CARE OF WAR GRAVES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19413, 23 August 1926, Page 10

CARE OF WAR GRAVES.

FALLEN NEW ZEALANDERS.

COMMISSION'S GREAT TASK. jGREAX CARE BESTOWED. THE- ERECTION OF HEADSTONES. A letter which recently reached the Herald officte- stated that a friend of the writer-recently- in Prance;-had written to bim'.a^'follows: — . , -"The; Graves .Commission keep the graves in beautiful order, but why are those of New ' Zealanders the only , ones without - hea<lStOnes ?'■; ~ ~ !

i This prompted inquiries, in Wellington and' the. Herald's .special representative telegraphing • yesterday stated that'the War Graves Commission, .through which th&.workis doney has the gigantic task-of commemorating' in stone one milKon .men." Of these nearly# >730,000 '' lie in known graves l which the commission,: with: nntir--: ing patience and energy, is putting into order. The' names of the . missing aire! being inscribed on monuments erected, for the purpose at all theatres, of war.? On behalf J of' the Governments of the Empire the commission is spending about £1,500,000 annually and years will pass before the constructional part of its work is done.

New Zealand graves amount to less than 2 per cent, of these under the care of the commission.. . What, has.. been,, .dope}; for them is set out in. the annual report of the Department of Internal Affairs, which oovers the period up to the middle of May last. So far as graves in New Zealand ate; concerned, "the report states that the total deaths of . members and ex-nksmbers Of ' tjie New Zealand .Expeditionary Force in the Dominion number 3480 and the graves -of 2113 of these are deemed to be war: graves.' So far 1279 headstones have been ordered and 1046 erected. Work is 1 proceeding with regard to the remainder.

i ■" Burial* Places Abroad.■ j The foDowing passage .in ' tie repoHo deals' Vfith, war; grayes abroad:—"ln. the, theatres o! war, at the overseas ports' of call. the . New. Zealand. Expeditionary Force lost a total of 16,284 officers and .men,.; Of -this number the J bursal' places of ~ 10,060 have' -been-lo<atedv\»nd' j 6224 are .recorded ..as'. 'lost, \. graves are' contained in 475 cemeteries' and memorials .to-,the. missingf erected'inj. ' cemeteries representative Jof -thei, area in which the men fell, commemorate the names of .those' , whose graves cannot be located.. "In France and Belgium. there _ aire, 200. .cemeteries, containing - 7881 New Zealianders' grayes. Permanent work has been completed, in 155 of these cemeteries '.ein-'j bracing .4579 graves. Permanent .work, on all war graves, in Gallipoli,', Egypt", the, Aegean islands and Switzerland has been ; 1 completed. In Palestine there are 236 graves located in eight cemeteries. Work has been completed on 65 graves in four cemeteries. In the United-Kingdom there is a total of 719 graves in 110 cemeteries. Of this number permanent work has been completed on 487.graves in 29 .On the Island of "Malta'72men "Were (juried' in ; three. cemeteries and there remains, bfit one grave to complete. t ''l^e ; -;New Zealand Government's expenditure: 'for-' the year-;on the work of wir. grayes w&sj approximately "bringing ;thev. total 1« , date, to \ ■']' Organisation* : i • -i-,:- | The letter abovo referred -to' waS Bub-' mittied- to the- war'.graves branch; -of th 6' ■department. in ,• Wellington. <'-The. matter, -is. not directly,.jh our hapds,'* said the of&cier. ; in.-charge. .{'We are'. paft ofa! great : wi'de brgSniiation "which -is doing 1 the work in the ■ quickest -and. most' .effi'i cierit 1 way possible..' .New; Zealand;;is., represented; on . the Imperial TOu:\Graye3. by the High Commissioner in London, who looks alter the''Dominion's interests in.' putting cemeteries into- permanent order.,* u The bommissipny deals with, a whole region <at> a ;time, < A: igrqup f of. cemeteries in,, say, Belgium, are; taken, "the records, are checked, the' ground is "'cleared; leveilled and sowngrass and 'flowers. . Enclosing walls are built, thfe dross of sacrifice and the storte of. remembrance- are raised, and the record house,'is erected.. The headstones are cut and in England, l and are shipped -over row by row.

- Checking the Inscriptions. ' The .graves of men from all parts of tjiie Empifre are treated equally in this process; The only-reason it" is possible to imagine for the absence of stones on New Zealanders' graves is that there may have been some delay in ■ checking the inscriptions. Copies of these are sent out to New. Zealand, and we have- to forward them,to the next.of kin, sometimes a difficult matter. The whole process occupies abouC 3ix months, but they usually give us ample'time, and it is hard to believe that there is any delay from this cause."

To show the care of the commission f6r the feelings of the bereaved the official produced a file of papers which spoke for itself. A dead soldier's mother living in a little country town ;had sent some bulbs and flower seeds from her own garden with a request that they be placed, if .possible,, on the graVe ; of her son and those of his comrades in a French cemetery. The file of correspondence showed that the request with the bulbs and seedß :had been forwarded' to London, and [eventually to the commission's horticultural officer in the district concerned. | The. officer wrote ,that bulbs were always acceptable, so ' were some seeds. Others, were hard to, rear, in that soil and | climate. However, the planting of them i;would be treated: as'a; - special matter," [ and they would 1 be sown, on the New ZeaI land graves in . .the . .cemetery,' as the mother wished. \

Photographs; Supplied. The commission by degrees is photo- I graphing all that, have been put into thorough order. Each* next of kin receives not only a- postcard size print of the _grave and' stone, but also the I original film .-negative, 80 that more prints may be made if need be. Each "film and print are accompanied by a mounted photograph of the cemetery brightened by hand tinting; Relatives may also obtain ; copies of the cemetery register at. cost J price. These registers are beautifully printed. They contain maps of the. region and of the cemetery, an account of the fighting in the neighbourhood, and' the name, unit, next of kin and other particn-t lars of every man buried there 83 fax as they are obtainable. < The commission is always finding bodies of the lost and irfissing, especially on the Western Front. The French and Belgian Governments impose "a heavy; .fine on anyone who on discovering a body fails to,' report it, and a reward is 'offered for' every body found. The exhumation is done, with the utmost: care, . Failing identification the body is rebnried in a. cemetery'under a stone marked A Rnt'j ish Soldier known unto' God." If there is no identification disc everything possible is dtjne to trace the; man. by his ;be--longings,- and many poor relics, 'badges, ! wrist - watches, and the like come ont tol New Zealand for that purpose every year. Very often inquiries solve the puzzle and 6et some mother's heart, at rest. ' Lately among, the, effectsof one man arrived two sovereigns. They had come all the way and no one had'dreamed of stealing them, although British gold is i wor&zaany francs- m France to-day. ,