MAORI BATTALION
UNIT TO BE FORMED FORCE GOO STRONG SITOESK OF NEGOTIATIONS TRAINING AT PALMERSTON (Por Press Association.) ROTORUA, this day. The announcement was made yesterday by Mr A. F. Moncur. M.P., that authority had been given for the formation of a Maori battalion of GOO strong. The force will probably be trained at Palmerston North. The authority is the culmination of months of negotiation between the Government and representative Maori bodies, particularly the To Arnwa Maori Returned Soldiers’ League.
An endeavour to gain the sympathy of the Government, the Prime Minister and the Chief of the General Stall. Major-General J. E. Duigan, met with litlio success. The league maintained that it had the support of the Maoris of the Dominion and that there was a precedent for the formation ol such regiments in the Ghurkas. It aimed at the formation ol a battalion exclusively of Maoris, with the exception of the officer commanding, as it ■did not wish to lose its identity. Four hundred members of the Arawa confederacy have signified they would join those already training.
Already the Arawa tribe alone has over 400 applications for enlistment, but it is probable that only a portion of these will be passed as fit for service. Other Maori tribes in the Dominion will also provide their quota.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/GISH19390920.2.89
Bibliographic details
Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20047, 20 September 1939, Page 9
Word Count
217MAORI BATTALION Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20047, 20 September 1939, Page 9
Using This Item
The Gisborne Herald Company is the copyright owner for the Gisborne Herald. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of the Gisborne Herald Company. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in