GISBORNE PROTEST.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 263, 7 November 1939, Page 9

GISBORNE PROTEST.

SENT TO ADVISORY BOARD

PAKEHA OFFICERS NOT WANTED. (By Telegraph—Own Correspondent.) GISBORNE, this day. A strong protest is to be sent to Sir Apiraua Ngata, M P., from a Gisborne meeting which considered the possibility of the appointment of European officers to company command* in the Maori Battalion.

The following motion was approved for transmission to the Maori Advisory Hoard, which is assisting tho Army Council in forming native corps:—"This meeting of elders and returned soldiers of Gisborne and East Coaat districts vigorously and unanimously op)K>ses the .principle represented by the Army Council's invitation to pakeha officers to apply for appointment to the Maori Battalion. When we offered to the Government the services of the Maori people wo asfked for the privilege of serving on an equal footing in all respects with our pakeha brothers. To-day we are faced with a decision by the Army Council, which appears likely to affect the prospects of Maoris officering their own battalion. We concede that it may be desirable to use pakeha officers in tho initial training of the Maori battalion, but protest against any policy which will stand in the way of Maori officers qualifying for the command of companies or for other posts in the corps for which they possess the , necessary training."