WAR GRAVES.

Patea Mail, Volume XLIV, 29 November 1920, Page 4

WAR GRAVES.

PUTTING THEM IN ORDER, THE SYSTEM EXPLAINED. Few people realise the magnitude of the task involved in the classification setting in order, and maintenance of the graves of the (500,()()() British soldiers who fell in the war. There arc 0000 cemeteries in France and Belgium alone. Great Britain spent £1,401,007 on the work during the year ending 0.1 st March, 1020, and the amount voted thus far for the current, year is well over £1.401,000. The work is being pressed on as fast as possible. It is obvious that all the graves cannot be dealt with at once. Those in the larger cemeteries receive attention first.

The grave."- pass under dual control. The duty of putting them in good order, registering them, and removing isolated graves from lields to the nearest cemoUry rests with the military. “This work is now nearly completed,” said a War Otlice official to a London Daily Express representative. “We have had several thousand men engaged in the task, and wo anticipate that the majority of them will be free by the end of September, and that the work will have been completed and handed over to the Imperial War Graves Commission in another two or three months.” The task of the War Graves Commission is to take over from the Army all cemeteries when the graves therein have been registered, and are in good order, and to make arrangements for their maintenance, This is a tremendous task, and may not be completed for eight or ten years. The staff of the War Graves Commission in May totalled 1181, divided as follows; — United Kingdom, 278. France and Belgium, 817. Italy, 42. Mesopotomia and Egypt, 41. Neutral countries, 1. Germany, 2. During the past three months that staff has been increased to 14!)S. All the larger cemeteries are to have English caretakers, and, in the selection of these, preference will be given to those with a knowledge of French.