COMPLAINTS DENIED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20635, 10 December 1941, Page 3

COMPLAINTS DENIED

PATRIOTIC COMFORTS MAORI BATTALION (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. Complaints of discrimination against the Maori Battalion in the distribution of patriotic comforts and in provision for their general well-being, made some weeks ago in the East Coast district, are categorically answered in a letter received from the officer commanding the battalion, LieutenantColonel G. Dittmer. who since has been wounded in the Libyan campaign. The complaints, says Colonel Dittmer, were presumably made by an ex-officer of the battalion. “The battalion,” he says, “completely dissociates itself from the statements that have been made. We are one and all extremely sorry for what has happened. In view of the favourable treatment we have received, we never thought it possible for such a thing to come about. If there was the slightest foundation for such statements, we possibly would not be feeling so distressed over what has taken place.”

Copies of correspondence received by the National Patriotic Fund Board from Brigadier J. Hargest and Lieutenant-Colonel Dittmer on the subject of the distribution of gifts and the provision of welfare facilities to the Maori Battalion have been forwarded to the East Coast Provincial Patriotic Council. The letters take the form of comment on complaints attributed to Lieutenant W. Ngata. a returned officer of the battalion. that discrimination against the Maori Battalion had been practiced in the distribution of parcels and facilities for relaxation.

Lieutenant Ngata’s allegations have had a seriously disrupting effect upon the co-operation of Maori residents of the East Coast in all patriotic endeavour. .Both Brigadier Hargest and Lieutenant-Colonel Dittmer, however, characterise them as quite unfounded, and cite instances in which the Maori Battalion received better treatment than the European battalions. “We are proud to have the battalion included in our brigade,” wrote Brigadier Hargest. “The men behave well in camp and fight well in battle; and there is no more popular unit in the division. They are commanded by a very capable officer, who would be the first to resent anything savouring of discrimination against the men of his command.”