§ Mr. WIGNALLasked the Secretary of State for War if he has received applications from parents whose sons have been killed during the War to erect memorial stones over their graves, and if such applications have been refused; and if he will consider the advisability of giving permission to parents to erect memorial stones on condition that the dimensions of the cross or headstone should not be greater, either in height or width, than those of the headstones recommended by the Committee, and such memorial stones to be erected at the cost of the parents themselves?
§ Mr. CHURCHILLI regret I have no power to grant the permission suggested. The responsibility in this matter rests with the Imperial War Graves Commission, a distinct Imperial body incorporated by Royal Charter in 1917. The Secretary of State for War isex officio Chairman of the Commission, but otherwise it is entirely independent of the War Office. I may say that the aim of the Imperial War Graves Commission is to give effect to the desire expressed at the Imperial War Conference in 1917, that the Empire should accord equal honour to all those who have made the same sacrifice in the common cause. They have received applications from a small section of the public for permission to be given to relatives to erect memorials of their own choosing over the graves, but apart from the practical difficulties involved in such a proposal, which are not fully realised by those who have not seen the cemeteries, the Commission feel that the erection of individual 1050W memorials, varying according to the taste and means of relatives or friends, would be incompatible with the idea of a corporate commemoration of the citizens of the Empire who fought and fell together in her defence. The Commission, however, are at all times anxious to give the most sympathetic hearing to proposals that reflect the views of the relatives, and they have asked those who object to their scheme to defer pressing their requests until the three experimental cemeteries at present under construction are completed, when it will be possible to judge of the effect of the scheme as a whole.