The embassy also makes arrangements for the burial after consulting the Commission which suggests the appropriate cemetery and grave allation. This year eight bodies were buried, five of them unidentified itish soldiers and three British airmen who could be identified by virtue of the aircraft wreckage found with them.
Public Relations and Consultations
When the Commission changes its records it is sometimes necessary to make contact with the next-of-kin of war dead. Obviously it can come as a great shock for someone to be given news about a relative who may have died 50 years ago or more, and great care has to be taken when making contact. Similar sensitivity needs to be applied in cases where developments are planned in and around civil cemeteries and churchyards. Because the subject of the proper treatment of the dead is so emotive, the public debate surrounding such matters can sometimes become heated. The Commission has a duty to do all it can to protect war graves but tries to discharge this duty with reasonable regard to the interests of the community. In the year under review the Commission has needed to take legal action in the Ecclesiastical Courts and in Parliament to safeguard war graves and memorials in the United Kingdom and has implemented many other legal safeguards throughout the world.
The Commission has attempted to inform a wider audience about its work through broadcasts and exhibitions. The traditional Remembrance Day talk about the Commission's work on BBC Radio was given in 1990, the 75th anniversary year of the Gallipoli campaign, by the Australian High Commissioner in London, Douglas McClelland. On the same day, the television programme broadcast from the Cenotaph included a filmed report on the Commission's work which created a good deal of interest from the public. At the Royal Horticultural Society's Chelsea Flower Show in May, a photographic exhibition illustrating aspects of the Commission's work was displayed.
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Stoke Newington Sea Cadet Corps, who help maintain the memorial in Abney Park Cemetery, England
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