Further agitation by the committee for an official approach to be made to the Queen resulted in a formal application to the Government in late 1993. This was rejected, one reason cited being the alleged conduct of the Māori soldiers towards Italian prisoners at Takrouna. This provoked the committee to collect more evidence in support of its case, including rebuttal evidence regarding the treatment of the Italians. It also stressed the point that the Manahi case was one of rectifying an error made by the military authorities to downgrade the VC to a DCM. It was not a matter of an attempt to see a soldier awarded a medal he had been overlooked for, as was alleged by military historian Christopher Pugsley. Finally, in 1997, the then Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jenny Shipley, formally broached the subject with Buckingham Palace. The feedback indicated the elapsed time since the events of Takrouna was a barrier to awarding Manahi a VC.