After laying a wreath at the foot of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Seoul, President Syngman Rhee told huge crowds attending a Third Memorial Day Service:
"The heroic services of our honoured dead enabled us to preserve at least the southern half of our country from Communist slavery and for this we shall be eternally grateful." He called upon the people to carry on the work of the war heroes. "Thus only we comfort the dead," he declared.

President Rhee was speaking at the country's largest Memorial Day ceremony -- at the Korean Armed Forces Cemetery, Seoul. Many high-ranking Government and Services leaders, including the Cabinet, attended. Wreathe were also laid by U.N. Commander, Gen. George H. Decker, Chinese Ambassador Wang Tung-yuan, chairman of the U.N. Commission for the Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea, Mr. Hugh A. Dunn, as well as by representatives of bereaved families.

Children placed posies at the gravesides and widows wept as they burned incense. A 21-gun salute was fired as sirens and bells sounded throughout the country.

There are 88,541 graves in the large cemetery -- more than 81,000 of them Korean Army victims.