Whitanui Army Camp (Horowhenua)

In July of 1940, conscription began in New Zealand and men between 18 and 40 were picked for military service by ballot. They could appeal against going to war on conscience grounds, but most of the appeals were dismissed, and about 800 men were classed as "military defaulters" and detained for the rest of the war. In New Zealand, unlike other Commonwealth countries, pacifists were not given the option to do non-military war work. The Shannon camps were sited deliberately: somewhat out of sight of civilians, the men worked at weeding the nearby flax fields attached to the government-owned Whitaunui Mill. Barbed wire surrounded the camps. The accommodation was spartan, and though they were not treated badly by their guards – whose own living conditions weren't much better – there were stringent limits on letters, visits, and reading materials. Some of the detainees succumbed to being "wire happy" – depression and mental illness. A few escaped – but not for long. A reporter mentioned  "In World War 1 many pacifists were sent to prison. The camps (of WWII) were genuinely designed to be an improved system. They asked why they turned out more punitive than the systems in the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. Many believe it  was the bitterness directed by sections of the public towards the wives of the detainees and their children during the war, and the sanctions imposed on former detainees for some years after they were released." The detainees were people of high intellectual calibe, she found. Many became university lecturers, writers, artists, and theatre directors; others later served in relief services overseas or in the peace movement. Detainees at the camp were both secular and religious objectors. They said that many at the camp had strong religious views and that they should not kill in the war. There were strict guidelines about what you were able to do most were not allowed to leave at all and were only allowed to send 1 letter a week. After the war was over the majority of the prisoner were released however they had all civil rights stripped away from them. They were not allowed to choose their workplaces and not allowed to vote for several years after the war

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