CLEARING BATTLEFIELDS.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 September 1921, Page 5

CLEARING BATTLEFIELDS.

IDENTIFYING DEAD SOLDIERS. EXHUMATION TO CEASE. By Telegraph.—Press Assn—Copyright. Received Sept. 14, 5.5 p.m. London, Sept. 13. The Imperial Army proposed to discontinue the exhumation of soldiers' bodies last March, but, yielding to pressure from the Dominions, agreed to continue the work till September. Each month fewer identifiable bodies have been recovered, because the means of identification have decayed, and if they postponed discontinuance they would be in practically the same position two years hence, except that identification would be increasingly difficult. A suggestion that civilians should receive a bonus on each body recovered after the military withdrawal failed Io obtain the approval of the Dominions. The War Office is pledged to thfe French Government to clear the battlefields at the earliest possible date to enable civil reconstruction tp proceed; hence the desire to discontinue the work as early as possible. The Commonwealth authorities state that the Australian fatalities were 45,000. About 32,000 bodies have been recovered, including 26,500 identified. Six thousand were re-interred in cemeteries unidentified, leaving 12,500 still missing.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.