UNIDENTIFIED GRAVES

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 302, 15 September 1921, Page 5

UNIDENTIFIED GRAVES

REASONS FOR DISCONTINUING EXHUMATIONS. (Rec. September 14, 5.5 p.m.) London, September 13. Tho Imperial military authorities proposed to discontinue tho exhumation of bodies on the Western front last March, but yielding to pressure from tho Dominions, agreed to continue tho work 11" September. Each month fewer identifiable bodies have been recovered, because the means of identification have decayed. If discontinuance were postponed matters would bo in practically tho same position two years hence, except that identification would bo increasingly difficult. Tho suggestion that civilians should receive a bonus on each body recovered after the military withdrawal failed to obtain the approval of tho Dominions. The War Office is pledged to the French GoVernmefit to clear the battlefields at the earliest possible date to enable civil reconstruction to proceed, hence the desire to discontinue tho exhumations as early as possible. The Commonwealth authorities state that tlie Australian fatalities were 45,000. About 32,500 bodies have been recovered, including 26,500 identified and 6000 reinterred in cemeteries unidentified, leaving 12,500 still miss-ing.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.