[Aneirin]

I'm interested that you trace NZ's current policy back to World War 1. I'm sure there were strong pacifist sentiments in NZ between wars. But pacifism and isolationism were a common reaction to WW1 - think of the efforts Britain took to avoid war with Germany prior to WW2, or indeed the fact that the US didn't join the war till attacked in 1941. None of that stopped young Brits, Americans, Kiwis, Aussies, Indians et al serving their countries with distinction from 1939-45, and for many of those countries again in Korea and Vietnam.

I don't agree that WW1 "soured" NZ on Britain. As he declared war in 1939, our Prime Minister said we "range ourselves without fear by Britain. Where she goes, we go; where she stands, we stand." Sound sour to you? I'd be tempted to look much later for the psychological break - probably to Britain joining the EEC in the early 1970s.

[BlazingArizona]

I'm interested that you trace NZ's current policy back to World War 1. I'm sure there were strong pacifist sentiments in NZ between wars. But pacifism and isolationism were a common reaction to WW1 - think of the efforts Britain took to avoid war with Germany prior to WW2, or indeed the fact that the US didn't join the war till attacked in 1941. None of that stopped young Brits, Americans, Kiwis, Aussies, Indians et al serving their countries with distinction from 1939-45, and for many of those countries again in Korea and Vietnam.

I'm only reporting what I saw. Though Kiwis served honorably in WW II, especially as they saw the Japanese asland-hoppiong advance pushing toward them, the WW I esperience seems to have meant much more to the national spirit. Why else would every little town have a WW I memorial, while in a month I saw precisely one WW II memorial (dedicated to the USMC deployment to Guadalcanal, which trained near Wellington). A succession of films like "Chunuk Bair" carry the same theme.

I asked New Zealanders in different walks of life about this. The consensus seems to be that WW I represented the nation's first big break with Britain. Before that, NZ had faithfully sent troops to battle whomever Queen Victoria had designated as the fuzzy-wuzzies of the moment.

The second big break with Britain came in the early Sixties, when Britain joined the EU and the farm quotas it imposed on all countries not part of the great socialist experiment. NZ suddenly found itself out in the cold, abandoned by the Old Country. At that point, NZ decided to rebrand itself as a Pacific nation.

So why is most NZ lamb sold to the Arab world today? Nothing ideological is involved; despite high US consumer demand, the American farm lobby imposes stiff quotas on NZ agriculture. When socialists can't compete in the open market, they get the government to 'fix' things.