Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, FRIDAY, JULY 25 1902. OUR SOLDIERS' GRAVES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 9186, 25 July 1902, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, FRIDAY, JULY 25 1902. OUR SOLDIERS' GRAVES.

So many schemes for raising memorials are extant that one hesitates to suggest another, but there is one direction in which, we think, all will agree the be-nevolently-minded should turn their thoughts. Probably the matter is one not so much for individual contribution us for attention by the State, but to whoever the responsibility may belong, New Zealand should not lose sight of the sacred duty that it owes- to keep the graves of its soldier boys green. Many memorials tio fallen soldiers are being raised in the cities of this colony, mostly with the allied object of supplying the towns with some needed article, ot municipal adornment, and it would not be creditable to us if away on the veldt the graves of those we honour wei'e unmarked and neglected. How much New Zealand owes, and the Empire owes, to the brave boys whose remains lie buried in a-distant land, can scarcely be computed. We cannot do better than quote ;t verse from a poem recently published in the Spectator us expressing the sentiment that we wish to convey: —

He who died quick with his face to the foe In the. heart of a friend must needs die slow ; Over his grave shall be heard the call, — The battle is won by the men that full! In America there is exercised a fine'sentiment of recognition of the services of the nation's dead heroes. A day is set apart every year as a memorial day, when flowers and. flags are. laid upon the. graves of the fallen soldiers. Nor are- these dead heroes allowed to remain in foreign soil. The bodies of soldiers who have died in the Philippine* have been brought in thousands back to America for interment in the districts to which they belong. We iiould not suggest such a process of exhumation with regard to our boys in South Africa. Let them rest where they have fallen, in. the pki.ee of honour, in front of the fight; but let us not foregt to mark their resting-places, a.nd keep their memory green. There luis been formed in England un institution with which the New Zealand people should' associate themselves, either by Government aid or by devoting a portion of the surplus patriotic funds which every community has in lnuid. It is the South Ati'iciiu Grave Fund of the Victoria League ■:>f England, which, working in, co-opera-tion, with the Loyal Women's League of youth Afrie-.L, has underUiken the pathetic duty of locating and tending, so- far as (s means and the possibilities will allow, the graves of soldiers, whose lives have been lost in. the late war. Its field of operation covers Cape Colony, Natal, Or:u)ge Rivw Colony and Rhodesia. Already, it. is stated, hundreds of graves have been located and their sites expropriated. With the aid of the local agencies called to its help, the Victoria League should be able, if sufficient funds are forthcoming, !o identify the grave of almost every Sew Zealand soldier who had separate burial. Perfect success in this direction, a contemporary points out, is hardly to be hoped for ;* in the. thick of war it is impossible to perform the sad hist duty to fallen soldiers- with such care as in normal times we owe the dead. This is one of its most impressive horrors; that the slain must, under some circumstances sometimes without mark or distinction, be heaped into trenches, that the work of slaughter may proceed without little delay. The civilised, reverent, gracious sentiment which clings to the memory of dead ones who were dear, .Hid seeks to pay tribute to that memory, is, like most of the best human feelings trampled under foot by war. The object is one to which our patriotic funds could well be subscribed. They were raised for th-s purpose of relieving the pecuniary distress of relatives of the fallen, bui fortunately in this colony there are few people who have lost boys in oircum--ta-iicL's that need much financial help. It would, however, bs a distinct relief and comfort, to such families, now in ignorince of where their dead are lying, if we could have the graves located, so that, ■hey may make of the spot a shrine to ifverent memory. The good work of the Victoria. League we can heartily commend to the people of tltis colony."