MAORI SOLDIERS

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 128, 3 June 1919, Page 11

MAORI SOLDIERS

THE PIONEER BATTALION

GENERAL RUSSELL'S AY- ■ PRECIATION.

Tlie Minister of Defence (Sir James Allen) has received from General Sir A. H. Russell, who commanded the New Zealand Division in France, s, letter conveying his high appreciation of the services rendered by the Maori Pioneer Battalion. Both as fighting men and as Pioneers they won high praises, and this recognition of their fine qualities will be a matter for pride not only among their own people, but among the pakehas of New Zealand, showing how well the Native race co-operated with the European in a time of great national emergency. Sir James Allen has had the Divisional Commander's letter translated into Maori, and published in the Ka-hiti, the Maori Gazette, which is widely circulated among the Natives. It is as follows: — " France, ' "11th March, 1919. "Dear Sir James,—l have just heard that the Maori Pioneer Battalion is on the eve of embarking on their return to New Zealand. • '■' Having had the honour and good fortune to have the Maoris under my command, both as the Maori Contingent on GallipoK and later in France as the 'Pioneer Battalion of the Mew Zealand Division, I should like to express my appreciation, which I know is shared by all ranks of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, of the fine qualities shown by the Maoris during the war. On Gallrjioli^ when they took a. full share in the initial operations on thp. 6th August, 1915, in the battle of Ch'nmik Bair, and later in the fighting on Hill 60, the Maoris proved themselves true descendants of those fighting tribes from which they are descended. In France then- work as Pioneers may not have been as dramatic, and therefore perhaps not so easily recognised by the public. But those of us who have benefited by the work dene by the Pioneer Battalion —-not only on the Somme in 1916, at Messines, at Ypres, and on the battlefields of 1918, but also during the monotonous months of trench warfare—will readily acknowledge the debt we owe. to the battalion. I am not going too far when I say that their work on communication trenches and in the preparation of defence lines'has saved the division many lives, and this work was carried out under conditions. so arduous and as dangerous an any other duty which soldiers are called on to perform, while their opportunities for rest and relief were less than is the case with infantry in the line, except during a battle. ■ _ "'Right through their period of active . service the Maoris have shown themselves brave, well-disciplined, aoid in a very marked degree of that cheerful and willing spirit which goes so far towards the making of a, good soldier. ,1 am confident that I speak for the whole division when I say we are proud of the Maoris as our country men and as brothers in arms. "I hope you -will convey this appreciation of the services rendered by the Maoris in the war to their representa-' trees." x