مجموعة ٢٩ /٤٢ "النفقات الدبلوماسية والقنصلية: المساهمات (من الإيرادات الهندية) في دفع تكلفة وجود قس بريطاني في طهران؛ المقابر المسيحية في بلاد فارس والخليج الفارسي" [و‎‎٣‎٣‎٩] (٧٠٤/٦٧٦)

REPORT.
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LORDS COMMISSIONERS
OF HER MAJESTY’S TREASURY.
My Lords,
1. We, the Committee appointed by yonr Lordships to inquire into
the question of the public expenditure on British Cemeteries or individual
graves or monuments in foreign countries or British Colonies, beg leave to
present to your Lordships our Report.
2. Our instructions were conveyed in a circular letter, dated 24th August
1888, addressed to the various Departments represented on the Committee
(see Appendix), and were to the following effect:—
“ My Lords are anxious that the several Departments concerned, viz., the
Foreign Office, Colonial Office, Admiralty, War Office, and Works, should
in concert with this Department (i.e., the Treasury), arrive at a common
policy in dealing with such charges (i.e., charges in connexion with the
maintenance of Cemeteries abroad), and especially should, if possible, agree
to place some definite term on the duration of certain of them, if not
of all.”
By a further letter, dated 21st December 1888 (see Appendix) your
Lordships communicated to the Departments concerned the names of the
gentlemen who had been nominated to serve on the Committee.
3. We have excluded from our consideration, as not coming within the scope
of our inquiry, Cemeteries at British naval and military stations, such as Malta
and Gibraltar. Such Cemeteries form a recognised part of the Establishment
of the stations, and the expense incidental to their care and maintenance is
regularly provided for in the Estimates of the Admiralty and the War Office.
We think that in this category must of necessity continue to be classed for
the present the Cemeteries at Cairo and Alexandria, the existence of which
is due to the British occupation of Egypt, and which are used in connexion
with our garrison in that country. So long as this occupation shaH continue
the maintenance of the burial grounds in question will, we conceive, remain,
as now, a charge upon Army Votes. We think, however, that on the with
drawal from Egypt of Her Majesty’s Forces some arrangement should be
made with the Egyptian Government under which that Government might
undertake the care and maintenance of the Cemeteries. Failing such an
arrangement, their care would of course devolve upon Her Majesty's Govern
ment in the same way as that of other burial grounds, which owe their origin
to the operations of war, and which are dealt with in paragraph 13 of our
Report. The Cemetery at Suakin, which is used for civil as well as military
interments, and in respect of which special arrangements have been made,
stands on a different footing, and has been classed by us with the Cemeteries
treated of in paragraph 9.
4. There remain for consideration Cemeteries other than those existing at
British naval and military stations, viz., those in—
I. British Colonies; and
II. Foreign Countries.
5. No questions appear to have arisen in respect of (I.) Colonial Cemeteries,
and we do not think it necessary therefore to make any recommendation
concerning them. We think that they may be left, as now, to local care.
The graves of the officers and men who fell in the Zulu War of 1879 have
hitherto been maintained out of Imperial funds; as, however, the territory
of Zululand has been constituted a British Colony, we are of opinion that
their care should now be delegated to the Colonial Government. The charges
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