“IN FLANDERS FIELDS”

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 54, Issue 3894, 26 April 1937, Page 6

“IN FLANDERS FIELDS”

BODIES STILL DISCOVERED. TASK OF GRAVES COMMISSION. London, March 6. Nearly 19 years after the Great War at a time when Europe would appear to be arming for another conflict, bodies of men killed on the former battlefields are still being discovered and reburied. No fewer- than 821 remains of British soldiers were found in France last year and 63 in Belgium. When indentification is possible notice is sent to the relatives, a course which was possible on only 96 occasions in the cases mentioned. These facts are recorded in the seventeenth annual report of the Imperial WarGraves Commission.

With regard to the maintenance of headstones in France and Belgium, the report states that maintenance falls into two categories—renovation and repairs. Renovation consists of the rubbing down of the stones, the renewal of inscriptions, either by touching up the letters or complete recutting, and the treatment of the stones with zinc silicofluoride. The total number of headstones dealt with during the year was 45,0C0. Repairs consist of total or partial replacement due to breakage and of work on displaced or broken headstone foundations resulting from subsidence of the soil. Severe frost, such as was experienced in the March quarter, is a frequent cause of breakage. During the year 41 headstones were replaced and 281 repaired out of a total of over 560,000 in France and Belgium. The total number of maintenance repairs carried out during the year amounted to 367. Repairs, consisting chiefly of the renovation of brickwork, were carried out in 31 cemeteries. As the cemeteries grow older repairs such as replacement of copings. margins, pavings, etc., tend to increase.

Sir Fabian Ware makes particular reference to the far cemeteries in Egypt and adjoining countries which he visited during the year, and remarks upon the avoidance of any temptation to rival memorials recording “that cult of the dead which for thousands of years dominated the lives and inspired the architecture of the people of Egypt. “These headstones, for whose permanent upkeep provision has been made, are themselves, without distinction of rank or worldy status, the monuments to our dead in surroundings where pyramids and rock tombs, unrivalled monoliths, and colossal statues survive as memorials of the royal and mightly dead of another civilisation. The contrast must appeal even to the least thoughtful.’’ Eleswhere in the report it is stated: “Thanks to satisfactory arrangements for the provision of water it has been possible greatly to improve the condition of the British war cemeteries in Iraq. Trees and grass have been made to flourish, and reports from those who visited the cemeteries during the year all agree on the success of this treatment.”