WAR MEMORIALS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10285, 21 May 1919, Page 6

WAR MEMORIALS

ON FOREIGN SO.L

SCHEME FOR BUYING LAND IX DISTANT COUNTRIES.

Speaking at tho Town-planning Conference yesterday, Sir James Allen said that ho intended to lay before Cabinet proposals for the acquisition of land in France, GalHpoli, and perhaps Palestine, on which to erect memorials to New Zealand soldiers. Tho Mother Country and tho other Dominions were securing these- plots of land, and they had advised New Zealand to, do so. Ho thought it right that they should. It was proposc-d tlmt they should have four memorials in tho fields of Franco, but there might be a difficulty aibout Palestine and Gallipoli. Then there was the question of mo morials in the foreign cometeries of tho world, where our men wero buried. The "War Graves Commission was laying out the cemeteries with the! advice of tho best horticultural experts and the best .architects. They wero proposing to spend a million and a half of money in laying out tho cemeteries, roading, planting, etc. Now Zealand was joining in, and her share of tho expenditure was, he thought, £23,000 for tho year. Thcy did not hesitate U> provide their share. It was proposed that on tho plot covering each New Zealand soldier _ there should be a simple headstone, giving his name and regiment. They had tho right to select their own design—within certain limits of size; and he would bo glad if tho conference would appoint a committee to see the models that had been prepared. Tlie one that commended itself to him was a marble stono with a siinplo cross, and the letters "N.Z.E.F." in the angles of the cross. The cross and tho inscription would be let in in lead, and it appeared to him the most enduring and artistic design submitted. The Imspexial War Graves Commission was gathering togother individual soldiers, who had been buried in out-of-the-way places, and. endeavouring to have them collected in cemeteries where they could have memorials, not of what New Zealand had done, and had lost, but, as these would be Empire cemeteries, of what the Empire had done. Two memorials were proposed—one plain, flat stone, exerted upon magnificent steps, representing tho_ altar on which the men laid down their lives; and the other a beautiful cross.

Some favoured hospitals and other utilitarian memorials, but ho thought that tlie occasion was one on which other memorials also should be erected. Memorials such as that of Nelson in Trafalgar Square and the memorials of France bad a considerable influence on ■ national character.