DESPERATE MOTHER

Hokitika Guardian, 9 August 1930, Page 2

DESPERATE MOTHER

STOWS AWAY ON LINER. COLOMBO, July 22, Mrs Amelia Bennet, driven to desperation by her husband’s futile search . for work in Australia, stowed away with her three children on board the Moreton Bay at Fremantle. 1 Before the steamer sailed she hid her- ! self in the bathroom, where she stood shivering all night, while her youngest child, wrapped in a skirt, was cradled in the bath. j The mother, not knowing the whereabouts of her other two children—Leslie, aged 15, and Edna, aged 14—confessed that she was a stowaway next morning and was reunited with tho children at mid-day. The boy had sheltered beneath a tarpaulin on deck, and the girl, after wandering about the ship, had fallen asleep in a secluded corner. The mother and children were quartered in the isolation hospital aft. Sympathetic passengers, raised £l2 for them. The mother appeared in court at Colombo to-dav and arrangements were made whereby she will be accommodated with the children at the Y.W.C.A. until they are sent back to Fremantle by the next steamer.