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Show SEEK NAMES OF NEXT OF KIN Community Posts to Ascertain Addresses Ad-dresses of Those Expecting Bodies to Ee Sent Home. While the American Legion is tiy-itig tiy-itig to perfect arrangements with the war department to assist in assuring relatives of prompt notification following follow-ing the arrival of remains of America's soldier dead from overseas, word has reached national headquarters of the Legion that a body of one of these heroes recently lay unclaimed on a Iloboken pier for nearly a week with the next of kin totally ignorant of its arrival. According to members of a Legion post in the fallen soldier's home community, com-munity, no notification of the body's arrival was sent to relatives by the war department. The Legionnaires, it is said, learned of the case through indirect channels and telegraphed department de-partment headquarters of the Legion in New York city, which arranged for shipment of the body to its final resting rest-ing place. The Legion post took charge of the funeral and the remains were interred with appropriate military mili-tary honors. When the plan to return certain bodies from overseas wns first announced, an-nounced, the American Legion endeavored endeav-ored to make arrangements with the war department to receive notification -l.l In nnlar Hint national UL rnnMinrii i. in v...... headquarters of the Legion might write direct to the next of kin and offer of-fer the services of the local posts in assisting with the funeral arrangements arrange-ments in case relatives desired this. But the government ofllcinls decided they could not give out this information informa-tion and compromised with an offer to circularize the next of kin to the effect ef-fect that the Legion would be glad to co-operate In extending honor to the memory of these heroes. In a" bulletin fonvarded to each of the more than 9.000 Legion posts throughout the United States, Lemuel Bollos, national adjutant, asks these community posts to ascertain the names of men of their respective localities lo-calities who died overseas and whose bodies are being returned, and notify Legion nntlonnl headquarters of the names and addresses of the next of kin, in order that It may take steps to prevent, if possible, a recurrence of an Incident such ns thnt recently reported re-ported from New York. News dispntcbes say that In certnln cases It has been Impossible to locate the next of kin after a body has arrived, ar-rived, and the government has interred such remains In one of the national cemeteries.' The Legion hns offered nil its resources to the war department to assist in preventing blunders of this kind. |