EMPIRE’S WAR DEAD

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 42, 13 November 1940, Page 8

EMPIRE’S WAR DEAD

State Of Cemeteries And Memorials

NONE BEYOND REPAIR

(British Ollieial Wireless.i

(Received November 12. 7.5 p.m.)

RUGBY, November 11

What is the state of the cemeteries and memorials to the Empire s million dead? This question was answered in part by the permanent vice-chairman of the Imperial, \VatGraves Commission. Sir Fabian Ware, in a broadcast.

“In all pari.-, of the world save two.” he said, “our work is proceeding normally. ’The exceptions are occupied France and Flanders, where three-quarters of the Empire’s dead are commemorated. There, work has been stopped.

“Some —a few—memorials may have been obliterated, if so, we have accurate surveys which will enable them to be reconstructed in detail. Others we know have been damaged—headstones battered by machine-gun fire, the great cross of sacrifice chipped and gashed, but still standing Him and Carrying its scars of war. Most of them are undamaged but neglected, overgrown with weeds, lawns unkept, flower-beds tangled and disordered. “In some, wooden crosses mark the graves of the new B.E.F.—in others, in the foremost rows stand stout wooden crosses surmounted by German helmets where our enemies have been buried. Of the great ’missing’ memorials, we are told Unit Meniu Gate is battered but standing, and that tlie Canadian memorial at Vimy is apparently undamaged. La Ferte-sous-Jouarre memorials commemorating the Mons retreat and return in 1914 are untouched. The Australian memorial at Villers Bretonneux is damaged, but is still firmly erect, with shell-holes piercing tlie panels which bear tlie mimes of the 11.000 Australian missing. “Tn short, there is reason to believe that there is no damage in France or Belgium that is beyond repair. That repair will be carried out. because by the irony of fate an endowment fund ensuring tlie permanent maintenance of our cemeteries and memorials of tlie last war was completed just as the B.E.F. was retiring from France in tliis war. It was then that this provision was finally made for carrying on our work."