SILENT WITNESSES

Southland Times, Issue 22453, 13 December 1934, Page 8

SILENT WITNESSES

CARE OF WAR GRAVES. MEMORIALS TO SACRIFICE. “In the course of my pilgrimage through the war graves, I have many times asked myself whether there can be any more potent advocates of peace upon earth than this massed multitude of silent witnesses to the desolation of war, and I feel that so long as we have faith in God’s purposes we cannot but believe that the existence of these visible memorials will eventually serve to draw all people together in sanity and self-control.” These words, spoken by his Majesty the King, were quoted by Major-General Sir Fabian Ware, permanent vice-chairman of the Imperial War Graves Commission, at the conclusion of an inspiring address on the work of the commission, which he gave before a rather small audience in the Auckland Town Hall concert chamber on Saturday night. Sir Fabian said he had come to Australia and New Zealand to report on the work the commission had now accomplished. It had carried out the guarantee, made to the relatives of the 1,000,000 men in the British Empire who had died in the Great War, that every grave would be permanently marked and cared for.

First of all, the land in which every dead soldier in the British Empire was buried, was set aside in perpetuity, no matter in what country the cemetery was found. The sum of £5,000,000 had been endowed to provide for the permanent care of the graves, and, thanks to the care of the Imperial Commission which sat monthly in London, the cemeteries were being beautifully kept at an average cost of only 6/- a year for each grave. This cost included the upkeep of the great memorials. The work of the commission represented close co-operation between all parts of the Empire. Sir Fabian continued by describing a fine series of lantern slides, giving views of typical graves and .war cemeteries in France, Belgium, Italy, Turkey and Palestine. He showed that the headstone of each grave, irrespective of the rank of the soldier, was identical in general shape and size. It bore the name and military description of the deceased, an emblem of the nation represented, and an emblem, where, requested by the relatives, of the religious faith to which the soldier had belonged Headstones bearing names had been erected only when identification was absolutely certain. In other cases. a headstone, bearing the simple inscription, “A Soldier of the Great War. Known Unto God,” was erected, and plaques bearing the names of the missing men were placed on memorials in the cemeteries of the district where the unidentified soldiers had been reported as missing. In every war cemetery was placed a noble Cross of Sacrifice, and in the larger cemeteries a Stone of Remembrance.

Some of the most tragic war areas were shown in lantern slides. There were the Fir Tree Copse, Shrapnel Valley, V Beach and Helles Cemeteries to awaken poignant memories, as well as those at Passchendaele, Messines Ridge, and Menin Gate. “We have not been carrying out this work .without thought of its effect on posterity,” Sir Fabian concluded. “I think we have so built these memorials and so commemorated our dead, that we shall, in the years to come, still be able to hear their voice.”

“What we have seen has reminded us of service and sacrifice,” said General Sir George Richardson, in moving a vote of thanks to the speaker. “Once, as I walked along the Menin Road between the war cemeteries, I seemed to hear the voice of the dead asking me two questions—‘What are you doing to prevent any such catastrophe from happening again?’ and also: ‘What are you doing for our relatives?’” Sir George said he would have liked to see more members of the League of Nations Union present, for they would have learned that soldiers were promoters of peace, and fully appreciated the futility of war,.