WAR GRAVES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23302, 22 March 1939, Page 19

WAR GRAVES

STANDARD HEADSTONES COROMANOEL GRANITE OVER 3000 SUPPLIED Over 3000 headstones of Coromandel granite have so far been supplied by tlie Public Works Department in Auckland for the graves of returned men in various parts of the Dominion who died of wounds or other disabilities incurred through service in the Great War. In addition it has supplied large numbers of headstones of slightly different type graves of other exsoldiers whoso deaths were not directly traceable to war service.

No details are available of the proportion of returned soldiers' graves which carry official headstones, nor, so far as Auckland city is concerned, is there a concentration of soldiers' graves in one particular cemetery. At Waikumete cemetery there is a soldiers' plot, with a general memorial, but there is a scattering of other returned soldiers' graves, often with official headstones, in other cemeteries.

In Wellington there is a large soldiers' section on the lines of ex-ser-vicemen's cemeteries throughout the Empire. It bears the standard altar memorial and the cross with the bron/.e sword designed for Empire use by Sir Edwin Luytens, and which was actually sent from England through the Imperial War Graves' Commission. Christcluirch has another very fine soldiers' cemetery, and Masterton, among the smaller towns, has also created a welldesigned memorial area.

ATTENTION IN PALESTINE SANCTUARIES OF PEACE An assurance that New Zealand war graves in Palestine were beautifully kept and devotedly maintained was given yesterday by Major A. K. Vickery, of Jerusalem, area superintendent for the Imperial War Graves Commission in Egypt, Palestine and Syria, who arrived at Auckland this week on a short visit to his brother, the llev. H. K. Vickery, port chaplain. Major Vickery said his area also embraced Turkey and Greece. No matter where there were British soldiers' graves, however, they were carefully kept. Amid the uncertainties of conditions in Palestine, lor instance, the British cemeteries were sanctuaries of peace. No distinction was made between one Empire country and another; the graves of all the British soldiers received exactly the same thoughtful care and attentiou.