MEN WHO FELL

Evening Star, Issue 17767, 15 September 1921, Page 4

MEN WHO FELL

THE EXHUMATION QUESTION, Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright, • LONDON, September 13. The Imperial authorities proposed to [ discontinue the last March of bodies of soldiers buried hi branch, and Flemish battlefields, but yielding to pressure from tho Dominions agreed to continue till September. Each nipnth fewer identifiable bodies have been recovered, because the means of identification have decayed. H exhumation were postponed tie position would be practically the same two years lienee, except that identification would bo increasingly difficult. Tho sug- . postion that civilians should receive a bonus on each body recovered after tho military withdrawal failed to obtain the approval of tho Dominions. Tho War Office is pledged to the French Government to clear tho battlefields at tho earliest possible date to enable civil rccon- ‘ ptruction to proceed; hence the desire to ■ discontinue the work of exhumation ns early as possible. The Commonwealth authorities state that the Australian fatalities were 45,000. About 52.0C0 bodies have been recovered, including 26,500 identified and 5,000 reiuterred in cemeteries unidentified, leaving 12,500 still , missing.—A. and N.Z. Cable.