WAR DEAD

Hokitika Guardian, 6 March 1931, Page 3

WAR DEAD

THE BODIES AT VERDUN. I_ United Preau Aisaoeiution.—Uj iUe«:lri> telegraph.—Copyright. J PARIS, March 4. v lt has been revealed to the I reach ’Chamber of Deputies, by the Mayor of , Verdun' that recent work thereabouts has resulted in the discovery 01 bodies at the rate of eleven a day. Tlie Premier replied that it was proposed to ask parliament for a substantial sum to enable a systematic search of tlie battlefields and reverent iburial to be carried out. He regretted that the question had only risen (thirteen years after the war. STATEMENT BY MINISTER, (Received this day at 9 a.m.; LONDON, March 5. A Paris correspondent states Premier Laval announced in the Chamber that the Government intended to ask for a credit of four hundred thousand sterling for the purpose of burying the Verdun dead. Deputy Have declared it was scandalous that work of reafforestation should have been begun in the ai'ea where thousands of dead still remained. Pension Minister, Ribes, replied it was impossible to search one hundred thousand acres comprising Verdun battlefield, but the Government would do its utmost to see that the recovered dead were suitably buried, as early as possible.