MOTHER AND CHILD

Hokitika Guardian, 18 March 1931, Page 6

MOTHER AND CHILD

ASYLUM ON A lIILL-TOp

'LINY ITALIAN R KIM'BUG

The tiny republic of San .Marina was lately beleaguered by Italian carabinieri.

The cause of the strange state ol affairs was a little Milanese girl of 10 sum mors and her mother, the Alafcliesa Bramhillit,,>tho took:asylum in the hilltop republic” where they defied those who sought to put into execution an order issued by an Italian court of law.

As the result of a conjugal quarrel and separation, the husband o! the Marcliesa sued lu-r and obtained in the Milan law courts ail order to take his daughter from her mother and have the total guardianship of the child. Before the legal machinery for the execution of this finding could he pul into operation mother and child acted on the original idea ol repeating Garibaldi's successful experiment—they sought and found sanctuary m the republic which still preserves its ancient independent rights in the midst of the kingdom of Italy.

The legal authorities of both kingdom and .republic were thrashing out the “international” legal position, but meanwhile San Marino refused to accede to the attempts made by the foiled husband to enforce the extradition of his wife and child. The Italian carabinieri did not enter the confines of the republic, but th n y were picketed at all points of escape or exit, and the police of San Marine were also unusually vieikid. I he Italian however, were carrying out the don hie' role ol protection and aggression. With the San Marino police they were guarding against any attempt to kidnap the child, as had been threatened. At the same time the Italian police were ready to arrest the Marchesa should she happen to set. foot, or lie allowed beyond the confines of the republic. Pending tin- exhaustion of all legal appeals neither of the two Governments had so far officially intervened, and an “international incident,” had so far been avoided, but San Marino was in a state of tension. AH ,strangers entering the town—especially if they happened to looklike wicked uncles—were carefully shadowed in case they had come to smuggle out the refugees, and all people on foot and in cars, as soon as they left the town frontier gales, were confronted by carabinieri with demands of proof of identity, while departing strangers accompanied by children were astonished to bo asked severely of each of them: “Whose is the child?”