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Hokitika Guardian, 5 August 1932, Page 4

Silent' Witnesses;, to ..the,., wastage . of motlern warfare are. the memorials unveiled on the Arras and Somme battlefields,, It . comes as a. shock to learn that the last resting place of over 100,000 British soldiers remains unknown in these two areas alone. By the spring of 1916 when. thebe portions i of the front were taken over by the British armies the graves registration : units were, comparatively well organ- , ised,' Their painstaking work in a sad service is well known. For all their efforts, however, the graves of a great army of men are still unidentified and likely now to remain so forever. Those who served in th® War will understand what that fact ’•betokens as to' the intensity of the battle .over these areas and the terrible .fighting conditions. Comparatively few New Z! ajanders served in the Arr-ifi sector but the New Zealand Division was engaged in the heaviest fighting on the Somme in September arid October, 1916. and in the spring anfi summer of 1918. For those who were bereaved it may fie hard to find consolation except, it be in the nolle thought expressed by the Rev. Boulton Smith at Sunday’s Toe H service at Wellington. “In time of need or ‘disaster tho hero lays down his life, for others, and if there be any 'purpose behind . Mfe, if history has any meanirig at all, if .‘there' is the fine far off divine event to which all creation moves,’ then the sacrifice of these livlW contributes toward some purpose for .which a good man would be willing to die.”