| Content Note | Topics discussed:
Death and funeral of Colonel Chitty reported. Sir George Macdonogh’s heath improving. Letter received from the widow of the worker killed at the Vis-en-Artois memorial. Sir Edgar Bowring reported on visit to France to present OBE to Mr Frank Ray, caretaker of Serre Road No. 2. Other appointments in Peshawar and Ceylon covered. Report on maintenance of graves in Canada. Arras School now closed, being replaced by correspondence courses.
Report of visit by German ex-service men to St. Symphorien. Report on Pilgrimage of “Old Contemptibles” to Ypres and the Salient. Report of visit to the 50th (Northumberland) Division at Wieltje. Plaques placed in St. Martin’s in Ypres by the French, to balance the Commission’s plaque in the Cathedral. Dispute between Major Ingpen and the Commission resolved. Dr. Nan Roberts appointed as lady Doctor. Newly appointed Chairman of the Commission, Lord Hailsham, to visit the battlefields in August.
Report of the 223rd meeting of the Finance Committee
Mentions that the Commission decided to extend Exchange Relief, which cost £38,000 in the previous year. Authorisation given to spend up to £1,000 on urgent matters in August and September. Commission expressed view that Dominion staff should be able to visit their homes from time to time. Messrs. Dorrington and Millington to visit Australia as a consequence.
Report of the 19th meeting of the Staff Committee
With respect to the Draft Leave Regulations it was agreed that these should be issued in printed form. A disparity had arisen between Belgian and French-based staff since the purchasing power of the respective currencies had equalised. Staff in Belgium were paid more than their French counterparts. The Staff Committee were against any reduction to the pay of staff in Belgium. A special meeting of the Finance Committee would be arranged – before the Parliamentary recess – to agree a way forward. Commission delegated the resolution to the Finance Committee.
Report of the 5th meeting of the Education Committee
Mentions that 20 children of the Commission’s staff now at school in the United Kingdom, each receiving £10 a year. Some 28 had been attending the school in Arras. The Board of Education was taking an interest in the scheme and would help find suitable schools. Foreign exchange issues might affect future funding as the costs had to be met from savings, not additional income. British staff in France concerned that their children were losing the ability to speak English. Availability of correspondence courses would now be for those over 14, not 12. Some funding for this from the Parents’ National Educational Union. Miss Pennethorne’s offer of a peripatetic visitor to travel to the homes was declined as not being practical.
Anglo-French Mixed Committee
Refers to notional costs of maintenance of French graves in British cemeteries as against the number maintained by the French of British graves in French cemeteries. Conclusion that some 1,400 graves cared for by the Commission would be funded by the French. A French gardener would be attached to Commission staff or a mobile one used. Suggested that this wouldn’t be practicable due to the dispersed locations. The 6,000 German graves, which were to be cared for by the French was mentioned.
Appointments to the Anglo-French Mixed Committee were announced.
Memorials to the Missing
Refers to a proposal raised by General de Castelnau and General Macready to mark the names of the dead on the memorials to the missing but who have since been found and identified, with a board detailing this. The members of the Commission dismissed this as possibly leading to a poor implementation, that the relatives would now know where the graves were, and that the intelligent public would understand.
Attendees:
Major-General Sir Fabian Ware, K.C.V.O., K.B.E., C.B., C.M.G. (Vice-Chairman, in the Chair)
Colonel G.L. Pepys, C.B., D.S.O. (Representing the Secretary of State for India)
E.P. Luke, Esq. (Representing the High Commissioner for Canada)
Major L.E. Beavis, D.S.O. (Representing the Australian Minister in London)
G.W. Klerck, Esq. (Representing the High Commissioner for South Africa)
Rudyard Kipling, Esq.
Admiral Sir Morgan Singer, K.C.B., K.C.V.O.
J.J. Lawson, Esq., M.P.
W.P. Spens, Esq., C.B.E., K.C., M.P.
There were also present:
Lieut.-Colonel C.P. Oswald, O.B.E. (Assistant Secretary, Finance)
Lieut.-Colonel F. Higginson
Major H.F. Chettle, C.M.G., O.B.E., (Director of Records)
Captain H.P.R. Foster
Captain E.J. King, M.C.
F.C. Sillar, Esq.
F. Tyrrell, Esq. |