GRAVES ON GALLIPOLI.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 October 1919, Page 3

GRAVES ON GALLIPOLI.

INFORMATION WANTED FROM SOLDIERS. Wellington, Saturday. Since the conclusion of the Gallipoli campaign, the military authorities have been collecting all available information concerning the burial of New Zealanders on the. Peninsula. After the armistice, a special party from the Canterbury Mounted Rifles visited Gallipoli for the purpose of locating graves, and ensuring the permanence of identification marks. Care was taken to locate the burial spots by exact markings, and the taking of bearings, and everything possible was done to identify the individual graves. The result of this visit was communicated to the .imperial Graves Commission, and to the New Zealand authorities. Now that all the official data has been got together, it is evident that so far as the identification of individual grave; is concerned, there is unfortunately a big void to fill in the records. A cable wns recently received from the New Zealand Pvccords OtTice in Egypt stating that many graves which have been located on Gallipoli, arc known to contain the bodies of New Zealanders, but their names cannot be ascertained. It is believed that some of these graves could be identified from information in the possession of soldiers and next-of-kin in New Zealand. Consequently the Officer in Charge of Base Records, Wellington, is endeavoring to collect aiiy facts or photographs which can be given to him in New Zealand regarding the burying places of individuals, as this will in many cases, enable the grave to be definitely marked. No matter how meagre, information of this kind will be welcomed, and will be forwarded to the Graves Registration Unit in Egypt for action to be taken. Next-of-kin who know where a soldier relative has been buried should send this information to Base Records, and soldiers who remember where friehds were buried should follow the same course, as they will thus be able to afford to many people in New Zealand the consolation of knowing tha the grave of one who fell in that campaign will be appropriately marked, and preserved for all time as ft memorial of the sacrifice made.