This sickening plunder must be stopped

IT HAS been the mark of civilised men since before the beginning of history to bury the honoured dead with reverence.

This is so at all times, but never more so than when we mark the resting places of those who died in war. Their moving memorials, lovingly tended, are to be found on almost every continent.

But there is an even more special duty to guard the remains of those who die at sea. Sailors and their families know very well that the sea may well be the final resting place of those who live and work and fight upon it.

In many cases, their tombs are the great vessels in which they set sail long ago, as their loved ones waved goodbye, and in which they died in battle.

To this day the Royal Navy’s ships pause to mark these scenes of loss and sacrifice with solemn ceremonies when they pass close to them.

And we are entitled to expect that the sanctity of these wrecks should be respected for all time.

And so it was until very recently. But our fading naval power, and the dwindling memories of others, combined with ruthless commercial greed, are now leading to the grotesque desecration of naval war graves in the Far East.

Shocking damage has already been done, and it is not practical to mount a permanent guard on each of these seabed cemeteries, though satellite surveillance could prove effective.

But few crimes are lower and more contemptible than the breaking open of graves. It is surely in the interests of all nations, all seafaring peoples, all navies and of human civilisation itself that this cruel and shocking behaviour is stopped for good.