MOVING SPECTACLE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 194, 18 July 1941, Page 5

MOVING SPECTACLE.

MAORI HAKAS IN EGYPT. (From the Official War Correspondent with the 2nd N.Z.E.F.) I CAIRO, June 25. The performance of traditional Maori bakas and the singing of melodious Maori songs by members of the Maori Battalion before an audience mainly comprising members of the Greek Royal Family constituted one of the most unusual spectacles yet seen in a New Zealand camp in Egypt. The occasion was a visit to the Maori camp by King George of Greece, and other members of the Greek Royal family, on the day His Majesty decorated the members of an Auckland Battalion who had acted as his bodyguard during the evacuation of Crete. With the striking snap and preci« sion which characterises the drill of the Maoris, the baltalion accorded King George a Royal salute. After the inspection the members of the battalion removed hats and grounded arms preparatory to entertaining the uMtois in true Maori fashion. Particularly effective was the singing of fiacre ila in thi." desert camp as the noise of the day was yielding place to the quiet of a beautiful Egyptian summer evening. King George and the members of his family were deeply moved. Later the whole battalion sang their battalion song under tho leadership of the composer.