WAR DEAD

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23323, 5 October 1945, Page 4

WAR DEAD

To Remain In Overseas Cemeteries Graves Will Be Reverently Tended (N.Z.P.A.) WELLINGTON, Oct. 4. The Minister of Internal Affairs, the Hon. W. E. Parry, said to-day that the Governments of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Newfoundland and India have decided, as after the 1914-18 war, that the return to their homeland of bodies of his Majesty’s forces buried overseas shall not be undertaken nor allowed, and have authorised the Imperial WaiGraves Commission to issue the following statement: "Since the outbreak of the war a number of requests have been received from relatives of members of his Majesty’s forces buried overseas that the bodies should be brought back to their native countries for reburial. The Commission feels that restatement of the policy formed after the 1914-18 waits desirable. To-day, as in 1918, the Commission are the servants of the public in all parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, and it is their duty to treat with all possible sympathy the desire of Individual relatives, but the reasons against any change in their policy appear to them to be overwhelming. To give effect to even a moderate demand for repatriation would be a task of even greater magnitude than it would have been in 1918, for though the numbers are happily fewer, the graves are far more widely scattered, and shipping facilities are practically non-existent. On the other hand, private repatriation by a few Individuals who can afford the cost would be contrary to equality of treatment which is the underlying principle of the Commission’s work, and has appealed so strongly to the deepest sentiments of our peoples. Once again France has given a generous lead in providing in perpetuity land required for our cemeteries in that country, and by like generosity on the part of other Allied Governments, or by provisions in peace treaties, the last resting places of our Empire’s dead in foreign lands will be permanently secured. Cemeteries are being laid out and constructed on the model of those of the last war, and, like them, will be reverently tended by the Commission’s own gardeners, and will be honoured for all time. The Commission have learnt from intimate contact with relatives of men during the last 25 years that real consolation is derived from the knowledge that the last restingplaces of their dead are so honoured and made sure.”