Mintoff plan upsets war graves group

Press, 27 May 1981, Page 8

Mintoff plan upsets war graves group

NZPA London The Prime Minister of Malta (Mr Dom Mintoff) wants to bulldoze three cemeteries where thousands of British, Australian and other Commonwealth servicemen are buried.

He plans to clear their remains from the land and use it for housing, reports the London “Sun's" correspondent from Valetta. The scheme has shocked the Commonwealth WaiGraves Commission and its Western Mediterranean representative, Peter Dolan, is quoted as saying: “Apparently the idea is to uproot the remains and put them all in one big awful hole. ! '

"We have made it plain to

the Maltese Government that we never agree to moving war graves except in the case of genuine and urgent public interest. "That does not apply in Malta. The needs of the living there are certainly not greater than those of the dead.”

Malta has four military cemeteries containing the remains of 15,000 servicemen who died in both world wars.

Mr Mintoff plans to remove the remains to one central cemetery near the city of Medina. A Government official said: "This is a tiny , island and we are short of building space.

"We are not going to bulldoze the remains away.

We are simply going to put them all in one place.” New Zealand totally opposed the Maltese Government's plan. The man in charge of war graves, Mr B. D. Fry, of the Department of Internal Affairs. said it first learnt, of the Maltese plan to close three of the four graves two years ago.

"Were totally opposed to it,” he said. The New Zealand High Commissioner in London (Mr L. W. Gandar) who represents the country on the commission, had made the views clear there, i" ■

Mr Fry said there were 69 New Zealand wgr graves in Malta, as wellsas ■ 85 commemoration plaques for New Zealand servicemen.