GALLIPOLI TO-DAY

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17756, 7 May 1923, Page 6

GALLIPOLI TO-DAY

WORK ON THE GRAVES COMMISSION.

'.JTECU CUTt 0-.VN CORBESPOhTJENT.,! LONDON, March 22. There are rumours that the forces of Great Britain will be withdrawing from the N«u* East in. the not distant future. At present, however, the Gallipoii Peninsula is an armed camp. For six vears the old battlegrounds were visited only by the Graves Registration officials and the staff of the Imperial War (i raves Commission. Suddenly the wiir clouds gathered again in the Near East and the quiet hillsides ics-Hinded

once more to the tramp of armies and the hammer.* and picks of the khaki working parties. Over on the Asiatic side miles and miles of trenches were dug and wire entanglements were constri:. tod. ontl tin-iv the JJrn-isli troops are sti.l keeping guard wkde the Tuiks remain in po.suio:: beyond. Guns command forty miles of the sea front. On Gullipo.i 13,000 troops are quartered. Nissen huts havt sprung up across the plain from Kclia, and every man is quartered nuclei- a roof. Nothing was Kit to chance. Light railways were thrown .out in all directions and a railway was run across from Kclia to Anzac, for it was irom the- sho v e suplilies would have been brought in case of hostilities.

Lieut. A. W. Mildonhall, of the New Zealand F.Npeditionary Forces, Chief Hoik of Works for the* Imperial Graves Commis-ion on the peninsula, lias been in Kngland, and it is his opinion that the people in Great Britain never realised how near to war we were last autumn. When the Turks gained their victory over the Greeks all the Greeks on the peninsula fled and so the work on the cemeteries was suspended for a time. Italians and Ru sians were brought in and these are now engaged by the (C-motery contractors and liy ftie Army. Five of the cemeteries are completed except for the headstones. These are Emhanknicnt Pier. New Zealand No. 2 Outpost, N T o. 2 Outpost, Canterbury, and 7th Field Ambulance. The headstones are Ix.'ing made and inscribed in England and will be sent out all randy to place on the graves. An expert gr.rdencr from Kew is superintending the planting. Grass within the walled area oi those completed cemeteries is in good growth, and the 30ft belts of shrubs have been planted. Australian and New Zealand shrubs are being planted and the Australian gum tree, of which there are seventy-two varieties, is beng extensively used.

How the Stone is Transported. . The contractors (Sir Pain Galway. Brown, Ltd.) have erected a rope line from Ocean Bench to Baby 700, and from there on to Lone Pine. By this means they arc a.b'o to convey their stono (brought by ship from Olgnrdcre. about ten miles from Kelia) right on to the sites of the cemeteries at Walker's Kiclge, the Nek, Lone Pine, Johnson's Jolly, Steel and Courtenay, Quinn's Post, and to tho 4th Battalion cemetery. The same contractors will erect the New Zealand Battle Memorial at Cliunnk Bair, but pending a satisfactory settlement with the Turks the erection of this has been postponed. Work on two- cemeteries at Mudros, two at Constantinople, and one at Syra ij now being proceeded with. Naturally, a certain amount of apprehension is felt by tho Graves Commission at the approaching evacuation of the British troops. They are hoping for the best, however. After the Crimean War the Turks gave tho Haular Paslvi. cemetery nt Constantinople to the Britsh, arid this Ims been respected during the intervening half a century. No crosses are erected there, however, and whe : ther tho Christian symbol on Gnllipoli will act as a. provocation to the Turks is yet to be proved. ■ At Lone Pine a special inscription applicable to the unknown dead of both New Zealand and Australian soldiers is to be placed on the central memorial. Sir James Allen and Sir Joseph Cook have been in consultation over this and their suggestions have been submitted to Mr Rpdynrd Kipling for approval or further suggestions.