ITALY After Ten Years Siena It is ten years ago now since the New Zealand Division landed at Taranto. The campaign which followed was an unforgettable experience. It was mostly fighting, but the memory usually fastens on the less painful happenings …. To the men of the Maori Battalion, the Italian campaign meant a return to a warm social life, to which Italy lent itself admirably. As one veteran, Mr Edward Nepia, who kept the Maori Battalion's official records, put it, when interviewed by Te Ao Hou recently, the desert was — a desert. During the desert campaign the Maori Battalion naturally made the most of life, holding concerts, competing in action songs and hakas, and learning popular Arabic songs on the way. But Italy was different: there was leave in the towns and villages, there were dance floors and cafes, and the Maori soldiers were always welcome in Italian homes. The Italians were, in the opinion of many, not unlike the Maori; always friendly and cheerful, they entertained to the fullest extent and spared nothing. There was, of course, another side to this friendship: there were instances where Maori troops saved rations out of their own mouths for the starving. They learned the popular Italian songs, Mama mia, Tornerai, etc. — and even sang them at concerts they held in Italian villages. When the men had to take leave of their Italian hosts, tears were sometimes shed. One wonders, said Mr Nepia, why there should be a need for war if understanding between two so different races in such difficult circumstances could be as warm and simple as it was. In South Italy, where they landed, New Zealanders met a more backward type of Italian, still living the life of his ancestors; the walls around the South Italian towns are still walls —shutting the outside world out, and keeping those within isolated from the rest of the world. The peasants still had their wooden ploughs