Māori soldiers' Great War battle for equality

Thursday, 8 November 2018

There was no roaring chorus, celebratory sounds or large crowds to mark the end of  World War I for the soldiers of the Māori Pioneer Battalion, Te Hokowhitu a Tū.

For them, there was still more work to do in Le Quesnoy where they were being billeted.

The Germans had blown up bridges and roads as they retreated from France and it was the job of the pioneers to fix them so their troops and artillery could start the long journey home.

A nip of rum from the stores, a shared prayer of thanks with locals in a church and it was back to work.

This quiet marking of Armistice Day mirrors the muted recognition Māori have received for their role during that war. A situation military historian and former soldier Dr Monty Soutar hopes to change when his new book is released in April next year.

'I can see through my research they deserve more recognition than they got,' Soutar says. 'My grandfather was in the pioneers. I didn't know anything really about what he did until I started delving into the research.'

Soutar has spent the last four years researching the Māori military service during the Great War. He says one of the most well-known Māori leaders from the 20th century, Sir Āpirana Ngata, sensed his fellow Pākehā MPs never saw the Māori soldiers as quite the equal of Pākehā because they weren't infantry.

'Ngata felt the coverage of the Māori contribution to the First World War in the publications that followed didn't give enough recognition to what they went through.'

That contribution also forms part of the Waitangi Tribunal investigation into the experience of Māori in the military. Soutar is on the tribunal's expert panel that will hear all the evidence, make a judgment and recommendations to the Crown.

The tribunal's own evidential reports suggest that, although Māori and Pākehā relations improved because of World War I, Māori veterans did not receive the same benefits and entitlements as Pākehā servicemen. They also missed out on receiving equal medical and mental health support.

In the tribunal's economic rehabilitation report, TJ Hearn says despite the Government's insistence that Māori veterans had equal access to its rehabilitation scheme, they were, at worst, deliberately excluded from and, at best, inadequately provided for compared to Pākehā.

Hearn believes the Department of Lands and Survey displayed elements of racism towards Māori veterans.

'It seems reasonably clear the state, through its various agencies, was not geared towards reaching out to and engaging Māori.'

'In short, the state failed to recognise the kaupapa of Māori veteran rehabilitation.'

Despite their service, Māori faced discrimination before, during and after the war. Notably when the New Zealand Division was to supply troops to occupy Germany after Armistice. The Māori Battalion was told they were going back to England.

'They were stopped right on the border because they were dark-skinned troops,' says Soutar.

He says some of them didn't think it was fair so they jumped off the train and disappeared for a week into Germany.

'They got arrested when they came out, charged and court-martialled. But at least they could say they set foot in Germany.

'It was quite ironic after all of that they still weren't treated as equals.'

Before First World War I, Māori were barred from enlisting during the Boer War in South Africa based on the colour of their skin. Soutar has identified  40 Māori who joined up anyway. 'Most of them had Pākehā fathers, they went under their English names,' he says.

Māori leaders lobbied to include Māori then as a separate fighting unit without success and again when the WW1 broke out. They argued that, under the Treaty, Māori had an obligation to fight for the Crown and, in return, to receive the benefits and entitlements of equal citizens.

Soutar says Māori service wasn't confined to the Māori Contingent and Pioneer Battalions. Māori joined provincial battalions, the Australian Imperial Force and the RAF.

Only after Indian and Algerian troops joined the Allies were Māori allowed to sign up, albeit controversially.

'There were some Māori who wanted their men on the frontline just like the Pākehā soldiers, to die with them if required. Others believed, 'this is not our war, give us back our land first before we go fight your war for you',' says Soutar.

The Māori population was already in serious decline in 1914 with fewer than 50,000. It was argued by tribal leaders that Māori could not afford to suffer further losses in the war.

To allay those concerns, the government decided the 500-strong Māori Contingent was to be deployed as garrison troops instead of infantry.

This was seen as an insult by some back then and forms a number of tribunal claims now against the Crown for the loss of mana experienced by the men, whānau and tribes who were involved.

In the Waitangi Tribunal Health and Social Impacts report, Kesaia Walker says, '2,227 Māori and 470 Pacific Islanders are known to have served overseas with the Māori Contingent and Pioneer units. 336 members died during active service (including 27 Pacific Islanders and an unknown number of Pākehā).'

Soutar says Waikato and Taranaki tribes, hit hard by land confiscations and casualties during the New Zealand Land Wars, refused to endorse voluntary service to their people. The bulk of the troops and subsequent losses were to come from the Bay of Plenty, Northland and the East Coast.

Later, Māori from the Waikato region were the only Māori forced into conscription by the government. The war ended before they were sent off to join the fight, but it's a source of grievance for them and a claim has been lodged against the Crown.

Soutar says people underestimate the significance of the Māori Contingent and how it united different tribes for the first time to fight together for the Crown as one group. But it wasn't without problems.

'You never saw, throughout the whole war, a Māori in charge of the Māori unit.

'There was this attitude Māori were seen as good soldiers but not for higher command positions.'

