GALLIPOLI.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16419, 13 January 1919, Page 6

GALLIPOLI.

GRAVES OF THE FALLEN. NATIONAL MONUMENTS SUGGESTED. (By Cable.—Press Aesociation.—Copyright.) HJnited Service.) (Received January 12th, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, January 9. Mr Peacock, a special correspondent-, telegraphing from Chanak. sars that influenza is epidemical. One 'hundred and ten Now Zealanders are affected. One officer and ten men have died. Tho outbreak has now subsided, and the Weather has improved. Colonel Riclij artlson (Australian Light Horse) recovered a lot of Australian Red Cross equipment, which saved many lives. Tho digging up of graves has not been oxtensivo in the defined area, but many skeletons lie in the advanced lines and No Man's Land, and shallow graves have been washed out. Somo have been dug up, probably by road gangs, prowlers, or animals. In many trenches are bodies in small groups; Owing to tho graves being molcwtod, it is hopeless to identify the majority buried after the great August slaughter. Colonel Findlay, Canterbury Mounted Rifles, has a working party with local knowledge campod at Anzac Cove, tidying the cemeteries and identifying and registering known scattered graves. The Imperial Graves Registration Unit has 50,000 records, but many are inaccurate, 6000 men having been buried at sea. Captain Biggwither, the New Zealand representative, states that the graves are not so bad as it was thought they would be. Ho has been instructed to survey tho whole peninsula, locate cemeteries and outlying graves, and then submit the results separately to the London Graves' Commission, and the Australian and New Zoaland authorities. Mr Peacock thinks the systom insufficiently definite for Anzac graves, and suggests that direct authority should ho giver, to the Australasian officers on the spot to develop a national Anzac memorial scheme, and bury the remains under rational monuments bearing all the names of tho killed. Some 7nembers of each Gallipoli Unit should be sent to supply local knowledge and assist identification. The whole Anzac area should be made sacred and inviolable. protected by a responsible body, in the interests of national education and the patriotism of future generations.