Unburied Heroes

Auguste Champetier de Ribes, French Minister of Pensions, spent an exciting hour at Verdun last week. Charges had been made that although millions of francs are being spent on the new monument at Fort Douaumont heroic Verdun dead are not yet properly buried. Pausing only to invite reporters to accompany him, M. Champetier de Ribes took train from Paris to quash this rumor. At Verdun he discovered that not only are thousands "improperly buried," but at least 12,500 are not buried at all.

In a shed not far from the new monument M. le Ministre counted 1,400 skeletons, bits of uniform still clinging to their bleached bones. A rusty airplane hangar contained 9,800 more, piled in dusty, loose-covered boxes, jumbled together under tattered sheets. Reporters ferreting for themselves discovered that thousands of other bodies lie buried so shallowly that each Spring thaw brings many to the surface. The Minister of Pensions stayed in Verdun only an hour, returned thoughtfully to Paris. On the train he brightened somewhat.

"No one is to blame," said M. Champetier de Ribes. "It is the War."

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