WAR-BRIDE TANGLES

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 41, 12 November 1919, Page 7

WAR-BRIDE TANGLES

OVERSEAS MEN WHO MARRIED IN HASTE. "War marriages have nrovod the verv devil anions our boys," "said an. Australian sergeant-major ivho in civil life is ,i farmer (slates the- "Daily Mail'"). "I am not surprised that ma'nv voting women married (n Dominion soldiers are unable to locate their husbands now the war is over. Ami the men are not entirely to blame. Take my own 'battalion. I know of at least a score of cases where the men have married girls after a week's acquaintance, only to learn subsequently that the wives'they had sworn fn love and cherish had deceived them. Naturally they 'dodged the column,' to use an Army phrase. There have heen a good many bigamous marriages, but there again the girls themselves have been largely to bfamo; they took marriage as lightly as an afternoon tea. The man returned to the front with 7io thought beyond fighting, and the wife stay»(l at home with little thought: beyond the separation allowance: and if Ihey did meet again they met almost as strangers. Such has been Hie experience of men in my battalion." The sergeant-major's views are to a large e\-(ent borne out by the officials at Horse-ferry "Road. Westminster, where every effort is made to provide inquiring wives with information about their Australian husbands. The facts show that, in many cases the wives know practically nothing about their husbands. Also there is a. Dionoiineed disinclination on Hie part of English wives to proceed to Australia.