Re: The role played by non-Europeans in the Great War

On Thu, 01 May 2008 23:54:29 +0100, Dirk Bruere at NeoPax
<dirk.bruere@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

>John Kulp wrote:
>> On Thu, 01 May 2008 22:04:37 +0100, Dirk Bruere at NeoPax
>> <dirk.bruere@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> 
>>> John Kulp wrote:
>>>> On Thu, 1 May 2008 18:18:30 +0100, "nightjar" <cpb@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 my surname
>>>> here>.me.uk> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> "Alan S" <nothere@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
>>>>> news:biij14dths9nbsnd07gopq34v9cv53vjqj@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>>>>> On Thu, 1 May 2008 00:07:36 -0700 (PDT), Ned Flanders
>>>>>> <michaelnew****t@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> <snip>
>>>>>>> Not everybody was allowed to fight though. In the British army
only
>>>>>>> Indian soldiers took part in the conflict.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Other nationalities like Maoris from New Zealand were taken to the
>>>>>>> battlefields in order to work.
>>>>>> Nonsense.
>>>>> In general, armies have a lot more soldiers in sup****t roles than
they do in 
>>>>> combat. I have heard figures of between five and nine in sup****t for
every 
>>>>> one on the front line for armies of the time. The differences may
depend 
>>>>> upon whether soldiers in rest areas count as being in sup****t or
not. It 
>>>>> would therefore make sense for troops who were less well battle
trained to 
>>>>> be put into sup****t roles, at least when they first arrived.
>>>> That's a nice spiel, but Alan said the Maoris being taken to the
>>>> battlefields to work was nonsense.  What's your proof of that?
>>> http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-CowMaor.html
>> 
>> Thanks.  This is quite lengthy so I only took a cursory look at it.
>> From what I saw, Maoris were soldiers and all soldiers, of course, do
>> work.  The statement about them being sent and used as workers I
>> thought meant non-soldiers doing work which I thought was what Alan
>> was reacting to.  Is there somewhere in here that that was the case or
>> where they only there as soldiers?
>
>I think the majority were Pioneer.
>However, since their casualty rate was almost 50% I guess they saw more 
>than their fair share of the war.

Pioneers were soldiers weren't they, not civilian workers?  I noticed
that more of the Maoris died from sickness than combat.  Must have
been a fun environment.