New Zealand 's grand exploits during World War II are well known. Our servicemen fought with distinction in all the mam war zones, and the cost was high for a small country - 11,425 killed and 17,000 wounded plus prisoners-of-war.

At the outbreak of war. Labour Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage put New Zealand at the service of Britain -

'Both with gratitude for the past and with confidence for the future we range ourselves without fear beside Britain. Where she goes we go; where she stands we stand.'

However, there are many episodes which are less well known and less creditable. There was the fatal machine-gunning of a large number of Japanese prisoners-of-war during the attempted mass escape from a Featherston P.O.W. camp. There were also the many instances when United States servicemen stationed in New Zealand were involved in racial clashes with Maori servicemen.

On the night of Saturday 3 April 1943, a group of Southern US servicemen refused to let some Maori servicemen drink in the Allied Services Club in Manners St (Wellington), taking of their Army service belts to emphasise the point. A brawl erupted and spread into the street, with US military policemen siding with the US servicemen, using their batons on their New Zealand opponents. The battle involved over 1000 US and NZ servicemen, plus several hundred civilians The Battle of Manners St (as it came to be known in popular myth) raged for four hours and by the time NZ police had restored order at least two US servicemen were killed and many injured.

There were two similar riots in Auckland about the same time, a later clash outside a Cuba Street cabaret (May 1945), and a further one between a small party of US servicemen and Maori civilians at Otaki in October 1943.

These riots were principally caused by the American servicemen's racist attitudes towards Maoris. But no results of any ensuing enquiries have ever been published and wartime censorship stopped any reference to the NZ-American riots in the local papers.

New Zealand had in fact a whole secret history during World War II. The strange irony is that a government that fought so fiercely overseas for freedom and against facism, also waged war on freedom and used facist methods at home.

Notorious Censorship Regulations

A pall of censorship was thrown over the whole country. The 1939 Publicity and Censorship Regulations were introduced under the framework of the notorious 1932 Public Safety Conservation Act.

The chief censor was J.T. Paul a right-wing Labour journalist/union secretary. One of his assistants was a former editor of the 'Dominion.' All mail was to be opened, read and stamped by the censor.

Wartime censorship can be justified on the grounds that [unclear: utary] secrets mustn't be disclosed and the morale of the armed forces must be maintained. However, censorship in WWII was used as a further means to harass left-wing and anti-war groups and it was responsible for suppressing material for purely political reasons, rather than military or national ones.

The censor worked directly with PM Peter Fraser (who took over when Savage died in office in 1940) in early 1943 Fraser personally banned from the press (including the 'Police Journal') any reference to police discontent over pay.

In November 1943 J.T. Paul forbade publication of 'any statement or resolution containing direct or indirect reference' to the regulations preventing policemen or then wives doing outside work without the approval of the Commissioner of Police. In that same month Paul forbade 'any suggestions that only by striking or threatening to strike can persons or bodies of persons with legitimate grievances gain redress' - he said that such suggestions were prejudicial to public morale.

In December 1943 Paul decreed that information is not to be published relating to any act of any person if such act amounts to counselling or inciting of any person to commit an offence against the emergency regulations.'

This Orwellian order was attacked in an editorial of the Palmerston North Times' with the result that the editor/publisher was prosecuted and convicted in the Magistrate's Court but won on appeal to the Supreme Court.

Fraser complained to the British Government several times about the laxity of its wartime censorship. (The censorship regulations prohibited any reference to the fact that something had been censored, i.e. total secrecy.)

Underhand Conscription Battle

There were several areas in which the Labour Government systematically violated civil liberties. The first involved military mobilisation and the highly contentious issue of conscription.

Conscription was a particularly bitter and divisive issue amongst the Labour Government and Labour movement in general. Many of the Cabinet had been involved in the movement against conscription in WWI and had been gaoled for it - Peter Fraser, the Prime Minister, and Bob Semple, the Minister of Public Works, had been gaoled for sedition, Wally Nash. Minister of Finance (and later Prime Minister) had been gaoled for refusing to join up.

John A. Lee said in 'Simple on a Soapbox' - The Hon. Mark Fagan had smuggled conscription resisters in timber and coal vessels out of N.Z. into anti-conscription Australia. Tim Armstrong had gone to court to seek exemption for his sons from conscription and Paddy Webb had gone from Parliament to gaol when called in the ballot.'

