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Historians: New Zealand was soft on Hitler

If New Zealand had been able to sit Hitler down for a cup of tea, World War II might not have happened.

As debatable as this may sound, new research suggests this was the stance of New Zealand's Labour Government towards Nazi Germany even after Poland was invaded in 1939.

Though it has been commonly assumed that New Zealand vocally opposed the Nazi expansion and urged Britain to confront Hitler's regime, two historians are arguing this is not true.

New Zealand continued to push for negotiations with Hitler even as Britain declared war, while still honouring a trade agreement made with Germany in 1937, they say.

Massey University head of history, philosophy and classics James Watson said he and New Zealand Defence Force historian John Crawford began their research after discovering discrepancies in the history books.

They stumbled across correspondence between key New Zealand ministers in 1939, pushing for continued negotiations.

"I thought, `here we are, Poland's just been conquered, what's New Zealand doing advocating relations with Hitler? What's going on?'

"We explored further, and came up with so much more of this." As commonly thought, New Zealand did have an independent foreign policy from Britain with regard to Nazi Germany but ours was to push for further talks, he said.

New Zealand was behind Britain initially, when British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain went to negotiate with Hitler and signed the Munich peace agreement in 1938.

But after Hitler dishonoured the agreement and invaded Poland, Britain was talking war while New Zealand continued to push for peace negotiations.

Finally, in 1940, New Zealand and Australia sent telegrams to Britain saying they would follow her"to the end", in whatever decision was made. Meanwhile, New Zealand was continuing trade with Germany under a special agreement they had signed in 1937, Dr Watson said....

Read entire article at Waikato Times