TRACING THE MISSING

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 196, 14 May 1919, Page 2

TRACING THE MISSING

.. ;SEA!ICH 6P,TirE BATTLEt'IELDS." ■ Mr. ITortit'io BoUo'uiley, M.P., recently asked ,t)io Secretary of Slnto for AVar !iow. many members .of .the British forces arp 'at present reported as missing, and whether., steps '..are ptill.beinjr taken to trace them. . . . ■-..-'.. ■■.Mr.:.Clnircliill gave, the following.written reply:— '".'....'.". . ... ,A figure of 01,800.bus been ffiven, in answer to .recent questions, as the .number of "missing," whose fate remains \t> be determined. It is an nnnroxininto figiii'6 only, and as evidence of death is received or death is presumed on.lapso of timonr.in the absence of news, Iho number tends to- diminish steadily, but no great-change has taken place so. fur. "As rcsrimls' the. last part of the (lotion, it slioul(k.be remembered that tjje "(fiissinjr" haye fall.cn on the held of l)a'Uio without their fate hecomin? "Known in 'cither side, ami such information can ho best n'flcortained from the evidence furnished by their surviyins .comrades and by a sf arch of Hie site. During the war-the'wounded were pmiiiihgil in hospital brtlm Red Cross Society, ami sine" the. cessation of. li'bjtilities roleaseil prisoners aro lieiii" examined. Much int"vn>ntion ha 3 been oWniped by these methods, rhonsli iint all'of'it.is conclusive. I lie battlefields havo alvays been searched, us far as possible, and a■ s.\f teniatic search is bpiriir nnrtcrtalcen hv the units of" (ho Director-General of Graves Registration and Inquiries, now that the whole , area is open. ' . .