WAR MEMORIALS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 202, 21 May 1919, Page 7

WAR MEMORIALS

SITES IN FRANCE AND GALLIPOLI

ACTION BY THE GOVERNMENT

THE SOLDIERS' HEADSTONES"

A statement regarding New Zealand's war memorials was made by the AcimgPrima Minister (Sir James Allen) at Uio opening session of the Town-planning Conference. Sir James Allen mentioned that the Government was arranging to acquire land in the war zones as sites for memorials, and he. invited the assistance of the conference in the .selection of a design for the headstone to be placed on the grave of every Now Zealand soldier.

Sir James Alleiu said that he hoped during the day to place before Cabinet proposals for the acquisition of land at several points in France and also in Gallipoli and Palestine. The sections were to be acquired on behalf of the people of New. Zealand, in order that the Dominion might have sites on " which to place memorials of. tho men who had fallen and of the part the Dominion had taken in tho Great. War. Tho .Mother Country and the other Dominions of the Empire woro taking similar iction. It ■was proposed that there should be four of these memorials in France. Thero was "o difficulty about the scheme ns far as France was concerned, sinco Franco would welcome the measures to commemorate the deeds of the men who went to. her assistance in the hour of :ie?d. But difficulties might arise in respeet to Gallipoli and Palestine, sinco these territories would not be under British or Allied rule. - The proposals would have to be considered from all points of vhw before the memorials were < rectcd in those countries.

"I want also to mentiou (ho qutstion of memorials in the cemeteries, situated in many parts of the world, where mir hoys are buried," 1 said Sir James Allen. "Probably you are all aware I bat the Imperial' War Graves Commission has this, matter in hand. The Commission is laying out cemeteries in Prance, iu Ctallipoli, and everywhere else where Ihu soldiers of the Britisli Empire are buried, and it is using the advice of the best architects and the most skilful gardeners of the', United Kingdom in order to make .the cemeteries pieces of beauty. The commission is going to spend about .E1,500,000 during (ho rest 'year, and New Zealand's share of this sum is ,£28.000. The Government has not hesitated to provide this money for (he purpose of laying out suitably beautiful cemeteries for .our dead.

"The Imperial War Graves Commission proposes that in these cemeteries there shall be a headstone for very soldier buried there. The New Zealand Government is quite 111 accord Kith this proposal. The headstone will give the name, regiment, and place cf .irath of every soldier. We have liberty to select our own design, subject to cerlain conditions as to size and so forth, ?iid- f would be glad if ibis conference would appoint n committee to- inspect the samples of headstones that have Veen secured by the Government iml are vac at Parliament Buildings. The selection has not been made and the question is ntill open. The 'design that commends itself most to mo is a simple marble atone with.a simple cross on it let in in lead, and with the inscription also let in in lead. It has the letters N.ZE.F. at the four angles of the cross. It'is simple and beautifuil, and it seems' to tie the mo-t enduring of the designs. "The'commission is gathering together the soldiers who had been buried in out-of-the-way places, and .living them permanent resting-places in the big cemeteries, where the individual headstones can be erected without danger of neglect or removal in the future. In.these cemeteries will be erected memorials signifying the efforts and the sacrifices that the Empire has made to secure freedom and preserve'the peace of. the world. The commission proposed that there dha.ll be two monuments in each of the larger cemeteries. One monument is to be a simple flat, stone, erected on a flight, of steps, and. representing the altar upon .wJiich:. our men had-lnid down their lives for their country, and for the world. The other monument is to take the form of a beautiful cross, and is to represent the sacrifices that our nation has made.

"I will ask this conference to consider what we are going to du in' New Zealand to connncmorale'the sacrifices made during this war. 1 know that .many, of you and many of the nublic favour urili-' tartan schemes—buildings, universities, hospitals, aiid so forth.. My own feeling. i>; that) no building can represent to me the lessons (hat the war has husdit me. (Applause.) I am cerlain that in;the older lands artistic monuments e.'d memorials.' representing the principles which were fought, for and died for, have had a great influence in building ui) national character. I know myself the influence that the Neb-on Monument, in Trafalgar Square, has had unon -ue. When General Pan was here I asked him if the national monuments in Prance bad influenced the character of the French- people, and he assured me that these for the sacrifices made and the deeds performed in other days, had made Hie French character of to-day.

"I think that ire should erect uyir memorials that will represent principles. The utilitarian .things, ought to lie provided in.the ordinary way. But Ibis is. nn extraordinary occasion. No'liing like it will happen again. We have many thousands of niiv hoys, dead. "The war means to us duty done, sacrifices made, and truth fought for and won. Surely our artists can express in stone anil bronze the principles for which our men have (lied, and so pass on these principles to the generations to come." (Applause.)