MOW FORGOTTEN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21899, 18 December 1945, Page 4

MOW FORGOTTEN

RETURNED MEN

MUST PULL TOGETHER

MAORI AND PAKEHA

The servicemen who fought and won this war for us are fast becoming the forgotten and neglected men. and he intended, as soon as he was free from uniform, to fight to have the matter, and that of the differentiation between Maori and European rectified, declared Lieutenant-Colonel A. P, Awatere, D. 5.0.. M.C.. commanding officer, Maori Battalion, speaking in M&nutuke on Sunday afternoon on the occasion of the unveiling ceremony to the war dead of the district.

“To-day I speak as a representative of the Maori people and am heard, but to-morrow, when 1 no longer wear the King’s uniform, 1 will be one of the forgotten men,” he continued. “To-day I saw in actuality the ideal 1 have long cherished in my heart —Maori and pakeha standing together shoulder to shoulder and in one accord, participating in the ceremony which is part of the culture of my Maori ancestors, and of which lam very proud. The leading pakeha men of Poverty Bay were standing together and intermingled as one with their Maori countrymen.”

The ideal of the spirit of comradeship had been burnished stronger within him through the fire of battle when Maori and pakeha had stood- together and fallen together, and that they should pay tribute together was only just. All Must Help He welcomed the declaration of Mr, D. W. Coleman, M.P., that it was the responsibility of all to help the men who had served, and declared “good luck to Mr. Coleman and the men of his lights, for they are to be needed if the men are to receive their rightful return for all they have had to endure.” In just under three months he had visited 412 maraes throughout the country and they all spoke with one voice right throughout—the war is over, but what is going to be done? Many of the men had been back for two or three years now, and they all felt, despite all that was said when they went away, that they were the forgotten men of the past.

All his career as an officer, Colonel Awatere continued, he had strived to treat his men as equals and guide them as though they were his own children. He endorsed Colonel R. F. Gambrill’s statement that this feeling of comradeship which filled the forces should be carried on into everyday life. “I am still in the uniform of the King and my lips are sealed, but when I am out of uniform again I will say the things I have to leave unsaid to-day,” said Colonel Awatere. “When that day comes I will speak and let the people know.

“The problems I have got to know of first hand, and they are hard, solid facts. These problems still exist, and something will have to be done about them.”