SHOCK FOR SOLDIER

Chronicle (Levin), 19 July 1946, Page 2

SHOCK FOR SOLDIER

— -v WITE AND CHILD GONE SYDNKY. Jul.v 10. When Jiunes Mullory, ugeil ■(-, t'linio batrk to Sydnoy iu Novenibev, 1945, ar'ter soi'vi ng six yenrs in the Anny he lfcanied lliat liis \vi tV. taking their six-vear-oJd daughter. had gone to the Vnited'" fcftatos, and was living in l'hiladel]i.liia with :in Anierican sailor. Mallnry, wlnt is seeking a divoive th rough the Anieriean (.'ourts, is trying to lind out how iiis wife was alde to take his ehilrl from Auslralia without his eousent. Mallorv has had a tragie lite. His falher was killed iu Fraueo with the A.I.P. in World War 1. His mother.. a, British nurse, was on her way to Aus-i tralia when, i'ollouing the slioek of ihe] news of her husband 's deatli, she died] iu chiklbirth. .Mullory, born at sea,, was registered at Port Me.lbourne, the] tirst port 'of -all. placed in a iM'elbmirnc ! orphaaage, and later boartled out toj foster pa'i'euts. i In 1934 he was given a elericai jobl in the Hhilil Welfare Department. Ile; joined the- permanent inilitary forces in 1930, and married a New South, Wales eountry girl in Richmond, Vic-' toria, in 1933. When war broke out in 1939" he re-oulisted iu the (5th Division and fought in (h'eece and t'reie. Iveturued to Australia, he spent lea\'e twic'e witli. his family before going to] New (xuinea. Hrom there he went on t-o Boriieo and for the tirst time since 1942 lamted back in Sydney in November. 1 945. The tirst he kuew of liis wife's llight was when he knocked at the door of his suburban tlat, found strangers iu oceupat.iou, and was handed a letter. It was I'ro.iy his wife, statiug that she had "go'ue to the Statos wilh an Americau sailor and takou the cliild with her." ilallpry niade inquiries for his wife and' ehihl th rough the A morikau C(;nsul aird found that she was iu Philadelphia tyilh an Americau. .Seeking legal advice he was told that his eutire deferred pay would be insufficient lo establisli' divorce proceedings iu a U.S. Oourt. In Ueeember last, he wrote to an Anierican solicitor, Ma'rrv Wardell. of Pliiladelphia, who requested a retainer. Mallory sent £u(). He has heard nothing niore. M.allory has been otl'ered a job as earpenfer in New Guinea with Bulolo Gold Drodging Co. He said: "It's back over tlre ..s.ame ground trodden by the boys — but it -11 help i»e start again."