BATTERED CANTEEN
WITH MAORI TROOPS
Y.M.C.A. WORKER IN ACTION
The story of how the Maori Battalion of the N.Z.E.F. took its Y.M.C.A. canteen into action when it charged Rommel's troops was told in a cabled message last month. • The field secretary in charge of the canteen is an Aucklander, Mr. C. B. Bennet, who writes to the national secretary of the Y.M.C.A., Mr. R. M. Brasted, that the Maoris are enthusiastic over their canteen. "We were passing through Halfaya Pass a few hours after it had fallen," Mr. Bennet writes, "and the provost marshal stopped us and said we must wait until all the fighting transport had got through. A Maori replied, 'Ours is a fighting Y.M.C.A.' I wish the provost marshal had been in the places where this van has been, and had seen the cars travelling along that rough road that night looking for the Maori Battalion." Mr. Bennet states that when the Maori Battalion comes out of action he makes a free distribution of chocolate and biscuits. The Maoris declare that they intend to bring their battered canteen as a prize souvenir to New Zealand.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19430129.2.66
Bibliographic details
Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 24, 29 January 1943, Page 4
Word Count
188BATTERED CANTEEN Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 24, 29 January 1943, Page 4
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