WAR CEMETERIES.

Waikato Times, Volume 112, Issue 18723, 25 August 1932, Page 11

WAR CEMETERIES.

FITTING RESTING-PLACES. t s .. i j THE EMPIRE'S DEAD. ADDRESS ON A GREAT WORK. “ I would like you to realise the number and distribution of these war cemeteries in which-lie 1.080,000 men of the British Empire.who gave their lives for their country during the Great War," said Mr A- W. Mildenhall, for 13 years New Zealand’s representative on the Imperial War Graves Commission, before the Wellington Rotary Club. 11 These cemeteries'-'stretch across France and Belgium ,in a>chain from the English Channel to the Vosges Mountains and beyond into Germany.. It continues across Switzerland, Italy, Macedonia, the Balkans, the.' Greek islands, Turkey, through Palestine to Iraq, then on to India, China, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, and then across Canada back to the United Kingdom. The total number of cemeteries is' 15,368. “ On the Gallipoli Peninsula I think the commission had Us hardest task as far as construction was concerned, owing to the inaccessible positions of some of the cemeteries, to mention a few of them—Lone Pine, Courtenay's, Steele's, Quinn’s Post, Baby Loo, and Cbunuk Bair—all on the top of the ridge. “ My first task," continued Mr Mlldenhall, was the construction of roads leading to the Anzac area from the Narrows. The first four miles was over more or less level country, until the famous Olive Grove was reached. It was in this • so-oalled olive grove that the gun “ Beachy Bill" had its lair. From the Grove the road traverses a low ridge and then dips down to Gaba Tepe. Then it branched, one. to Lone Pine, and on to Ghunuk Bair. Anyone who knows the country will realise the switchbsiok character of the road, yet when it was finished we were able to reach the highest point by car. “ The other branch of the road skirted the coast, and entailed a good deal more making, as most of it ha'd to be cut out of the steep face of the hillside. “ From Anzac to Suvla was fairly simple, as the country is level, with ■only two streams to be bridged. . ' : ‘ / - ■ '* - V m Men and Women Navvies. " We employed Ottoman Greeks on the construction of this road —both men and women —as navvies. , The women worked well, but needed a lot of looking after, as they would get to-. gether and chatter. These people' are the descendants of the old Greeks in Thrace, and at that time .were living peaceably under the Turks. These Ottoman Greeks have since been turned out of Turkey. There are 31 British cemeteries on Gallipoli,” said Mr Mildenhall. “Of these 21 are In Anzac, six In Helles, and four in Suvla. In the construction of the headstones neither the upright stone nor the cross of sacrifice' (with its bronze sword) were suitable -for these oemeteriesv We had to remember that we were building in a Mohammedan country, and obvious Christian emblems might cause trouble in years to come—so the slates were fixed to a concrete block 2ft 6in of whioh is below the surface of the ground. " No doubt most of you have heard quite a lot about the New Zealand Memorial at Chunulc Bair. In the form of a Greek cross 24ft 6in in diameter, it rises tapering to a height of 45ft, the top course being 12ft 6in In diameter. It is built of the same stone as used in the cemetery construction, and came from the same quarry/ which is, believed to have supplied stone for the old walls of anoicnt Troy." ( Cemeteries In Franco. After being stationed at Gallipoli for five years, Mr Mildenhall was transferred to France, where the old battle line from Armentleres to Albert, and in a lesser degree on the Valenciennes, is a chain of war cemeteries, 2413 in all in France and Belgium. Nearly 600,000 headstones were made in England and shipped across. Over 125 miles of stone and brick walls were built, 63 miles of hedges had been planted, and over 500 aores sown with grass seed. In one year alone over 1,300,000 plants were issued from the commission's nurseries to the cemeteries In France and Belgium. “There'ls one cemetery In France that will be seen by more people than any other," said Mr Mildenhall. “It is among the sand dunes at Etaples, olose to the main railway line from Calais to Boulogne, to Paris, and the south-. It encloses 10,753 graves of soldiers and-, nurses who died in the great base hospitals. Nearly two hundred and sixty-one New Zealand soldiers lie thero. . . On the high sandhill among the fir trees a wide terrace has been built overlooking the cemetery and commanding a view of the English Channel in the distance between the two lighthouses of Le T)ouquet. Above the centre of the terrace stands the Cross of Sacrifice, and below, on the terrace itself, is the Stone of Remembrance. Not for Feats of Arms. “ Always in the past, memorials placed on battlefields have commemorated feats of arms and victories, but these memorials have a broader significance, as they honour those soldiers to whom tho fortunes of war have denied honoured burial. “ Each participating Government has paid its share of the cost of tho cemeteries and memorials In relation to its number of dead. This worked out as follows:—United Kingdom, 81.52 per cent.; Canada, 7.86 per cent.; Australia, 6.33 per cent.; New Zealand, 2.05 per cent.; India, 1.02 per cent.; South Africa, .89 per cent.; British West Indies, .17 per cent./ and Newfoundland .16 per cent. The total cost of the work of construction was, roughly, £10,000,000, so New Zealand’s contribution of 2.05 per cent, has been £210.000. For the maintenance of all these cemeteries and memorials another £5,000,000 endowment fund has been established to furnish the income estimated for maintaining the graves and memorials for all time. New Zealand's share or this fund is £105.000, which has already been paid."