripcord, Italy’s Dictator revealed a 300-ton obelisk of Carrara marble embellished with no inscription except nine letters in high relief—MUSSOLINI. Apropos a gymnastic exhibition by both sexes which next took place in the stadium, Signer Leonardo Arpinati, Undersecretary of Interior and head of the Italian Olympic Committee, revealed last week the result of experiments at Bologna by Italian doctors on Italian sportswomen. “Our investigations have proved,” said Signer Arpinati, ”that sports do have a beneficial effect on woman’s physique. The sportswoman, however, should not attempt such things as the discus throw. She should not take part in any contest likely to injure her beauty.

“Our investigations show that those few Italian girls who have practiced sports on a considerable scale and have married have given birth to the normal number of children, and both these and the mothers are exceptionally robust and healthy. Women shut up in houses and removed from all responsibilities of individual life are not conceivable in our time.”

Because such women were conceivable to Signer Arpinati a few months ago, he barred Italian females from competing for their country in the Los Angeles Olympics (TIME, Aug. 8 et seq.).