WAR CEMETERIES

Southland Times, Issue 20202, 13 June 1927, Page 8

WAR CEMETERIES

WAR MEMORIAL AT JERUSALEM. VIEW FROM THE SITE. On May 7 Viscount Allenby will unveil the memorial in the Jerusalem War Cemetery and Sir James Parr will unveil the New Zealand Memorial in the chapel. The cemetery (writes the Jerusalem correspondent of the Morning Post) lies on a plot of land given, as the inscription in English, Arabic and Hebrew at. the entry records, by the people of Palestine. The site in undoubtedly the ideal one for such a memorial. It is situated just below the ridge of Mount Scopus, at the top of a gentle amphitheatre-like slope, now green with young corn, and commands a magnificent diorama to the south-west of Jerusalem, from which it is about two miles distan on the road that leads to the Mount of Olives. Visible, a shining square, from almost every quarter of the city, the site looks down over the scenes of countless military exploits, from the capture of the City of Jebus by David, to the entry of Lord Allenby. Near at hand stood the headquarters of Titus, to the west stands up the minarea of Nebi Samwil, the burial place of the Prophet Samuel, and the scene of some of the most costly fighting of the 1917 campaign ; while the very site of the cemetery wau fought over during the furious counterattacks that followed the taking of Jerusalem. DIGNITY AND PEACE. The cemetery has been built of local stone, to the designs of Sir John Burnet. The task of supervising the construction was entrusted by the Imperial War Graves Commission to Captain C. Turville Gardner, who has superintended the erection of every cemetery from Akaba to Aleppo. The plan suggests dignity and peace. Its strong simple lines, culminating in the flat cupola of the Memorial Chapel, accord well with the severe contours and brilliant atmosphere of Palestine. An entrance, surmounted by the Imperial Arms, and flanked by the cognisances of all the regiments which took part in the campaign, gives upon the gently inclining area which contains the graves. There are 2,534 representing 107 units, the heaviest tolls being 653 from the London regiments, 173 from the Australian Forces, 149 from the Welsh Fusiliers, 101 from the Devons, 56 from the Machine Gun Corps, 53 from the Royal Field Artillery, 48 from the Royal West Kents, 40 each from the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, and the Middlesex and 34 from the New Zealand Forces. Each grave is marked by its headstone, quarried and worked in England, bearing the name, rank, regiment, regimental crest, emblem of faith, and sometimes a short inscription. In the middle of the plot stands the Cross of Sacrifice, while in a recess in the back wall is the beautiful Memorial Chapel, erected by the members of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force in memory of their fallen comrades. In a niche over the bronze doors of the little circular shrine stands a statue of St. George. NEW ZEALAND MEMORIAL. The interior of the chanel has been decorated by the Government of New Zealand with marble panelling, and symbolic mosaics, the work of Mr Anning Bell. The screen walls flanking the chapel bear tablets recording the names of all those, to the number of more than two thousand, who fell in Egypt and Palestine, and whose graves are not known. At each end of this flanking wall is a pylon, the one commemorating Australia’s dead, the other those of New Zealand. Before the entrance to the chapel lies the Stone of Remembrance, with the inscription: “Their name liveth for evermore.” Gardeners are always at work. The 5000 pine trees, which form the enclosing belt, are growing well, while inside, white lilac trees, small as yet, are just now in bloom. Every plot is edged with rosemary, and every year that passes sees the cemetery more beautifully clothed with green. On Easter Eve year by year a memorial service is held, which the High Commissioner attends. The graves are strewn with flowers, the chief of which, by a happy provision of Nature, is the wild scarlet anemone, so nearly identical in colour and shape with the poppy of Flanders.