NEW ZEALAND WAR GRAVES.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 September 1924, Page 11

NEW ZEALAND WAR GRAVES.

NO INSCRIPTIONS ALLOWED. London, July 28. On June 11 certain newspapers in (New Zealand published an account of an interview with Mrs. Martin, widow of Dr. A. A. Martin, of Palmerston 'North, who was killed on the Somme in 1916. lira. Martin is reported as rawing objections to the policy foUowed 'by the Dominion Government of vetoing the personal inscription on the headstones of New< Zealand soldiers, who were killed in the war. She points out that the bereaved relatives of New Zealand soldiers, who lie in the cemeteries of France, are the only ones in the whole of the Empire who are not allowed the privilege. “The whole position is wrong, unjust,” she says, “and is an insult to the intelligence of New Zealanders. I mean to fight this to the finish.? Mrs. Martin then mentions the official reasons for the principle as given to her by Sir James Allen. The subject, of course, was first raised two or three yeans ago, and a good deal of publicity was given to it in the New Zealand papens at the time. The official view of the matter as set out by Sir James Allen was mentioned in more than one of my mail letters. However, 1 have drawn the Commissioner’s attention to the interview as published in a Dunedin paper, and he is still perfectly convinced that the New Zealand authorities have adopted the right policy. ■“Had we allowed personal inscriptions on the headstones,” saiid Sir James, “we should have had aR the rich people making use of the privilege and the poor would not have been able •to, a distinction we had no desire to encourage.

“It is perfectly true that the inscriptions have to be passed by the War Graves Commission, but if the Commission retuse to accept an inscription they lay themselves open to serious trouble. I have protested as a member of the Commission to the principle of personal inscriptions in the case of the rest of the Empire, and I think the Commission has made a very grave mistake.

“So far as New Zealand is concerned we have definitely decided not to permit personal inscriptions, and we are going ■to stick to it.”