LEFT BY THE WAY.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18419, 27 June 1925, Page 5

LEFT BY THE WAY.

NEW ZEALAND GRAVES AT GIBRALTAR. IN THE SHADOW OP THE ROCK. (■FECIAL SO "XBX n»|.") (By T. J. Pemberton.) GIBRALTAB, May 6.

Xoria of Gibraltar Kock is an isthmus of low-lying land -whereon is the neutral territory which separates Spain from this strangely isolated soction of the British Empire. Tho open country is put to many uses, but it would seem that long ago the first plot outside the shadow of the rock was chosen as holy ground. Hero are the graves of generations of that mixed race which forms tho civil population of the fortress. Here, too, lie the bodies of those British soldiers who died from natural causes during a long period.of Britain's peaceful occupation. Since the war, however, this North Trout Cemetery has taken on a new significance. It is the last resting place of men from all parts of the Empire territories.

Seamen killed or wounded in these waters wore brought to Gibraltar. Hospital ships from the East, from Egypt, from Gallipoli, from Malta, called here and discharged their desperately sick and their dead. Thus it happens that even on this histbrical fortress,- this sentinel rock of the Mediterranean, there is earth forever sacred to New Zoalanders. Here a small band of the Dominion's sons rest in silent company with men from Australia, with Englishmen who fought at Helles, and seamen who fell victims to the German U-boats. - • .

Just as one emerges from the city road' and gains the open, there is the great Cross of Sacrifice built in the corner of the cemetery and facing towards the open sea. Inside the enclosure the nine New Zealanders' graves are in two groups—six in one group and three in the other. The cemetery is not the well-ordered garden of more northern countries. But it is picturesque with its path-walls of rock, on which at a certain season there is a blaze of scarlet, for here there flourishes that plant known as "the red-hot poker." At the prcsont time the grounds, are thick with geraniums iu bloom, and the wild convolvulus. The whole area is green. In a month s time the undergrowth will be burnt up with the heat of the sun. But the date palms will be green, the screw palms, tho Norfolk Island palms, and the blue gums, the tamarisk, the rubber trees, and the juniper trees. All these grow there in profusion, a>nd help to make this cemetery beside the rock fortress a comparatively cool and restful place during the long, dry Mediterranean summer. Just across the road from the cemetery wall the northern face of the rock rises sheer to 1300 feet. On. the est pinnacle are the modern batteries which overlook the adjoining territories in Spain. Lower down 1 tlie face are apertures through which the guns could doubtless speak if necessity arose. The New Zealand dead and all their comrades are guarded well. For more than two hundred years England .has held this key to the ancient sea. It is likely that the little band of New Zealand's sons will sleep iji British territory for centuries to come undisturbed by alien hands. Names of the Dead. h . These are the names and'particulars of those New Zealanders who lie fin the North Front Cemetery. All the headstones have been erected. . .-. v Private H. O. Arthur (Wellington Infantry Regiment). Died of disease, August 7th, 1915. Trooper. D. Godfrey (Canterbury ; Mounted Rifles)., Died of wounds an sea, Seotember 5, 1915.' Troop'er J. A. Kemp (Auckland Mounted Rifles). Died of wounds, September 17th, 1915. : Private O. H. Leeks (Otago Infaatry Regiment). Died at sea of wounds, September sth, 1915. ■ Corporal G. Nalder (Canterbury Mounted Rifles). Died at sea of wounds, September 2nd, 1916. Trooper H. P. Watson (Canterbury Mounted Rifles). Died of disease, August 9th, 1915. All the above are together in one plot. The following are in another plot not far removed from the first. Second-Lieutenant W. G. Howie (Otago Mounted Rifles). Died of disease, September 30th, 191 p. Sergeant N. A. McLean (Wellington Mounted Rifles). Died of wounds, October 20th, 1915. Corporal G. J. Sutherland (Otago Infantry Regiment).- Died of wounds at sea, September 7th. 1915. All these New Zealanders were evacuated from. Gallipoli. A Citizens' Memorial. On the terrace'overlooking the harbour, aaid in the centre of the town, a memorial has been raised commemorating 'f the officers and-men'rof; all services who gave their lives in the Great ,War and are interred at the North Front Cemetery, where their names are recorded.' 1 A tablet on another face of the memorial commemorates tho officers and seamen of the Gibraltar Straits Patrol "who gave their lives for the King and Empire in the Great War." Still another tablet commemorates the citizens of Gibraltar who lost,their lives in the war. The sculpture surmounted on the tall block of marble is a group showing a bliiejackct raising in his right .hand a golden wreath of laurels. Beside him. stands a-British soldier carrying a tattered standard. Both figures face towards the entrance of the Mediterranean, and thus perhaps bear a sym-. TJOTism which needs verbal expression.