The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1916-11-27
THE GRAVES OF
WARS VICTIMS
Great Britain Establishes a
Bureau Of Registration.

Great Britain Establishes a
Bureau of Registration.
London, Nov. 27.-In keeping with
all other phases of the war, order has
come at last in the care Of the dead.
Where all was topsy-turvy two years
ago In the first pell-nell rush to bat
tie, and where there was little time
to bury men even where they fell, the
British now have evolved an organic
alton and a system Of dealing with
this ever-growing problem which will
at least relieve the bereaved at home
of the added torment and anxiety of
the unknown grave.
At the beginning of the war men
were buried near the trenches only to
have their graves blown away by ex-
ploding shells the very next day. But
many remained. and some have been
identified as the allies have fought
their way slowly back over part of
the ground once occupied by the Ger
mans.
Where there was hard fighting In
France and Belgium, the eye Of the
traveller along the roads to-day Is
struck by many low crosses sticking
out Of the ground in the fields, in cot
tage gardens, in corners Of farmyards
and orchards, even on the roadside
strips of grass. Where the ground
has changed hands a good deal In
the course Of the war one can see,
within few hundred yards Of each
other, the gabled and eaved cross Of
the Germans, the "Hier ruht In Colt"
and name painted white on a dark
background; the beaded wire wreath
of the French with It's Requiescat or
Mort pour la France" and the plain
lined cross Of the English, white or
light brown, or just implanted wood,
"In loving memory" or one or more
officers and men.
The very position of some Of these
isolated memories is eloquent. Near
Fricourt, on what used to be mo
Mans Land" until the English won it
the past summer, a number of Eng
lish crosses stand to the memory Of
unknown French soldiers. This was
part of the line turned over to the
English by the French. 1--WE leave
you our trenches and our Dead" they
said. When the English offensive be-
gan last July and the first line Ger
man trenches were carried by storm,
British Tommies to bury the bodies
ing lain in the fire-swept zone since
late in the winter.
To some officers the idea of being
buried where they fall, and have
there erected even the modest little
memorial of a roughly hewn cross, is
an honor greater than the shelter Of
Westminster Abbey. A few such
graves, and some part of the trenches
near them, probably will be preserv-
ed forever by village communes or
private owners Of land.
But as the war has fingered, and
there still is much stubborn fighting
ahead-some day for years-the care
Of the dead has become a most impor-
tant branch Of war work-importan
alike in sentiment and sanitation. The
British have organized a Commission
of Graves Registration and Inquiries
and under it's direction registration
units and sections have been sent to
the front, and back of the front. Much
of the work is done by non-combat-
ants, but many Of their tasks must
be carried out under fire and some
have been killed and others wound
ed.
When an officer or man is killed at
the front, or dies of, wounds, his
burial is now at once reported to the
registration units If killed in action
he may still be buried in the old way
somewhere near the trench. If so,
the chaplain or officer who buries
him, reports the position of the grave,
which as soon as possible is marked
with a durable cross and an identi-
g - 49, ~,
But this mode is becoming much
less common. The army has been
quick to realize the desirability of
burying it's dead in the nearest of the
800 or more recognized cemeteries
behind the. lines. The bodies are
carried back by road or light railway
to one Of the little wooden, iron or
canvas mortuaries which the registra-
ton units have set up in the ceme-
teries. There is nothing perfunctory
about the funerals. Everything is
done as tenderly and reverently as if
the dead were in an English church
yard
Some of the cemeteries are. great
extensions of little village graveyards
Some were begun by special corps or
divisions, which wished to bury their
dead all together. In one is found
separate plots, each with its special
entrance, for Gurkhas, Sikhs and
Punjabs. Under the great trees of
another where many of those who fell
at Festhubert lie, some Indian SOL
diers have followed the custom of
their country and built brick tombs
of extraordinary massiveness.
At Villers aux Bots the French bur-
led $500 Of those who were killed in
winning the Vimy Ridge. On each
grave, at the foot Of it's 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 few days ago a woman in deep
mourning visited one of the French
cemeteries with a handful of white
flowers. She was arranging these on
one Of the French graves when one Of
the usual little bareheaded process
sions with an English chaplain in
front, passed by. On the stretcher
was body sewn up in a brown army
blanket, a big Union Jack lying over
it. The woman rose, and shyly, with
some of the flowers still in her hand,
fell in at the rear of the procession.
GEEK CIR AMI AERO