Newark post. (Newark, Del.) 1910-1969, 1919-08-06
RED RROSS LOOKS
AFTER GRAVES OF
AMERICAN SOLDIERS
Work of Graves Registration
Service at its Height
Now

NOW
Refusal of the French govern
ment to permit at this time the
removal of the bodies of American
soldiers from French soil, as re-
ported in the news from Paris this |
week, has created a particular in
terest in thousands of American
families in the work of the Ameri-
can Red Cross in caring for the
graves of these soldiers.
1t is not generally known that
the first hasty burial of a soldiers
body, Immediately after the close
of the engagement on the battle
field, is not the final resting place,
even in foreign country, and that
it is the intention later 20 move the
body for permanent interment in
the homeland. In many cases, in
fact, there are several reburials.
At the present time in France the
American government is establish
ing large permanent cemeteries for
the American dead.
The Graves Registration Service
of the Red Cross is one of the most
interesting and least known
branches of the army work, &C
cording to Miss Elizabeth Waller
Burke, of New York, and Miss
Katherine Potter, of East Orange,
Red Cross workers, who have just
returned from Scissors, where
they have been looking after the
welfare of the men who do this
work and running a canteen since
March.
"The work of the Registration
Service" Miss Burke explained,
comes after the war-it is at it's
height now. AS a matter of fact
the burial of soldiers just after
battle must of necessity be hurried
and cannot therefore be properly
done. Then, too, Identification is
often impossible. SO the Graves
Registration Service comes along,
exhumes all the quickly buried
fighters, makes every investigation
possible of their person and effects,
for purposes of identification, and
then puts the bodies into collins
and the collins into proper regula-
ton graves.
still later these collins are
transferred to their permanent
places of rest in one of the great
American cemeteries that are be-
ginning to dot the landscape Of
France. Minute records are kept
of everything and turned into
army headquarters, so that hum
dreds of men who would always,
otherwise, have been missing are
daily accounted for through this
system. The entire operation is
new to the war and was never done
before"
The headquarters of these two
young women was at Scissors, and
within large area around that
town there were distributed nine
units of the Graves Registration
Service, taking with them choco-
: late, cigarettes, comfort kits and
all the other things that a soldier
wants. The girls said in passing
that it would be interesting tc
, many American women to know
, how much their knitted socks were
appreciated - in the language OF
, these two workers, "The fellows
= were simply crazy about them"
: Besides Soissons," Miss Potte,
: explained, there are many other
:. centres of the Graves Registration
Service in various parts of France
and Belgium. A unit is stationed
in village around which there
) was fighting and operates from
! that village under a general head
quarters or centre"
=, There were two thousand mer
= employed in the nine units, which
gives some idea of the size anc
: scope of the work. N. Y. Herald