Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 February 1920 — Delay Return of U. S. Dead [ARTICLE]

Delay Return of U. S. Dead

Bodies of Americans May Not Be Sent Home Until 1922.

The 65,000 American dead in France must be left in the graves they now occupy until the French are ready to exhume their own dead, which may not be before January 1. 1022. had promised to ■ consider the formal request of the American government for the return of its fallen soldiers, but later the following official announcement was made: "It has been definitely decided that the allies who fell together for the Mme cause should remain together until circumstances permit of the returning of the bodies to the families for whom they sacrificed themselves.” The proposed law forbidding the exhumation of the soldier dead for three years did not pass at the last session of the chamber of deputies, but the foreign office expects that It will be adopted soon. _ French families also want their dead, but there are so many thousands unidentified among the dead and transportation is Inadequate to move the 1.500,000 bodies in the various cemeteries. The British and Belgian governments are urging the return of their dead, but France considers It only fair to treat all countries alike.