OVERSEAS SERVICE
UNCONDITIONAL OFFER ARAWA MAORIS’ DECISION The action of North Auckland Maoris in carrying a resolution opposing conscription and asking that the Maori battalion should be reserved for home defence only was protested against at a large meeting of Arawa Maoris in Rotorua.
The meeting carried a resolution stating that so far as the Arawas were concerned they made an unconditional offer of man and' woman-power wherever the greatest danger threatened, and that in the opinion of the meeting that danger point was “not in New Zealand, hut beyond the shores of the great ocean Kiwa, the sacred pathway of our ancestors in the misty past, and later of their descendants in their journey to the heights of Gallipoli and the plains of Flanders, where the spirit of their comrades who never returned now beckon# them to hurry.” The resolution concluded: ‘Let others hesitate in this, our extreme hour of peril and need, but the spirit of the Arawa and associate tribes throughout Aotearoa flames at the deeds of wanton aggression, and demands that they again be allowed to cross the seas to stand shoulder to shoulder with their white ‘brothers, sharing with them equality of sacrifice in defending the same ideals they fought for 25 years ago. The text of the resolution has been sent to the acting-Prime Minister, the Hon. P. Fraser.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/GISH19390919.2.36
Bibliographic details
Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20046, 19 September 1939, Page 4
Word Count
225OVERSEAS SERVICE Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20046, 19 September 1939, Page 4
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