THE MAORI RACE
BATTALION TO BE FORMED
ONE WHITE TO COMMAND
(By Telegraph—Press Association.)
ROTORUA, September 19
An announcement has been made by Mr. A. F. Moncur, M.P., that authority has been given for the formation of a Maori battalion 600 strong. The force will probably be trained at Palmerston North. -;.
The authority is the culmination of long negotiation between the Government and representative Maori bodies, particularly the Te Arawa Maori Returned Soldiers' League. Endeavours to gain the sympathy of the Government, the Prime Minister, and the Chief of the General Staff, Major-Gen-eral J. E. Duigan, at first met with little success. The league maintained that it had the support of the Maoris of the Dominion and that precedent for the formation of such regiments was provided in the Ghurkas. It aimed at a battalion exclusively Maori, with the exception of the officer commanding, as it did not wish to lose identity. A total of 400 members of the Arawa confederacy had signified that they would join. These are already training.
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Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 70, 20 September 1939, Page 15
Word Count
171THE MAORI RACE Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 70, 20 September 1939, Page 15
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