MAORI EXPLOITS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 45, 25 June 1947, Page 6

MAORI EXPLOITS

GOOD NATURED BANTER AT SERVICEMEN’S REUNION The exploits of the Maori Battalion, off the field of battle always come in for much good-natured banter whenever former members of the N.Z.E.F. foregather. Such was the case at a re-union of Maori ex-servicemen from Army, Navy and Air Force, resident in the Wellington-Wairarapa Districts, presided over by Colonel G. Dittmer, in Wellington recently, writes E. H. Nepia, in “The Kiwi.”

Former members of the Maori Battalion in this district and their friends may read what follows with special interest. Six former Commanding Officers were at the table, in Colonels Dittmer and Fairbrother, and Lieuten-ant-Colonels Baker, Bennett, Keiha, and Young. Colonel Dittmer cast a tempering influence on the proceedings, which produced some of the finest tributes ever paid to the Maori Battalion by men who lived, ate, and slept, with the Maoris during the long campaigns.

The, highlight of the evening was the impassioned reference by Captain Waipaina Te Awarau, to those comrades, who, by their supreme sacrifice, “are not able to be present with us here tonight in body. They will always, however, be with us in spirit.”

Maoris “Too Shrewd”

Lieut.-Colonel W. B. (“Sandy”) Thomas, punctuated his brief, but pointed speech with witticisms at the expense of ‘those brown pakehas who were always trying to put it across 23 Bn.” He touched a serious vein when he referred to the uncanny, close affinity which existed between the Maoris and 23 Bn. “For the life of me,” he said, “I cannot explain why such a brotherly fraternity permeated the relationship between the two Units. It was there and whatever we, or the Maoris did, could not break that spirit.” Brigadier A. (“Bull”) Hanson recounted his experiences with “these happy-go-lucky, couldn’t-be-discour-aged Maoris.” The Engineers, too, he said, had lost much livestock, and the accusing finger of suspicion always pointed fo the Maoris as the culprits. “They were too shrewd for us,” he added, “for they never left tell-tale evidences behind!” “The Best Hunters”

Major Bill Roach, of 21 Bn. verbally chastised the Maori Battalion for earning the reputation as the best hunters, whether in the animal world, or in the social sphere, in the Division. “We often envied our brown brethren for their well-fed corporations, which, I am sure, were not the results of Army M and V, or bully-beef rations. I am of the opinion that this fact must have given added weight to all their attacks,” he added amidst laughter. Captain Bill Haris, 22 Bn., recalled those early days when 28 and 22 stood side by side. There was a time in England when a whole beast disappeared from his platoon area, and he was certain that the choice piece of beef he saw roasting in a Maori Company fire, was not portion of the day’s rations. Major H. Crawford-Smith had to retaliate to the Maori good-natured jibes about the shortsightedness of some of his gunners, who couldn’t apparently distinguish between a Start Line, and an objective. “It is not our fault,” he reiterated, “you Maoris are always too anxious to go too far, more in search of loot, than of the enemy!” Air Force Was “Some Baby”

Sub-Lieut. Para Bennett brought the house down when he opened his speech thus: “On behalf of the Senior Service,” referring to the Navy. Flight-Lieutenant Wetere, however, countered him in a later speech, when he reminded the gathering that the Young Baby of the Services grew up in a campaign, and, though there wasn’t the tradition behind it as perhaps in the Navy, or the Army, yet none could gainsay the fact that the baby was not an infant any more, but a matured fighter, fit to take its place with the other arms of the Services.

Lieutenant-Colonel C. Bennett did not forget to remind those present that, now that the clouds of war had rolled past, and a glimmer of the blue was once more faintly appearing in the sky, two associations were watching over the interests of the returned men, the Returned Services Association, and the 2nd N.Z.E.F. Association. It was only right that men, who had banded together to fight against the common foe, should continue to do so, on the home front.