The Battle of Manners Street refers to a riot involving

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

servicemen and

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servicemen and civilians outside the Allied Services Club in Manners Street,

Te Aro Te Aro (formerly also known as Te Aro Flat) is an inner-city suburb of Wellington, New Zealand. It comprises the southern part of the central business district including the majority of the city's entertainment district and covers the mostly fla ...

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

in 1943. The club was a social centre, open to all military personnel.

Background

In 1942–44 there were anywhere between 15,000 and 45,000 American servicemen stationed in New Zealand, most camped around major urban centres of the country. While New Zealand was then an isolated country with 1.6 million inhabitants, many of the American servicemen were coming from major American urban centres to New Zealand.

Riot

Some

servicemen in the Services Club objected to

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

soldiers also using the Club, and on 3 April 1943 began stopping Māori soldiers from entering. Many New Zealand soldiers in the area, both

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(

Pākehā Pākehā (or Pakeha; ; ) is a Māori term for New Zealanders primarily of European descent. Pākehā is not a legal concept and has no definition under New Zealand law. The term can apply to fair-skinned persons, or to any non-Māori New Ze ...

) and Māori, combined in opposition. The stand-off escalated when Americans took off their belts to attack those who wanted to let the Māori in. Fights broke out and at one point at least a thousand servicemen, as well as several hundreds of civilians, were involved in the subsequent fracas, which was broken up by civil and military

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...

. The major brawl lasted from 6 pm to 8 pm, with some brawls lasting for perhaps another two hours. Dozens of people were injured. The fighting spread to the ANA (Army, Navy and Air Force) Club in Willis Street and to Cuba Street. At the time, hotel bars closed at 6 pm, the ''

six o'clock swill The six o'clock swill was an Australian and New Zealand slang term for the last-minute rush to buy drinks at a hotel bar before it closed. During a significant part of the 20th century, most Australian and New Zealand hotels shut their public b ...

'', and inebriated patrons were then ejected into the streets. News of the riot was censored at the time, hence much of the mythology about the event, including the claim that two Americans were killed remain hard to verify. Twenty years after the riot, the finding of the Court of Inquiry was released.

Other riots

Around the same time as the Battle of Manners Street a similar riot between American and New Zealand service men was taking place in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

and one month later during the Mayfair Cabaret, in Cuba Street, Wellington, on 12 May 1945 another riot took place. Later in October a group of American servicemen and Māori civilians came to blows at Ōtaki in October 1943.

Bibliography

Notes

References

* - Total pages: 191 * * * * *''The Yanks are Coming: The American Invasion of New Zealand 1942-1944'' by Harry Bioletti (1989, Century Hutchinson, Auckland) *''United States Forces in New Zealand 1942-1945'' by Denys Bevan (1992, Macpherson Publishing, Alexandra) {{DEFAULTSORT:Battle of Manners Street 1943 in New Zealand Manners Street Race riots 1943 riots History of the Wellington Region Riots and civil disorder in New Zealand Wellington City April 1943 events Military discipline and World War II Racism in New Zealand

Background

Riot

Other riots

See also

Bibliography

Notes

References