Major Tiwi Love speaks at presentation on HMS Maori

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Major Tiwi Love speaks on behalf of the 28th Māori Battalion at the launch of the HMS Maori.

Major Love:  Commander Jonas, Ships Company, ladies and fellow officers, other ranks of the 28th Māori Battalion. I’m very sorry indeed that our Colonel has not been able to come down and accept this emblem on behalf of the 28th Māori Battalion but he has delegated me to accept the same on behalf of our Battalion.  He assures me that as soon as we are able to get back to the Battalion again it will be presented at a full ceremonial parade of the Battalion, wherein, whereat we hope that some member or members of the HMS Maori will be present.  We the 28th Māori Battalion, members of the 28th Māori Battalion, and I’m sure other members of the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces, including our nursing service who have come on this ship today, feel very highly honoured and we feel that we have at last put our foot again on New Zealand after being away so long.  On behalf of our Colonel and the officers, Warrant officers and other ranks of the 28th Māori Battalion – I thank you Sir.  Before concluding Sir, we feel that we are bound on account of our foulings around in the Libyan Desert, we have one or two souvenirs, the 28th Maori Battalion seem to be well known for souvenirs, and on the occasion of the 26th of November (1941), Rommell unfortunately was able to get out of Halfaya Pass, but he came up against B Company of the 28th Māori Battalion who captured one of his staff cars and in it were a lot of these flags.  We hope that you will accept this from the 28th Battalion as one of the souvenirs of war.

(Well done the Māoris)

Reference:

Sound file from Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision. Any re-use of this audio is a breach of copyright.

Photo:  Destroyer HMS Maori (F24) underway, coastal waters.
Date: 18 March 1939
SourceImperial War Museums, FL 15085 (collection no. 8308-29[1])  
Author: Royal Navy official photographer

Submitter:
Submitted by mbadmin on

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