THE Thames Star. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1927. WAR GRAVE MONUMENTS.

Thames Star, Volume LXI, Issue 17021, 4 November 1927, Page 4

THE Thames Star.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1927. WAR GRAVE MONUMENTS.

"With malice towards none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right."—Lincoln.

.Some sympathy was expressed in the House.o_f Representatives .last •week with the terms of a petition in which permission to inscribe a verse of iScripture on the stone above a soldier's grave was sought. In the course of a short discussion on the matter it was stated, apparently by way of complaint, that New Zealand is the only country in the Empire that forbids private inscriptions on the headstones over soldiers' graves. It is probable that this statement i 3 well-founded, but, even if it is, the principle that has been adopted in respect of the graves of New Zealand soldiers is not on that account to be regarded as unsound and as unworthy as being maintained. There is a very great deal to be said in favour of the observance of uniformity in the war graves' headstones. It is a great recommendation of the system that it expresses and emphasises the fact that the soldiers —officer and private, "richman, poor-man" —who fell in the war were engaged in a common cause and that in death there is no discrimination of rank, for all are equal. It is impossible for any one to visit one of the large cemeteries, in which there are many hundreds of graves, without taking away the impression that there 'is' a simple dignity about the uniform headstones at the heads of the trimly-kept graves that is deeply impressive. 'There is, however, another virtue in the system that has •been adopted. If the right of any one bereaved parent to have a private inscription placed on a headstone were admitted, the right would necessarily have to be generally admitted. Tastes, however, as to the form which inscriptions should take vary a great deal. However appropriate and beautiful some private inscriptions might be, if the right to place them on the headstones were, granted and exercised, there is a plain danger that others might be merely banal 'and ! offensive to the refined taste. As a censorship would not be practicable, in all the circumstances, it was not an ill-considered judgment that decided that private inscriptions should be excluded.