Community Contributed
WWII Conscientious Objector Camps in the Horowhenua
Kete Horowhenua2020-03-23T16:52:50+00:00Conscription – compulsory enlistment for military service – began in July 1940 with men between the ages of 18 and 40 facing the ballot. Objectors could appeal to district manpower committees and armed forces appeal boards on grounds of hardship, essential employment and conscientious objection.
The two Shannon camps opened in June 1942 with the first group of 104 detainees at Whitaunui and 34 at Paiaka, eventually housing 250 of the men in detention.
In New Zealand no alternative form of service was offered to conscientious objectors as in other Commonwealth countries, so the camps were the only option for the 800 men who occupied them over the course of the war.
Thirteen camps were built around New Zealand to detain the ‘military defaulters’ whose appeals were rejected and who refused to work under military control in any form.
They were Christian pacifists, humanists, agnostics and a small number of political objectors who were seen as cowards in the eyes of the public and criminals in the eyes of the law.
In his book We Said No to War! detainee Walter Lawry writes that many trades and professions were represented at Whitaunui, the largest of the Shannon camps.
“There are schoolteachers, farmers, a Hansard reporter, a lawyer, a painter of landscapes and a group with brains to spare who spend many hours daily on concentrated study. There is a general feeling that a number of these will become university lecturers or professors in due time.”
With more information being released as 50 years has passed since th closure of the camps, more research is being undertaken.
A recent article on www.stuff.co.nz included a video clip showing one woman's discovery that she lives on the site of the Whitauni Detention Camp near Shannon - click here for the Stuff video - then Click on ( download ) to play it.
Margaret Tate’s research on the camps will feature in the August 2016 issue of the Manawatu Journal of History.