| Content Note | Topics covered:
Circulation, approval, and signing of the Minutes of the 232nd Meeting, with amendments.
Apologies for absence from Sir George Macdonogh and Sir John Kennedy.
Refers to retirement of Mr Hore-Belisha in 1937 and his replacement by Mr Oliver Stanley.
Announcement of two changes which had taken place in the membership of the Commission's Agency in South Africa, owing to the appointments of Colonel B.F. Armstrong to succeed Brigadier-General H.S. Wakefield as Adjutant-General and of Colonel J. Mitchell-Baker to succeed Colonel F.R. Theron as Quartermaster General of the Union Defence Forces.
Reports of ceremonies held in the Commission’s Albert Area in November 1939, as well as ceremony in Lembet Road Cemetery, Salonika.
Refers to the last Monthly Report from France when it was mentioned that the shelters, toolhouses and other buildings in cemeteries near Festubert and Loos had provided useful protection from shrapnel and shell splinters during aerial combats overhead. No damage had been caused to personnel or fabric.
Update on numbers of visitors to cemeteries in France, including officers and men of the Forces visiting the graves of their fathers and brothers. The Visitors’ Books in Belgium had been signed by 202 people in November and by 121 people in December.
Report from Mr Gill that in November, the German, French and Belgian War Cemeteries were in a good condition.
Report of tour of war graves in Eastern Canada by Mr A. Lewis Watson, Assistant Secretary-General of the Commission’s Canadian Agency, in July 1939.
Update on coordination of work between the Commission and the DGRE, including answering enquiries from the public and the temporary marking of graves in the United Kingdom.
Report Of The 284th Meeting Of The Finance Committee
Adoption of the Report of the Finance Committee, referring to the approval of the final figure for the Estimates of Expenditure for 1940/1941.
Emergency Powers
Update on replies received from several Governments on the proposed extension of the Commission’s powers by a Supplemental Charter and resolution authorising any necessary expenditure incurred by the Commission concerning responsibilities for graves of the present War.
Headstones For The Graves Of The Present War
Update on the subject which had been discussed at the December meeting and mention that specimen headstones were available for inspection.
It was agreed for a similar headstone to be used and, as suggested by Kenyon, for a new alphabet designed by Eric Gill.
Burials Of The Present War
Update on numbers of burials: 226 British burials in France known to the War Office, 34 in Germany, and 663 in the United Kingdom, as well as 25 German burials in the United Kingdom. The 226 burials in France were in fifty-five cemeteries, of which thirty-one were Communal, eighteen were Commission cemeteries or plots, three were French National and three were new cemeteries of the present War.
Anglo-Belgian Mixed Committee
Resolution that His Excellency Sir Lancelot Oliphant, K.C.M.G., C.B., be appointed an Honorary Member of the Anglo-Belgian Mixed Committee in succession to Sir Robert Clive.
Discoveries And Reburials In France And Belgium
Update on discoveries and burials in France and Belgium: thirty-one discoveries in seven weeks as compared with fifty-nine in the corresponding period in 1938 ; sixteen were found in Belgium and fifteen in France.
Income Of The Endowment Fund
Mentions that the income of the Commission was derived almost entirely from the Endowment Fund. Resolution for arrangements for payments to be made at more frequent intervals.
Authority For Use Of The Seal
Resolution for the affixation of the Commission’s seal to documents relating to the grant of the gravesite of Stoker P.O. Mathias, R.N., in Plymouth Old Cemetery as well as the assignment of the Commission’s policy to Arthur Francis English.
Attendees:
Major-General Sir Fabian Ware, K.C.V.O., K.B.E., C.B., C.M.G., LL.D. (Vice-Chairman, in the Chair)
Colonel C.E.T. Erskine, C.I.E., D.S.O., M.C. (Representing the High Commissioner for India)
E. MacLeod, Esq. (Representing the High Commissioner for Canada)
V.C. Duffy, Esq., M.V.O. (Representing the High Commissioner for Australia)
C. Knowles, Esq. (Representing the High Commissioner for New Zealand)
W.G. Parminter, Esq. (Representing the High Commissioner for South Africa)
The Hon. Sir Edgar Bowring, K.C.M.G. (Representing the Government of Newfoundland)
J.J. Lawson, Esq., M.P.
There were also present:
Lieut.-Colonel Sir Frederic Kenyon, G.B.E., K.C.B.
Colonel A.R. MacAllan
Major the Earl of Courtown, O.B.E., D.L.
Colonel C.P. Oswald, C.M.G., O.B.E. (Controller and Assistant Secretary, Finance)
Lieut.-Colonel H.F. Chettle, C.M.G., O.B.E. (Director of Records)
Lieut.-Colonel F. Higginson, C.M.G. (Director of Works)
F. Tyrrell, M.B.E.
O.D. Holt |