The 1st Māori Contingent left New Zealand in February 1915 but was sent to Egypt and Malta on garrison duties before Māori leaders demanded they be sent to the frontline at Gallipoli, where they landed in July.

'The experience at Gallipoli was the same for every man,' says Soutar. They all did the same things there.

'Where Māori did shine, and the Pākehā officers used to make the comments, was their capacity for work, even at Gallipoli.'

He says the pioneers distinguished themselves during the August 1915 Battle of Chunuk Bair.

'It's at night, they're doing the haka and then have to charge a trench. They've got no bullets in their rifles, just bayonets to fight hand-to-hand.

'They were going up two ridge lines with a valley in between, trying to take out the Turkish trenches. One lot started a haka on one ridge, the Māori on the other side heard it. So when they were going to take a trench they'd do a haka also.

'It was during the night and if you've never heard a haka before, like the Turks, how frightening it must have been.'

He says a Turkish newspaper reported on hearing the haka and used it as propaganda, saying, 'We now have cannibals on Gallipoli, they'll eat you if they catch you.'

On the bloody battlefields of Gallipoli, Māori and Pākehā relations began to change, respect grew as men worked together, fought and died side by side. The Māori Contingent was disbanded and split up between the other units. Other than skirmishes later in the war, Gallipoli was the only combat the Māori Contingent members fought in.

By the time they were evacuated in December 1915, 50 of the contingent (almost 11 per cent) had been killed, says Walker. 'Further, amongst the casualties were 14 of the 16 officers, and 329 of the 461 rank and file. The casualty rate at Gallipoli for the Māori Contingent was almost 72 per cent.'

In April 1916, the remnants and new Māori reinforcements including Niuean, Cook Island and Pākehā troops, were regrouped into the Pioneer Battalion for a combat support role on the Western Front. It became the Māori Pioneer Battalion in late 1917 when it served at Passchendaele.

In the place they called 'Hell', the Somme in France, Soutar say the pioneers worked in harrowing conditions.

'Bodies had been lying on the ground, shells exploding. So the bodies are getting blown up again and again..

'A skull would just appear while they were digging out the wall of a trench, bones everywhere.

'The smell of the place, bodies that had rotted. They became so used to it.'

The pioneers performed grim tasks as they made their way across France and Belgium.

Men from the battalion were tasked with the first execution of a New Zealand soldier for desertion in Hallencourt.

Soutar argues the soldiers were so close to the action they were shelled, gassed and shot at similarly to frontline troops.

'They were experiencing what the infantry was confronting,' says Soutar. The only difference was they weren't getting to climb out of the trenches with a bayonet fixed and charge like the infantry.'

Soutar says for those who served, none were allowed to return to New Zealand unless they were injured. There were men who spent four years toiling through some of the bloodiest battles of the 20th century at Gallipoli, the Somme and Passchendaele.

'The fact some of them got through all of that and came home in 1919, I just wonder how stuffed in the mind some of them must've been.'

For his book, Soutar says it was difficult to get the families of veterans to talk about what life was like growing up with someone who was probably suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a condition more widely considered now but ignored during and after World War I.

'A few did, I get the impression it was horrific. They turned to alcohol to cope. A lot of them had short wicks or short tempers. Abuse, physical punishment which they were used to seeing on a daily basis in the war. Not in all cases, but in a number of cases violence was visited on their families.

'I have heard similar things from Pākehā families. I don't think PTSD has a colour bar, it affects everybody.'

Walker says the tribunal has received multiple statements of claim about the difficulties World War I veterans faced in adjusting to civilian life, with associated evidence of violent outbursts, and alcohol abuse affecting the whānau and wider community. Few ever received the help they needed.

'Many claimants allege the Crown failed to provide adequate rehabilitation and care for the trauma suffered during war.

'The health impacts of exposure to gas included physical effects, long-term effects, and mental stress.'

A claim by the whānau of Henry Norman McNaught alleges his premature death at  49 was a result of his exposure to gas. Ngāti Rangitihi World War I veterans claim John Henry Norman, who served with the Pioneer Battalion, survived being gassed during the Battle of Messines only to later die after developing an associated thyroid cancer.

Although the government had an equal access policy to its rehabilitation programme, the Waitangi Tribunal's evidence shows few Māori ever did.

Hearn says Sir Āpirana Ngata proposed the Crown set apart a portion of the lands it acquired from Māori for settlement by Māori veterans or that it purchase land from Māori explicitly for the purpose of rehabilitation. But the government, including the prime minister, refused to change any of its policies to support the needs of Māori.

Soutar doesn't want to pre-empt any findings from the Waitangi Tribunal but warns it will be taking a comprehensive look at the treatment of Māori during the Great War and after their service.

'There are plenty examples of these guys coming home, to be told, great, thank you, boys, it's back to normal now,' says Soutar.

In one of the diaries he read, a pioneer wrote that he was told by an officer, 'Don't forget you guys will be working for us when we get home.'

In the tribunal's equality and autonomy report it cites an example from 1919 of three Māori veterans in uniform being denied service in a Whanganui hotel and told 'no Maoris were served'.

'In some cases, Māori made gains, while others expressed frustration the sacrifices made for the price of citizenship never came to pass.'