UNKNOWN WAR GRAVES.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 January 1922, Page 8

UNKNOWN WAR GRAVES.

SEARCH OF BATTLEFIELDS. OPERATIONS TO CEASE. London, Nov. /IS. It has now been decided that the work of searching for bodies over the battlefields of France and Flanders should cease. A statement to this effect was made last weelj in the House by Sir L. Worthington Evans, Secretary of State for War, in replying to a question. Since the armistice, he said, the whole battlefield area had been systematically searched at least six times. Some areas in which the fighting had been particularly heavy were searched as many as 20 times. In the spring of 1920 the work was easy and rapid, owing to the number of surface indications, but since then in approximately 90 per cent, of the bodies found there was no surface indication. These invisible graves were found by various local indications, recognised by the experience of the exhumation parties. It was probable that a number of these invisible graves had not yet been found, and were likely to be brought to light during the work of reconstruction, and in the opening up of areas at present inaccessible owing to the thickness of undergrowth, the marshiness of the land, etc. The searching, however, was most thorough, as the whole of the battlefield area was divided up into map squares, to which a platoon under a subaltern was allotted. The actual search party usually consisted of about 12 men under a senior non-commission-ed officer. These parties systematically searched the whole of the surface of the areas. In view of the thoroughness of the search, the Army Council had come to the conclusion that the time had now arrived when this work should cease, and consequently they had issued instructions for the withdrawal of the military exhumation parties which were employed by them. It was practically certain that in the course of reconstruction and drainage operations and clearing debris, bodies hitherto unsuspected would be found, and that this would continue for vears to come. The owners and inhabitants were now resuming possession of their houses, fields, an<> gardens, and reports of discovery ot bodies by such owners and occupiers must be awaited before exhumation and re-interment in an approved cemetery could be undertaken. Any bodies so discovered would, in accordance with agreement already arrived at with the French, and Belgian civil authorities, be reported to local representatives of the Imperial War Graves Commission, by whom arrangements would be made for the re-interment of the bodies in the existing military cemeteries.