Show Those Killed in Battle Batlle Rest in Honored Graves Every Effort Is Being Made in England to Care for the fhe Dead and to Keep Clear the Records of f I I Their Place of Burial I I a By BT The Tha SP Nes g ferric NORTH OF FRANCE Via London Dec 8 In S.-In In a graveyard west of Vimy there are burl burled buried d 2320 French soldiers and more than GOO COO English The earth Is bare on most of or the English graves the French ones are older but all are cared for tor alike aUke by the englishmen now in charge of the place We Ve leave you rou our trenches and our dead said a French officer to an English one when the British sh sharmy army took over this part of ot the line and both parts of ot the trust are discharged discharge with a will What this means for the French one feels when one ne sees fees the journey of ot French soldiers' soldiers friends to their graves The other day a French woman in deep mourning came here with a handful of white flowers lowers to place upon what was probably her sons son's grave when there entered the cemetery one of the usual little barehead processions processions-an an N. N C. C O. O showing the wap then an English 0 chaplain with his open book then on ona ona I a stretcher the body sewn up in a abrown abrown abrown brown army anny blanket a big Union Jack lying over it then half a dozen I vates As they passed the Frenchwoman French Frenchwoman Frenchwoman woman she rose an and fell tell in at the rear of the procession When I next saw I them the me men were were standing r round und the new grave the chaplain was reading aloud dust to dust and ashes to I ashes and the woman a a. few yards away was kneeling on the ground The service over and the rest turning away she came close to the grave dropped the white flowers in and went back to the tle other grave empty handed For the Moral Effect One knew though the woman could not how all this would be told to the dead Englishman's comrades and one felt the truth of Sir Douglas Haig's Haigs saying that a kind of spirit which does not directly contribute to the successful successful successful success success- ful termination of the war may still have an extraordinary moral value to the troops in the field as well as to the relatives and friends of ot the dead at home But for the work lof of the Army's Graves Registration units this little scene and many other scenes equally binding in their degree to the friendship of ot England and France could scarcely have taken place In the early months of the war a man was commonly burled buried close to the place where he fell Wherever hard fighting had been IIi in France or Belgium the eye of the traveler along the roads is struck by the many low crosses sticking stickIng stickIng stick- stick Ing out of the ground ground in In the fields inthe In Inthe inthe the cottage in corners of farmyards and orchards even on n roadside roadside road road- side strips of grass grass Wh Where re the ground has changed ha hands ds several tim times s in the course of the war you may se see within a few hundred yards of each other the gabled and cross of the Prussians Prussians with Hier runt in Gott and a name naine painted white on a dark ground and the beaded wire wire- wreath of the French with its Requiescat or Mort pour la France and the plain lined cross of oJ the English white or lightbrown lightbrown light brown blown or just the unpainted wood In Loving Memory of one or more officers officers officers of- of these cers or men Even now many isolated memori memorials ls are raised The very vely position of ot some of them is eloquent Near La is Ig a cross inexpertly inexpertly inex inexpertly inex- inex pertly madeo f two pieces of lath and lettered in pencil In loving memory of Second Lieutenant X X- X regiment regiment regi regi- ment killed killed here here July 1 I 1916 It stands scarcely ten feet in front of the theline theline theline line from which the British army anny advanced ad- ad advanced advanced ad ad- that morning You feel when you see It the thrill o of the first moments mo me- ments o ot of the long battle of the Somme the the subaltern giving the word to his men and himself springing springing- first out of ot the tho trench and filling falling almost at once and the men pressing on Care of the Dead In the autumn of 1014 1914 the necessity for a continued organization to undertake undertake undertake under under- take the supervision of graves was recognized and In March 1915 the organization organization or- or or organization of the Commission of Graves Registration and Inquiries under Fabian Fabian Fabian Fa Fa- Fa- Fa bian Ware who received a a. commission for the purpose of the work finally as assumed assumed assumed as- as its present shape Under the directorate art the graves registration units in the different I spheres S of military activity When an officer or man is killed at the front or ordies ordies ordies dies of wounds his burial is at once re reported reported reported re- re ported to the director as well as to the base If It killed in action he may still be buried in the old way somewhere near the trench If It so the chaplain or officer who buries him reports the po position position position po- po of the grave and one of ot the of officer officer of- of fleer who buries him reports the position position position tion of the grave and one of the officers officers cers of the graves registration units visits It verifies verities the record affixes if it necessary a durable cross with the date the mans man's name namo rank regiment and regimental number upon It clearly stamped on aluminum tape and enters these particulars and the exact site of the grave In the register But the army has been quick to realize the desirability desirability desirability de de- de- de of burying Its dead in the nearest of the three hundred or more recognized behind the line where everything is don as and as If the dead man were were laid in an English churchyard by his friends I Some of tho the cemeteries are great extensions ex exI extensions ex- ex tensions of ot little village graveyards I Some were begun by special corps or divisions which wished to bury their dead all t together gether In one you find a a. separate plot each with its special en entrance entrance entrance en- en trance for and bis Under the great trees of ot another where many of those who fell at Festubert Festubert Fes- Fes tubert are some of at the Indian soldiers have built bunt for tor their comrades brick tombs of ot extraordinary massiveness Keeping the Records At Villers aux aUK Bois the French burled buried twenty-five twenty hundred of those who were killed In winning the Vimy ridge On each grave at the foot of its wooden cross there is still stuck In the earth neck downward the bottle in which the first hasty record of the interment was placed A tiny chapel at atthe the end shelters shelters shelters shel shel- the Christ brought from the ruined Calvary of Clarency and a little colored image of the Virgin riddled with German German German Ger Ger- man bulet holes In all tho the cemeteries t the e Graves Registration Units l keep the graves British and French Trench in repair they sow grass and plant flowers and shrubs under the advice of the headquarters headquarters headquarters head head- quarters of British gardening at Kew A few tew of ot these places laces are already ga gay with autumn flowers in full bloom The directorate at Winchester House In James' James square London answers every ev- ev every every ev ev- ery Inquiry sent by a soldiers soldier's friends and will if it desired take a a. photograph of a grave and send it to them for thanks to the funds provided I by y the Red Cross The director and his officers operate co-operate with the French engineers sanitary authorities and communal cou councils in p making arrangements arrangements arrangements arrange arrange- ments to take advantage of the noble and m moving gift made by the French nation on December 28 1916 1915 when the law was passed which acquired forever In the name of the French government the special cemeteries where most of the British dead in France are buried In all wars it has been one of the fears haunting a soldiers soldier's friends that his body ody may be utterly lost Even in inthis inthis inthis this war war thero there have been such irretrievable irretrievable irre irre- irretrievable losses But in no great no-great great war has BO so much been done as in in- inthis this to prevent the addition of that special torment torment torment tor tor- ment to the pain of ot anxiety and of ot bereavement |