WAR GRAVES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 18920, 23 January 1936, Page 16

WAR GRAVES

INTERNATIONAL SCHEME RECIPROCAL SERVICES LONDON, Dec. 28. A joint committee representing the Governments of the United Kingdom, the Dominions, and 'lndia, and _ the French and German Governments, is to be set tip for the discussion and settlement- of administrative questions relating to the care of German war graves in British territory and in British cemeteries in France, and of British war graves in Germany. An agreement fortius purpose was recommended at .a conference between Sir Fabian Ware and French and German representatives in Berlin last October. It has now been signed by all the Governments concerned. There are in France more than 5000 German graves in British cemeteries, and for these graves the German Government is responsible to Germany, the French Government (under the Peace Treaty) to the German Government, and the Imperial War Graves Commission, as a matter of practical administration, to the French Government. It- is this chain of responsibility which has made inevitable the presence of British, French, and German representatives on a joint committee. The agreement provides that the British dead shall for all time rest- in their present graves; that the graves shall be maintained by British personnel in accordance with British principles; that there shall be free import into Germany of anything necessary for their proper maintenance, and guarantees for liberty of inspection. Each of these provisions is followed by a statement of reciprocal rights and duties as regards German graves on British soil, so far as the German authorities desire to exercise such right or to ask for the fulfilment of such duties.