JUDGMENT FOR HUSBAND

Chronicle (Levin), 4 September 1948, Page 5

JUDGMENT FOR HUSBAND

Press Association)

Bailey Divorce Hearing Concludes

(Per

WELLINGTON, Sept. S. Evidence^of sermous preacbed in the Dommonwealth Covenant Church was given in the Supreme Court today before "Mr. Justice Comish when the hearing was contimted _of ti.e petition hrought hy Laurence Eailey • for restitution of conjugal xights with his wife, Phyllis Bailey, Petitioner said he thought it was his 'wife's duty to return to hira, on the earlier basis which included marital relations. He denied having ever forced such relations upon her. Sometimes, when his wife was . not feeling well, she retired to a baek room of ihe church with "Brother Frank" to be prayed for by him. It was in sucli sessions that "the gestapo" got to work, said the petitioner, explaining that "the church" had apparently got eertain information about his allegecl beliaviour at home. Eollowing .counsel's remarks about the "open church confessions" his Honour remarked: "They confessed almost as if there were a eompetitkui among them to speak of indeceneies which occurred at home, worked up to do so by mass fervour with the atmosphere of the meetings." Witness agreed. He himself had said and4 done tliiuga in the meetings whieh he could not account for. He was convineod tliat if he were an ordinary carpenter earning an ordinary wage "Brothei Frank" Avould not have shown sucb interest in him. Deseribing the hysterical etfect of a meeting witness said that on Waturday nights a ' ' church order meeting" was lield with 300 to 400 people present in the ^rayer room. "You go expecting some good from the ministry, " witness said. "You sing a liynm twenty or thirty times — 1've lieaTd this- singing three-quarters of a mile away. After '.the hymn has been sung over and over agaiu you start to get eo\ered in perspiration all down your baclc and your legs. By this time you don't know your left hand from your right. 1 went there with a £50 note ii;,.0ne jioekct and t-en shillings in tlie other. I had just sold a car. Wlien tlie eollection was taken I put the xoO in the plate although 1 had intended to put in only 10s. *' His Honour: You got sung out of £50. — Yes, you don't know your left hand from your right. l've put every penny on the altar for five years. "On Sundav liiorning.s, " witness added, "If a person went along with a tunnel" and some £1 notes he found liimself putting his intended £1 in the plate and then involuntarily plaeing tiie tenner on top. That 's how 'Brother Frank' got his £28,000," petitioner added. Bailey expressed the opinion tliat the evidence given by his wife ybsterday had been "Brother Frank" speaking. ..His wifeyvas^obsessed and in the power or a demoniat' inRuence as long as she associated with Brother Frank. He hau soen niany cases in the Hutt of kome.v being broken up through association witli Wilson's church. To AI r. J. II. Oakley, witness said one of his reasons Jor bringing tlie proeeedings was Lo give some publicity to the aJTairs of tliis church, but he also wanted his wife baek. He did not want his wife baek if she were eontrolled by iJrother Frank, but wanted her as a Jianged and ret'ormed womau from; w hat she was when she left. His ilonour suggested that in view oi: Baiiev 's financial cireumstaiices it would surely be better for him to pay ' his wife £3 a week and get rid of her. Witness said he wanted' his wife baek, not as a housekeeper. Dr. Alazengarb read niany extracts iroin sermons d'elivered by Wilson and •yclostyled for circulation among the congregatioii. "I have been through this piie of sermons and 1 can't. (ind aiiything clean and eiuiobling in tliem. It soenis to be a coileetion of Mth and niuck,''' said Dr. Alazengarb. Air. Oakley: I have other ones, but diese things don't toucli the.crux of tlie niatter before the Court." His Honour: I think they are important. If all his exhortations are directed to tlie very gross sins of the tiesh tlie re is something unbalanc.ed ainnit tlie whole institution. Sex pervades this church. How cau I beiieve Ihe evidence or ralher be sure that it is right? Respondent has said that petitioner is sexuallj- perverted or a most revolting type. I dou't want to aceept tliat unless it is proved. If that ciiines from a woman wlio in her relig ious life has notliing but sexual sermons then cau she be believed? It seems to be a form of mania with Brother Frank. "You never hear stuff like this in any other Cliristian church from oue end of the eountry to the otlier," added liis Honour. / Dr. Alazengarb said ha had not pieked out a few extracts for the purpose of giving any wrong impression. Addressing the. Court Mr. Oakley (liscounted the value to the case of mueh tliat had been said of the Oom-' monwealth Covenant Church which was not on trial. His Honour repli'bd that it was relevant to exafliiiie the atmosphere of sex inilieated by the sermons. to wliich respondent listened. *' • Air. Oakley subinitted that the ' 'open confessions" or sermons had not been responsible for respondent 's departure from lioine. He blaiued petitioner 's own conduct and questioned iiis sincerity an asking .for respondent 's return. , - His Ilonour said the sermons should be censored and vetted by both a gi'ammarian and a jnoralist. In his address Dr. Mazcngarb submitted that petitioner had lain down no conditions for his wife's return whereas she had made it plain tliat slie did not want- to return except ' ' as a sister, ' ' tliat she would require a lioiisekeoper and tliat she must be free to alton (1 tlie churcli. Counsel recalled that some years ago a liian conducting a church had been I'onvieted for the dissemination of obscene literature, but from his memorv of that literature it was not as bad as tlie cyclostyled sermons of Brother Frank. . Ilis Honour, in granting the decree, : said he had found that petitioner was i nncere. He was not satisfied that tho ausbgnd .was guilty, - pf the :

abominable acts" to wliich his wife had dcposed. She liad been Jiving, for some time in an atmosphere of exeiteinen't. The conditions of life in the assembly of ,the church made for exvitement. She liad. been listening to confessions of'others about sexual aber- ^ rations and abominations. "1 am not saying that lier evidence has been inspired by tliat, but I am not satislied that it lias hot 'been," said his Honour. "This may have cause'd her to imagine the enormities allegcd against her husband. She has not establislied her case in the defenee. ' ' His Ilonour added tliat in all tlie eireumstanecs lie considered the lmsband entitled to 11 decree and lie made an oi'der aceor Rngiy requiring the wife to return within tliree months wliich would enable tlie wife to ponder earefully tlie relative prospects of eomfort and security with her husband or the unpredictable situation in wh^ch relianee on the -assembly might involve her. '