Freyberg disagreed strongly with his superior, General Claude Auchinleck, the Eighth Army commander and insisted that as a commander of a national contingent he had the right to refuse orders if those orders ran counter to the New Zealand national interest.
Freyberg var imidlertid stærkt uenig med sin overordnede general Claude Auchinleck, og insisterede på, at en leder af et nationalt kontingent havde ret til at afvise ordrer, hvis disse ordrer var i modstrid med New Zealands nationale interesser.