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The 3rd of April marks the anniversary of “The Battle of Manners St” – an altercation between New Zealand and United States servicemen that happened in 1943.

The initial scene of the fight was the Allied Services Club (which in recent years was the site of the Post Office on the corner of Manners & Victoria Sts) before spreading outside and “up Cuba Street, and in vicinity of the Amusement ground of Courtenay Place.” There are conflicting accounts as to how the fighting began.

The most widely accepted account is that United States servicemen took exception to Maori servicemen being served in the Allied Services Club, and a brawl started, with belt buckles, knives, bottles and fists being used as weapons.

This extract from a file called “Discipline USA troops in New Zealand” from the Army Department tells a slightly different story. According to the report of an investigation, the fight started when some merchant seamen took exception to the United States servicemen, expressed a desire to “clean them up” and so the brawl began. The fighting soon spilled out onto the streets, eventually involving hundreds of servicemen of different forces as well as civilians.

A minute in the same file states that if anybody makes enquiries to the Army Department for news on the event, they are to be told that the fight started between a British soldier and a US Marine, and that all was quiet by 2200 hours (10 p.m.) by which time military police had eventually quelled the riot.

The question remains whether the clash was just due to pub antics, or whether the incident carries the deeper charge of racism. During World War II the United States had not yet had its civil rights movement. American bemusement is on record – colloquially, if not officially - at the apparent integration of Maori in Pakeha society. Hinting at this is a memorandum in the same file, called “The colour problem as the American sees it,” an attempt to explain some American attitudes towards black Americans and race relations, and subsequent behaviour towards Maori, to the outsider.

Because of the wartime blackout on the reporting of military news without state approval, there was no mention of The Battle of Manners St on radio or in newspapers of the time.

Archives reference: AD1 310/11/4 View the complete record listing on Archway: archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=22438166 For updates on our On This Day series and news from Archives New Zealand, follow us on Twitter twitter.com/ArchivesNZ