Issue 8 – Monday 7 August
Desperately seeking missing flags
Arthur Rowland, V33
In the past two days, campers across the site have woken up to missing flags and, in one case, a broken flagpole. The whereabouts of most flags are unknown.
Austrian delegations have been accused of stealing the flags because of a traditional game, where villagers must submit to a forfeit to reclaim their flag. The rules of the game demand that flags and ropes are not be cut, and that notes be left for the village in question so that they know what has happened. However, flags have been cut away from flagpoles with no explanation as to where the flags have gone.
The Austrian delegation in V29 says it has abided by the rules of the game, taking 13 flags in total. At the time of writing it has returned at least four of these. It also left a note with the information desk. Kevin Lowe of V29 speculated that the Austrians may feel a little bit excluded from the rest of Global Village because of the village's location and that this might be a nice way to make new friends.
Some angry V9 members retaliated by taking the Austrians' flag from inside their tent, something which is against the rules of the game.
Lithuanian and Woodcraft Folk flags were taken from V19, but they were not with the V29 delegation, suggesting other unknown thieves. Joe Davies from V19 said he thinks it is "a horrible game". Many of the Austrian delegations were in London on Sunday.
If anyone has any information regarding stolen flags or wants to know about theirs please contact the information point.