WAR GRAVES. With a view to ensuring the care and per manence of the graves of British soldiers buried in France nego tiations took place early in the war between the British military authorities responsible for the marking and registration of the graves and the French Government. On Dec. 29, 1915, the latter passed a law which provided that all Allied graveyards on the soil of France should be acquired by the Government of the repub lic at its own expense, and that the rights of ownership should be enjoyed in perpetuity by the Allied nations concerned'.
Under this enactment it was possible for an association regu lierement constituee by an Allied Government to be entrusted with the care of its graves in France. The result was the establishment in Great Britain (Jan. 1916) of a National Committee for the Care of Soldiers' Graves, the presidency of which was accepted by the Prince of Wales.
As the fighting extended it became evident that the care of the graves after the war and the erection of permanent memorials would be a task too extensive for a body with the limitations of the national committee to undertake. Among these limitations was the lack of direct representation of the dominions and other parts of the Empire,whose soldiers were falling and being buried side by side with those of the United Kingdom. In a memorandum ad dressed to the prime minister, dated March 15, 1917, the prince 'Later on, the governments of Belgium, Italy, Greece, Egypt and Palestine followed the lead of France by passing equally generous measures.
of Wales, as president of the national committee, suggested that the formation of "a joint committee of the governments of the Empire, or a statutory body of commissioners somewhat on the lines of the development commission," should be proposed to the forthcoming Imperial conference. The question was accordingly laid before the conference on April 13, 1917, when a resolution was passed praying his majesty to grant a royal charter for the con stitution of an Imperial War Graves Commission, which should be empowered to care for and maintain the graves of those fallen in the war, to acquire land for the purpose of cemeteries and to erect permanent memorials in the cemeteries and elsewhere. The charter
was passed under the great seal of May 21, 1917, and the commis sion, of which the prince of Wales became president, was estab lished. Maj.-Gen. Sir Fabian Ware, who had been in command of the military organization in the field since 1915, was appointed permanent vice-chairman.
Constitution of the Commission.—The members of the com mission are the secretary of State for war (ex-officio chairman), the secretary of State for the colonies, the secretary of State for India, the first commissioner of works and the representatives of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Newfoundland. The charter further provides for eight non-official members appointed from time to time by the Sovereign. In 1928 the non official members were : Mr. Harry Gosling, Mr. Rudyard Kipling, Lt.-Gen. Sir George Macdonogh, Admiral Sir Morgan Singer, Sir Henry Maddocks, Gen. Sir Walter Braithwaite, Capt. Lord Stanley and Maj. Gen. Sir Fabian Ware.
The commission's deliberations during their first year resulted in the double proposal laid before the next Imperial conference on June I 7, 1918, that f 1 o per grave should be taken as the probable cost of the construction of cemeteries, and that the cost of carry ing out the decisions of the commission should be borne by the respective governments in proportion to the numbers of the graves of their dead. Estimates are presented yearly to each of the participating governments, the respective parliaments being asked to vote a proportion of the total in accordance with the decision of the Imperial conference of 1918 referred to above. The commis sion administers the grants in aid thus received through a finance committee, which meets regularly at short intervals and which is attended by a representative of the Treasury of the United King dom to advise and assist. The principle of complete co-operation runs through all the work of the commission, the participating gov ernments being represented in the administrative personnel, both in London and abroad, as far as is practicable, on the same pro portional basis as has been adopted for the sharing of expenditure.