Printed papers on the political situation and military policy in Egypt [‎41v] (82/176)

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vice-chairman of the commission. Sir Herbert Cox arrived shortly afterwards to
advise on the treatment of Indian graves according to the needs of religion and caste,
cremation being necessary in the case of Hindoos.
102. The cemeteries which had .been chosen for the concentration of British
graves numbered nine : Alexandria (2), Cairo, Ismailia. Kantara, Suez, Port Said,
Minia and Tel-el-Kebir; the Indian burying grounds already established numbered
five : Alexandria, Cairo, Ismailia, Kantara and Suez. Reburial in the case of
isolated Indian Moslem graves could not be undertaken, except where ground had in
any event to be disturbed, exhumation being against Moslem religious practice; a
considerable number therefore remain scattered.
103. The committee was formally recognised by the Council of Ministers as the
agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. of the commission on the 4th May, 1921, and a deed of gift making over the
fourteen sites mentioned above to the commission in perpetuity was passed in
the Mixed Courts on the 9th May, 1921. The committee, as recognised, was not
limited in numbers, but it was thought better, for political reasons, that it should not
contain more than two military members. Mr. Langley resigned the chairmanship
in July on retirement from the Egyptian Government service and was succeeded by
Dr. W. Hastings, O.B.E. The instrument of appointment providing that vacancies
on the committee should be filled by the commission upon the joint recommendation of
the Egyptian Government and His Majesty's representative in Egypt, a recommenda
tion was approved to the effect that, on the completion of construction work—which,
it was hoped, would be by the end of 1922—two Egyptian members should be invited
to serve. The Egyptian Government, when they originally offered the sites of the
cemeteries to His Majesty’s Government, had expressed their readiness to pay for
the maintenance of the cemeteries on completion. It was thought preferable,
however, that all expenses should be met by the commission, on the analogy of His
Majesty’s Government's arrangements with Belgium and France. This decision was
conveyed to the Council of Ministers in suitable terms.
104. By the end of February 1921 the Graves Registration Unit had completed
their work of exhumation and reburial (except in the cases of nine isolated graves,
four of them at Baharia Oasis) and had handed the cemeteries over to the committee
for construction wT>rk, the hitter assuming responsibility for the isolated graves,
which it hopes to be able to exhume during 1922. The number of British soldiers
concentrated in the nine British cemeteries is 8,852, while 423 Indians and 709
cremated Hindoos are interred in the five Indian burying grounds.
105. The construction of the British cemeteries in accordance with designs # i-
drawn up in Egypt by Sir F. Lorimer—comprising, in addition to separate
headstones for each British grave (of uniform design for officers and men alike),
imposing record-houses and general memorials—was put out to tender during the
year. The erection of tombstones or other memorials by private individuals except
by special leave of the commission had been forbidden early in 1918, but those then
existing, provided that they were of durable material, were allowed to remain. The
contract was finally given to a local Italian firm, the lowest British tender being
15 per cent, higher, and the Egyptian Government consented to waive import dues
and afford railway transport facilities in respect of limited quantities of material.
Horticultural schemes were decided upon for all cemeteries except Kantara, where
water is deficient.
106. The Indian burying grounds were designed on simpler lines in accordance
with Moslem and Hindoo religious custom. They are to consist of enclosed spaces,
horticulturally treated where possible, with a general monument in each recording
the names of all interred there. A similar monument will commemorate twenty-five
Indians buried in the Moslem civil cemetery at Port Said.
107. Schemes were also initiated for the erection of a general memorial to all
the Indian units which served with the Egyptian Expeditionary Force in Egypt and
Palestine, on the bank of the Suez Canal at Port Tewfik, and another to the
15th Imperial Service (Indian) Cavalry Brigade at Ismailia, both on sites selected by
Sir H. Cox during his visit.
108. As regards the Egyptian Labour Corps and Camel Transport Corps, of ► r
whose casualties accurate records were not kept, several proposals for suitable
memorials were considered. One, that a small mosque should be erected at El Arish,
was rejected on the ground that such a mosque would be too remote to commemorate
these two corps adequately; while as regards another, that drinking fountains should v
be erected in various centres in Egypt, it was felt that they might be damaged in
times of political unrest. It has since been decided to construct an ophthalmic
laboratory at Giza, Cairo, and details are being worked out.