In November 1915 the 'Maoriland Worker' quoted Bob Semple as saying "Conscription is the negation of human liberty. It means the destruction of every principle that is held sacred to the working class. It means the destruction of the democracy of the home. It is the blackest industrial hell.'

In February 1940 the Labour Party and FOL (headed by Angus McLagan and Fintan Patrick Walsh both former Communists, with McLagan destined for Cabinet rank) made a joint statement declaring There will be no conscription while Labour is in power.' Yet that very same month the Government established a manpower register based on Social Security returns.

A campaign against conscriptions was mounted, made up of pacifists, left-wing groups, unions, students and women's groups. But Fraser had made up his mind. By June 1940, 60,000 men had volunteered for the armed forces and the N.Z. Expeditionary Force was already in action in the Middle East. But Fraser wanted conscription. By that month he had secured the backing of both the Labour Party and FOL, and conscription regulations were gazetted in June and the first ballot was drawn in October. (Bob Semple drew the first marble).

Fraser told the FOL Conference 'We can have no consideration for any person who sets about manufacturing a conscience to suit the occasion.' (The anti-conscription forces within the Government had been greatly weakened by the expulsion of John A. Lee from the Labour Party, and accompanying resignations, including that of the Speaker of the House.)

Hit the Anti-Conscriptionists

The Government launched an all-out drive against the anti-conscriptionists. Particular attention was focussed on the Wellington Peace and Anti-Conscription Council (PAAC) which was made up of prominent page break pacifists, Communists, unionists, academics and left-wing Labour men.

From the outbreak of war onwards Wellington police broke up anti-conscription meetings on the city streets and speakers invariably ended up being arrested. For example, in February 1940, Bill O'Reilly of the Communist Party of New Zealand (CPNZ) and well known Christian Pacifist, the Rev. Ormond Burton, were each sentenced to a month's hard labour after speaking at an anti-conscription meeting. The Mayor of Wellington personally declared that he would have this particular meeting stopped.

In March the Government forbade Labour Party members from taking part in the PAAC's national conference and threatened participating Party branches with disenfranchisement at the Party's annual conference, it also declared the PAAC to be a political party' and this its members couldn't attend the annual Labour Party conference.

In May police raided homes of the PAAC's executive in Wellington and New Plymouth police seized the books of the local Anti-Conscription League. Mail was held up by the censor while books and personal belongings were seized in the raids.

After conscription was introduced, police prevented any PAAC public meetings and the public service was purged of active anti-conscriptionists. The Labour Party likewise purged itself of anti-conscriptionists. For example the Rev Doug Martin was sacked as president of the Miramar Branch of the Labour Party because of his membership of the PAAC and was later sentenced to 12 months prison for a 'subversive' statement made on behalf of the PAAC.

The PAAC had its open air meetings broken up, hall owners were pressured into not hiring halls to them and printers were pressured into not printing for them; members were sacked from their jobs in the public service or private enterprise; homes were raided; some were arrested, tried, and gaoled.

Public Servants Fired

The Government reserved its worst brutality for two individual cases. Noel Counihan, the acting secretary of the PAAC was fired from the public service as was his wife - he was hunted by the police and in June 1940 he was arrested in Auckland, held in custody, and without publicity, charge or trial, deported back to his native Australia. His wife knew nothing of what happened to him until he contacted her from Sydney.

That same month Ken Bronson, a leading member of the PAAC was fired from the public service, arrested, held in custody, and without publicity, charge or trial, put on a boat travelling through the war zone back to his native England. After some quibbling his wife was allowed to travel with him - she was six months pregnant and there was no doctor on the boat. She lost the baby before reaching England.

A Wellington leaflet accused Fraser and Semple of murdering her baby. A man was gaoled for 12 months for 'subversion' as a result of this leaflet. N.Z. servicemen who fought Hitler's anti-semitism might ponder on Semple's description of Bronson - 'a dirty East London Jew.'

The whole conscription battle was waged again in 1949 when the same Fraser and Semple introduced peacetime conscription. The Labour Party itself was far from happy about the 1940 introduction of con scription, with the Morning side branch led by Jock Barnes, disaffiliating itself (Barnes later led the wharfies during the 1951 epic struggle).

