HC Deb 14 July 1919 vol 118 c57W
Viscount WOLMER

asked the Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that Mrs. Yeomans, Parfitts Farm, Eversley, Winchfield, Hants, has applied for the body of her son, F. M. Yeomans, No. 37220, and Battalion, Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, to be brought back to England at her expense and to be interred in _Eversley Churchyard, and that this request has been refused; and what reason the Army Council has for this refusal?

Mr. CHURCHILL

I wish to take this opportunity to state that a large number of applications to remove bodies from the various theatres of war have been received. The Imperial War Graves Commission gave the matter very careful and sympathetic consideration, and came to the conclusion that such removals were opposed to the policy of equality of treatment of the fallen which had been unanimously adopted and which has received such strong support from the public. For this reason, and in view of the large numbers involved and the difficulties of carrying out such removals, especially in the more distant theatres of war, it has been reluctantly found necessary to refuse all such applications. In the particular case mentioned, the late Private Yeomans was killed while serving in the Salonika Force, and is buried in the military cemetery at Karasouli, which is situated in the mountainous country about 32 miles North of Salonika. The difficulty, therefore, of acceding to Mrs. Yeoman's request will, I think, be readily appreciated.