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1415 as a place for private burial. The Board appointed a committee to investigate (Weekly Press, 20 February 1909). It reported back to the Board in April with the opinion that it was not advisable for land to be disposed of for isolated detached cemeteries. By way of concession it recommended that, “If, however, any Chinese of affluent circumstances wishes to have space reserved as a private graveyard, remission might be given for an area to be so reserved, and railed off, whether in an existing Chinese cemetery or on land adjoining such a cemetery at a rate of $2 per square foot, same as grave spaces in Class D of Chinese Cemeteries.” (Weekly Press, 3 April 1909).
But this arrangement did not fully satisfy those who wanted better accommodations for their dead. A satisfactory solution was finally arrived at in 1913 when land was set apart at Aberdeen (Aberdeen Inland Lot No. 78) for a permanent cemetery for Chinese permanently resident in the Colony. The cemetery was under the control of a Board of Management made up of recognised leaders of the Chinese community. Those who had resided in the Colony for eight years, and had subscribed $100 (later increased to $500) were entitled to graves; however, no more than four grave spaces were to be allotted for one coffin. Part of the problem of a satisfactory cemetery arrangement for wealthy Chinese was their wish to have a traditional horseshoe-shaped grave, a form which could use a great deal of space. The more area a grave included, the more important the person, and the greater the public statement of the wealth and position of the family.
In February 1909 the Sanitary Board considered an application from the son of a deceased Chief Interpreter of the Supreme Court for permission to exhume the body of his father that he might be reburied in a larger site in the same cemetery along with two sons, and two of his wives, who were to be exhumed from the cemetery for Chinese at Mount Caroline.
This request added fuel to the fire which was burning over the presence of Japanese Buddhist graves among those of Christians. One of the European members of the Board protested “against allowing our cemetery to be used for re-interment of bodies from