The remains of New Zealand airman Arthur Round must be returned to New Zealand for a proper burial, National Defence spokesperson Wayne Mapp said today.

Dr Mapp has written to the Minister of Defence asking whether the Government will consider returning Flight Officer Round's remains to New Zealand.

The pilot, from Newlands in Wellington, was killed when his plane crash-landed on a glacier in Iceland in 1941, and his body has just been recovered from the glacier.

"The finding of his remains raises an important issue of where he should be interred," Dr Mapp said.

"There is a strong feeling that he should be buried in New Zealand. I appreciate that had his body been recovered during wartime, he would have been buried in the United Kingdom, but the situation is very different today. There would be a strong expectation that New Zealanders killed overseas will be returned to their home country.

"No one is suggesting this policy should apply to those properly buried in Commonwealth War Graves, but I think it is a policy that could be appropriately applied for those who have never received an appropriate interment," Dr Mapp said.

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