Evening star., 1933-07-31
WAR DEPARTMENT
KEEPS CEMETERIES
Retains Jurisdiction Over Ar
Iington and Soldiers
Home.

Arlington National Cemetery and the
U. S. Soldiers Home Cemetery in WASH
ington are being retained under the
Jurisdiction of the War Department at
the solicitation Of Secretary of War
Dern, it was learned today.
Some SO national cemeteries, where
the dead of previous wars are buried,
are being transferred from the War
Department to the newly created ONCE
of National Parks. Buildings and Res
ervations in the Interior Department,
under executive order.
The famous Lee Mansion in Arltng-
ton, known as Arlington House, has
been taken from the jurisdiction Of the
War Department which has supervised
it since the Civil War, and transferred
to the new Office in the Interior De-
partment.
Along with Arlington National Gene
terry the War Department is retaining
its control also over the great ceme-
teries in France where American heroes
of the World War are buried. Only 10
of the national cemeteries are being
transferred at this time from the War
Department. Included in these are the
battle-ground Cemetery in the District
of Columbia, where many veterans OF
previous wars are buried, and the York
town National Cemetery, at historic
Yorktown, Va. Others transferred in
clude the Vicksburg, Miss; Gettysburg,
Pa; Chattanooga. Tenn. Fort Donald
son, Tenn. Shiloh. Tenn; Stone River
Tenn; Fredericksburg, Va, and Poplar
Grove, Petersburg, Va.
The Executive order also holds up
until further orders" the cemeteries
in foreign countries which are to be
transferred eventually to the State De-
partment and those in inSular posses
sions which are to be transferred to
the Bureau of 1nsular Affairs IN the
War Department.
Secretary Dern had pointed out the
fact that Arlington Cemetery. as well
as those on European battle fields, are
sacred to the Army and should be held
in trust under the care Of the War
Department.
Another factor, however, more i'm
portant in deciding the matter, re-
lates to the cemetery records, which
are kept in the War Department. All
burials in Arlington and in the ma
tional cemeteries retained under War
Department control are arranged by
the Army and this detail, it was
pointed out. could not well be trans
IeTTeQ 10 xULcIlOI 4CPdl
Thirteen national military parks es-
tablished chiefly in Virginia, North and
South Carolina, Tennessee, Maryland
and Mississippi are being transferred
from the War Department to the In
terror Department.
These are parks memorializing chiefly
battlefelds of the Civil War and Revo-
lutionary War.
The famous Gettysburg National Park
is included among them, as also are the
Abraham Lincoln National Park in Ken
lucky, the Fredericksburg and Spotsyl-
vania County Battlenelds and Memo
rials, the Kings Mountain Park Ia
South Carolina and Fort McEenry In
Baltimore. which gave birth to the ma
tional anthem.
Ten other battlefield sites In the same
States, as well as some in Louisiana,
Pennsylvania and New York, will be
| transferred to the Interior Department;
10 national monuments in Montana,
California, South Carolina, New York,
Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and Ohio
also are being transferred, and several
miscellaneous memorials which have
been heretofore under the control Of the
War Department. --..-.-..