This is unedited raw film footage, shot by Academy Award winning US Marine cinematographer Norman T. Hatch for a US newsreel that was never completed, provisionally titled 'Meet New Zealand'. Around 21,000 Marines were stationed in camps around the Wellington region from June 1942 until November 1943. Most of their time was spent training hard preparing for the war in the Southwest Pacific against the Japanese.
Colour footage from 16mm film, without sound.
The American First Lady poses for a group photograph with the New Zealand Governor-General, Sir Cyril Newall, seated beside Mrs. Roosevelt. Standing behind them on the lawn of Government House from right to left, Miss Marie Ryan (American Red Cross Supervisor for the Southwest Pacific), Major Christopher Holland-Martin (Aide de Camp to Governor-General), Miss Norah Walton (secretary to Governor-General), Miss Georgiana Newall, (daughter of the Governor-General), Captain Heathcote Helmore (Aide de Camp to Governor-General), and Major George Durno (Special Assistant to Commanding General, Pacific Wing, Air Transport Command) who accompanied Mrs. Roosevelt throughout her South Pacific trip. After posing, the group stand and visibly relax and chat before making their way back to the house.