SOLDIER GRAVES

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 71, 24 March 1920, Page 6

SOLDIER GRAVES

KEEPING THEM IN OP.DE&. (PROM ODR OWN CORRESPONDENT^) _ LONDON, 28th January. Some interesting information relative toHhe care of soldiers' graves in the various theatres of war has been given by Captain Arthur Hill, Assistant Director, Kew Gardens, and Botanical Adviser to the Imperial War. Graves Commission. ■ He says that belts of suitable trees are being planted around the graves which are marked by a cross, at whose foot is a space for flowering perennials. In France alone there are between 1600 and 1700 of these burial places, and the work of keeping them in order is, of course, very great. In some isolated places, it has been thought best, while preserving the crosses, to level the mounds, and make green lawns that jean be easily mown and kept in good condition. In the case of Chinese graves, Captain Hill said some trouble was taken to find out the. most suitable memento, and at length a long board was produced, with Chinese characters painted in vermillion. When they saw this, however, the Chinese were very angry. They felt that they were being treated differently, and insisted on having 1 a cross like the others. The difficulty of finding plant* to suit the varying soils of Northern' France and Flanders was accentuated by the practice of the diggers in the early days of the war in shovelling all the good soil into the bottom of the grave and leaving all the bad soil at ethe top. Near the coast the soil consists entirely of blown sand, and it was almost an axiom of the Frencli that good lawns were impossible there. DISTINCTIVE FAUNA. For the graves of overseas soldiers, the aim was to get commemorative i giants from the countries represented. !anadians had maple trees, and the New Zealanders the olearia shrub and native veronicas; for' the Australians, they had been fortunate in getting hold of hardy eucalyptus trees; and for the Indians, cypress trees and irises and marigolds. In the case of the South Africans the problem was more difficult, since apart from a.rmuals, the only flower that,seemed capable of living in Franco was the "red-hot poker," from Natal. Captain Hill gave a vivid de-, scription of the great Somme battlefield, as he saw it in 1917—one great blazing sheet of poppies, covering thousands and thousands of acres. For the time being the sight of the, shell-holes was obliterated, tnough, as a matter of'fact, they were ■ still filled with water, tad it was only possible to walk round the edges of them. Nothing could, be more strikingly beautiful. .