WAR GRAVES.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 February 1922, Page 5

WAR GRAVES.

WORK ON THE BATTLEFIELDS. CEMETERIES PUT IN ORDER. TASK OF IDENTIFICATION. “What is being done to honor the remains of those boys who diod to save the Empire?” It was with this question that Chaplain-Captain M. Mullineux, M.C., summed up his lecture entitled “The War Graves of France,” which he delivered at the Workers’ Hall, New Plymouth, last night. An address, brimful of deeply interesting information related the efforts of the Directorate of Graves Registration and Enquiries, and the Imperial War Graves Commission. Illustrated lantern view’s added greatly to the padre’s explanation and the views of the many hundreds of graves helped those present to understand the magnitude of this great work.

The Mayor (Mr. F. E. Wilson) presided over a fair attendance. He said those present were no doubt aware of the deep debt of gratitude which New Zealanders owed to the Ohaplain-Capt. Mullineux for what he had done in France.

Captain Mullineux prefaced his address by expressing his pleasure at being back in New Zealand after an absence of so many years. He intimated that while he was to epeak particularly of the work in Belgium and France — this being the part with which he was most acquainted—similar operations were being carried on concurrently on I all battlefields were British soldiers had ' fallen. He remarked that there had I been a lot of criticism over the care of graves and he said he thought he could see how it came about. Pilgrims had iofn allowed to go to France and Bel-

gium in 1919, for it was natural many wanted to see the graves of fallen relatives. He pointed out, however, that there were 3500 different cemeteries in France in which British soldiers were buried, and it was perfectly obvious that these could not be put in order at once. Tn 1919 it was exceptional to find a cemetery that had 'been tidied. I-ost year it was an exception to find one that had not been attended to and made beautiful with flowers and shrubs. DESTRUCTION OF WAR. The first series of slides showed portions of the devastated area, the lecturer’s idea being to show the kind of country in which the officers and men who made the cemeteries had to work, and also to give another illustration of what France and Belgium suffered during the war. Photographs of various war memorials were -shown, these including the Australian monument at Pozieres, the memorials to the 18th British Division on the Somme near Longueville, and to the 40th Infantry Division at Mort Homme. The lecturer explained that the New Zealand memorials had not yet been erected, but the work was in hand. The only New Zealand memorial as yet was a flag which had been placed in Amiens Cathedral and underneath which was a brass plate recording the details. The work of the Directorate of Graves Registration and Enquiries was traversed in detail by Captain Mullineux. The very scattered nature of the cemeteries, he said, illustrated the necessity for some organisation and gave rise to the D.G.R., as he germed it. Great carg was taken in preserving records of identification, and where a man could not be identified exhaustive enquiries were made to ascertain identity. In this way numbers of bodies had been identified. Regulation wooden crosses were placed at the heads of graves that had been completed and bore the soldier’s name and other records. If the boy’s mates had put up a cross it was not disturbed, but the D.G.R. saw that there was a cross over each grave. The views of work in constructing cemeteries, which were explained by the speaker, were at once interesting and the sight of the rows and rows of wooden crosses brought a realisation of the tragedy which is attached to the little burial plots. The transitional stages of the work of caring for the graves was shown, the wooden crosses being gradually replaced by permanent ones of etone, the cemeteries levelled, and planted in lawns and flowers. At Romilles, a spot very sacred to New Zealand, the people have never forgotten what the New Zealand Divieion and the Black Watch did for them, and once a month the children of the village place flowers on the graves.

CEMETERY AT ANZAC. The final work of the cemeteries is the erection of a permanent enclosing wall of stone, and each cemetery has a Cross of Sacrifice and Stone of Remembrance erected in it. The same work is -being carried out on all former battlefields, from France and Italy to Salonika. Gallipoli, Egypt and a lonely grave in Persia, which were included in the illustrations. One picture showed the beach cemetery at Anzac. A new cemetery which is*.being made at Passchendaelc concerns New Zealand very much, for many of the Expeditionary Force are buried there. At Tynelop there was a cemetery which would contain anything from eight to twelve thousand graves, a number being those of boys who were supposed to be lost. Equality of treatment was the basis of the system. General and private were treated alike in the matter of a tombstone, and this was as it should be. Uniformity of design had also been decided on and the same kind of headstone would be found wherever a man in khaki had died. The thoroughness of the organisation now dealing with the graves was evident from the fact mentioned by Capt ; Mullineux that the commission used 185 motor vehicles, with which an average of 13,000 miles per week was covered. The operations of the workers earned them over an area of 60,000 square miles. He detailed further aspects of the work by saying that nurseries had been set up to provide plants and shrubs for the cemeteries, and it was intended to make each cemetery as emblematic as possible of the country from which the men came bv* planting national-flowers and shrubs. This, of course, was subject to climate and soil. He assured his hearers that everything poesible was ei . n g done. Nearly 100 cemeteries were finished now and then- would probably be another 400 completed by the end of the year. DOES THE LESSON REMAIN? I “There is no question about their be- | ing honored materially,” said Captain Mullineux; “but I often wonder if we honor the memory of those boys in spirit. We look roimd to-day and see .this great Empire in the midst of unrest and chaos. Has their sacrifice been in vain? I know we are suffering from the aftermath of war. The period 1914-19 saw such an exhibition of salf-MKrtflee m had sorer beforo bjoa

experienced. -From 1919 on we have seen such an exhibition of selfishness that the Empire has not seen before. Everybody seems to be wanting what they call a good time. Remember, as those boys did, that when you are dead and gone your country will be here, and it is up to you to leave your country a. little better than you found it. The thing is so easy if you get back to the spirit that took those boys over the top and the spirit that prompted them to go out and bring in a comrade at the risk of their - own lives. Then this great Empire of our« will become what it was before the war, the greatest nation in the world.” The address was concluded with an outline of the efforts made to aosist relatives who make visita to the battlefields. At the conclusion a vote of thanks to Captain Mullineux, moved by Mr. A. M. Mac Diarmid, was carried by acclamation. As a recent visitor to France and Belgium, Mr. W. T. Jennings also spoke appreciatively of the address given by Captain Mullineux. The meeting coneluaed with a vote of thanks to Master A. Moyes, who operated the lantern for the lecturer.