New Zealand was far in advance of its Western allies in introducing conscription. Australia intro duced it for the S.W.Pacific area only and sent no conscripts there. Canada introduced it in August 1942 and sent no conscripts overseas until November 1944. South Africa and India didn't introduce it until after New Zealand.

Strikes and Lockouts Forbidden

The second main area of systematic violation of civil liberties was that of civilian mobilisation.

The 1939 Strike and Lockout Regulations forbade strikes and lockouts and any incitement to either of them. The 1939 Industrial Emergency Council Regulations set up a council representing employers and unions to advise the Minister of Labour (Paddy Webb) on any variations of hours of work or award conditions made necessary by the war.

The Minister of Labour was given power to suspend decisions of the Arbitration Court and even Acts of Parliament. All or part of most overtime rates were suspended - the workers being required to make a financial sacrifice not expected of company profits or rents.

Longer hours on ordinary pay were introduced, the limits on the annual total overtime hours worked by women in some essential industries were suspended, and limits on shift work and the number of apprentices were suspended. Acts were suspended so that workers had to work on statutory holidays, (eg Christmas Day) with no penal pay rates. The minimum working age was lowered and dropped altogether for farm work.

Most of New Zealand's industries were declared essential undertakings so that it became an offence punishable by law to be persistently absent or late, to lack diligence or care in one's job, or to decline to do work that was another's trade. The practical result of all this was a 54-hour week with no holiday, overtime or Sunday rates in the building construction trade, a 77-hour week in munition factories and an 84-hour week on the wharves.

Most of this was accepted as essential sacrifice for the war effort (some of these such as working on public holidays, were eased as the war progressed).

In 1941 the Arbitration Court refused an FOL application for a 7½% cost of living wage increase. The FOL objected strongly but Fraser prevailed. The FOL was won round to supporting the Government's strong stabilisation policy launched in late 1942, and its president, Angus McLagan, was made a Cabinet Minister that year (while still continuing to be president).

The workers had to sacrifice a lot during the war, and when it was over, Fraser and Nash refused to restore pre-war margins for skill lost during the war.

Laws Repress Workers

Straight out repression was also employed against the workers. A September 1940 Amendment to the Public Safety Regulations gave the Attorney -General (H.G.R. Mason) power to dismiss any employee from any job and to exclude any individual from any union or employers' organisation. This measure was used in February 1941 when a seaman was excluded from the union. That same month 3 wharfies were expelled from the wharves for the duration of the war and 2 more for life for refusing to load goods handled by scab labour (3 were later reinstated). This was also used for purely petty ends - a newspaper boy was fired for circulating a petition in his own time asking that his political prisoner father be released.

Strikes were dealt with harshly. In March 1942, 213 men at Auckland's Westfield freezing works were gaoled for striking, their union was deregistered, and Fraser called for volunteer labour. After a rehearing, most of the gaoled strikers were released and the freezing company paid costs plus a large sum in arrears of wages.' (It's worth remembering that Bob Semple, a former leader of the Red Feds, was gaoled during the 1913 industrial upheaval.

In September 1942 the Government threatened to prosecute strikers at Waikato s Pukemiro coalmine, so six other local mines struck in sympathy - 182 striking miners were sentenced to one month's gaol, the remaining 1300 refused to return to work. The Government then said it would nationalise these mines for the duration of the war so the miners voted to go back, and sentences on the 182 were suspended. Despite this Sid Holland, leader of the National Party and future Prime Minister, called the Government's action 'industrial appeasement and capitulation to the forces of lawlessness.' and he and his 5 Tory colleagues resigned from the War Cabinet.

In January 1942 industrial unrest broke out as a result of bad conditions for N.Z. Civilian Construction United workers building Nandi aerodrome in Fijji. N.Z. police among the workers arrested 3 job delegates and without charge or trial put them on a boat back to New Zealand The CPNZ's 'In Print' carried this story (leaving out details such as where the job was) and as a result the editor, famous poet R.A.K Mason faced 6 charges under the 1939 Censorship and Publicity Regulations. All the charges were dismissed, for lack of a prima facie case.