I seldom post, but reading this just don't sound right. As least it lack logical reasoning. I mean, okay, so an Chinese male (NZ citizen) volunteered to fight in NZ army in Crete/African campaign vs god know over how many other NZ nationals. And from reading the above those who've fought were given visa waver including all nationalities who fought on behalf of NZ who weren't citizens except the Chinese even though one named Alec Wing -a Chinese descendant had volunteered to fight on the behalf? I mean, how do you define volunteer and how many Chinese do you need versus NZ nationals in order to qualify?
My age is catching up with me. My post at 47 might help.
It wasnt a numbers game it was more on how each ethnic group was classified.
Ill try again
1/a NZ a british colony was mainly settled by english from the UK they were citizen settlers. whose allegience was to the British crown WW2 would have seen men voluntaring or later if more men were needed conscripted.from this group.
2/ the second group were European but not English./THey were classified as settlers but not citizens of the British empire therefore they could not be conscripted. THey volunteered out of patriotism. Each ethnic group would have required a visa waiver as they transited through australia on the way to the middle east.
3/the chinese were classified as "sojurners" (lacked settler status and theoretically, could have been be asked to leave the country at any time..)
THey could have volunteered but none did so their ethnicity was not recorded on the visa waver list.)
4/ The indigenous people known as Maori. They could not be conscripted. However many volunteered ( I dont know whether they actually had a waiver or because they were the indigenous people of the country , theyjust got lumped in with group1.
5/ Because of the lack of Chinese women , a few chinese men formed a relationship with maori women. ( idont know what their status was but presumably classifiedas maori/mixed.
6/ Alex Wong was a NZ born chinese therefore his status as far as determining his eligibility to serve , fell into group1.. However he volunteered before waiting for the expected conscription.He would have transited through australia not recorded as Chinese but as a Nz'derwith group 1 status.
Hence the Chinese were never recorded as a ethnic race who could enter Australia from NZ without a visa.
This was a wartime measure .However it just defaulted into peace time practice as well.
Personally I wasnt even aware of the requirement in peacetime until one of my uncles bitched and moaned about it in the 50's and 60's..when he needed to transit through Australia on his way to Taiwan or Hong Kong. However coloureds and other Asians coming from the other side of the world just accepted it as one of those things as part of australias white only policy.
