GRAVES OF SOLDIERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 October 1919, Page 6

GRAVES OF SOLDIERS.

VISITS OF RELATIVES TO PRANCE. A DIFFICULT PROBLEM. (By Wire. —Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Tuesday. Dr. Thacker (Christchurch East) suggested again in the House to-day that relatives of soldiers buried on the battlefields should be aided by the Government to visit the graves of their men. Wealthy people, he said, could visit the graves of their relatives and the same privileges ought to be open, to the poor people of. the country as well as to the well-to-do. Mr. Massey said that the question raised wag very difficult to deal withit had already had the consideration of Cabinet. The Government would make the provision asked for if possible, but no decision could be reached at present or before the end of the present year. • Mr. Jennings asked if arrangements could be made for the removal of soldiers' bodies to New Zealand or England. The Prime Minister replied he had already had some experience on this point. .When he was in France at the beginning of the year he had had inquires from parents of dead soldiers whose remains were buried in France or on Gallipoli, and in every ca*e the request had beenjurned down by the Imperial authorities on the ground that if this were attempted it would lead to chaos and confusion. He could assure parents in New Zealand that the graves in France and Britain were being cared for. Unfortunately he could not say the same about Gallipoli, but the graves there would be taken in hand.