A MEMORIAL TO THE OVER-SEA TROOPS.
[TO TIT EDITOR Or TUX " SYXCIA
Slit,—A. Canadian member of the Over-Seas Club, Mr. Fans Sewell, first suggested the charming idea of planting maple seeds round the graves of Canada's gallant sons who have given their lives for the Empire in Flanders and Franco. The proposal was at once taken up by the Central Committee of
the Over-Seas Club, and a Memorial Sub-Committee has been formed to give effect to it, of which I have consented to act as Chairman.
Sir Robert Borden, who has expressed his warm sympathy with the idea, during his recent visit to France kindly planted a supply of maple seeds sent to ns by Mr. Sewell, and wrote the following letter :— " Prime Minister's Ofiice, Canada,
Savoy Hole?, London, July 271fa, 1915.
DEAN. have learned with much interest of the idea of some Canadian member of the Over-Seas Club to plant Cart/WW1 maple seeds over the graves of Canadians in Flanders and France, where practicable, and of your intention to arrange to plant an avenue of maples at Langeinarcke after the war. The idea seems to moo a very pleasing one, and I have no doubt that the relatives of all those who have fallen will appreciate your attempt to beautify the graves of those who have given their lives to the Empire. I have had much pleasure in planting some of the seeds myself.---Yours faithfully, R.. L. POIMEN, THE HON. SEC. OVER-SEAS CLUE."
At the conclusion of the war, the Over-Seas Club farther proposes to plant an avenue of maples at Langemarcke.
"When the trees attain full growth," writes a correspondent in Land and Water, " they will stand as sacred groves. Each spring as they burst into young leaf, each autumn as they redden to the fail, they will bear testimony to the undying glory and courageous self-sacrifice of those brave Canadian regiments that look their place willingly and spontaneously in the fighting line of the British Empire."
The Over-Seas Club now proposes -to extend the Idea to the
Dardanelles and other battlefields, wherever practicable, as a memorial to our heroes of the Australian and New Zealand Expeditionary Forces, substituting in their case the wattle (mimosa) for Australia and the to tree for New Zealand.
Relatives of those who have fallen in any of the contingents referred to, if they approve of the idea, aro requested to write us to the whereabouts of the graves of their loved one to the Honorary Secretary, Memorial Sub-Committee, the Over- Seas Club, General Buildings, Aldwych, London, W.C.—I am,
Chairman Memorial Sub.Committee.
Howick., Lesbury, Northumberland.
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