3 MAY 1924, Page 15

" BRITISH SOLDIERS' GRAVES IN ITALY. [To the Editor of

the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—May. I crave the hospitality of your columns on a matter which seems to me deserving of attention ? I visited to-day the British Military cemetery, and I found that the lettering on the headstones of the graves of those officers and men who died here in hospital of wounds and sickness contracted on the Italian front have already become so defaced by wind and weather as to be in some cases ahnost indecipher- able. These stones were erected by the Graves Commission and are of so soft a stone that the regimental crests, the names and wording of the texts chosen by the relatives have become worn away, so that in a few years little wilt remain to mark the graves of those who died in their country's service.

I do not know whether the same applies to other graves in the battle areas of France and elsewhere, but I feel sure that it is the wish of the whole country that the memorials erected by the Graves Commission should be permanent

—I am, Sir, &c., R. L. SATURLEY. Hotel Angst, Bordighera, Italy. April 20th.