WAR GRAVES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21983, 19 June 1933, Page 12

WAR GRAVES

WORLD-WIDE WORK REPORT TO AUSTRALIA (Fbom Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, June 8. How the graves of Empire soldiers who lost their lives in the Great War are being cared for is told in the last report of the Imperial War Graves Commission, a copy of which has just reached the Returned Soldiers' League of Australia. At Gallipoli, the report states, pine trees are growing well, and show up clearly the white memorials and the walls of the cemeteries. Wallflowers, tulips, English roses and rosemary hedges have been planted. The caretakers and gardeners, many of whom are Turks, continue to show keen interest in their work, and the relations between the commission's staff and the Turkish authorities have been of a most friendly character. The regulations affecting imports into Turkey have been invariably relaxed when a request has been made by the commission to the Turkish Government. • ...-..

The report shows that the work of the commission is world-wide. It ranges from the care of the vast cemeteries in Prance and Belgium to a solitary mound in Beuchuanaland, where, alone, lies the remains of a British warrier. The Congo, Cuba, the Leeward Islands, Armenia, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, Borneo, Oman, Indo-China and a number of other far-away places, each have a single British war grave which is under the care of the commission. The figures relating to the number of dead are not yet final. In this connection it is stated, " Perhaps they can never be final."

Bodies of British soldiers are still being found on the Somme battlefields at the rate of about 800 a year. More than 1200 bodies were recovered during last year from the battle areas in France and Belgium, and 200 of these were not identified.

With water provided from King Feizal's royal estates, the whole of the Bagdad North cemetery has been irrigated, with the result that trees and shrubs now cast their friendly shade on the graves of hundreds of Britain's war dead. To make green the desert war graves at Basra 200,000 cubic feet of salt earth had to be removed and replaced with sweet soil. In the Jerusalem Cemetery more than 600 chrysanthemums now bloom. The damage caused by locusts at Beershcba has been repaired and the asphalting of the main road in front of the Haifa Cemetery has checked the clouds of dust. The report indicates that the commission has had to face an amazing collection of problems, but most of these have been Bolved in a manner that must be satisfactory to those who lost their loved ones in the war. They have az least the satisfaction of knowing that the graves are not neglected but are being cared for in a manner which must bring relief to many a tortured mind.