GRAVES OF NEW ZEALANDERS

Southland Times, Issue 17652, 9 February 1916, Page 5

GRAVES OF NEW ZEALANDERS

METHODS OF IDENTIFICATION. THE POSITION AT GALLIPOLL (Per United Press Association.) AUCKLAND, February 8. A report regarding the graves of New Zealand soldiers on Gallipoli Peninsula and in Egypt lias been received by the .Minister for Defence from Lieut.-Col-Rhodes. Writing from Cairo on December 21st Colonel Rhodes states that tha graves of all those buried in cemeteries at Cairo, Alexandria, and Mudros, are very carefully registered, and can he identified at any time. Some of the Iron crosses for the graves are now ready and will be erected before long. Colonel Rhodes,intended to obtain photographs of the graves so that next of kin might have a record, and if they desired arrange for a stone or other memorial to he placed on the graves. Referring to the graves on the Peninsula Colonel Rhodes said lie iiad arranged with tlie chaplains to compile a record of all that could tie found, and to make sketches of their position. He mentioned that some of the men had placed sandstone memorials on the graves of their comrades, but most of them were marked only by wooden crosses. "On Hill CO, in the fighting in August,” Colonel Rhodes adds, "our men wore buried in a common trench witli the Turks, and there was no time to identify them. Before that many fell on the hills of Anzac. At Chunuk Bair we lost a great number of men who, we have every reason to believe, are dead, hut we have no actual proof.” Commenting on the last paragraph of the report Mr Allen said that as the recent casualty lists showed courts, of inquiry had been investigating available evidence regarding men who were reported missing during the campaign. As a result the names of men believed to I he dead were now being telegraphed. Mr Allen added that he believed that all who were prisoners in Turkey had been reported, as information was obtainable through three sources, the Red Cross, the Red Crescent, and tlie United States’ representatives.