MAORI SOLDIERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24540, 24 March 1943, Page 2

MAORI SOLDIERS

SECOND BATTALION SPHERE OF SERVICE SOUTH PACIFIC OPPOSED (5.1!.) ROTORUA, Tuesday "The place for tho Maori soldier is where his brothers are serving now and where I lie .Maori dead are lying," declared Sir Apirana Ngata at the welcome given at Ohinemutu this afternoon to a section of the Second Maori battalion —a statement which was received with applause by the soldiers drawn up on the niarae. Sir Api ran a stated, that it was the considered opinion of the tribal representatives who had so far arrived that this battalion should not bo sen,t to the South Pacific. Ho spoke in high appreciation of the service that tho Maori Battalion of the Second Expeditionary Force had rendered. r lhe men, he said, had been true to the traditions of their race, and he indicated his firnr belief that the wish of the men of the Second Battalion would be to join their brothers in the Middlo East. If they were asked to volunteer for Pacific service, no doubt they would all step forward, but what their feet might do was not what was in their hearts. Captain W. Panapa, chaplain to the Second Battalion, who spoke in Maori and was not interpreted, said that it was not for the battalion to offer any opinion, but they were anxious to know what the tribal representatives would decide. On their judgment they would rely.