RUSSIAN SOCIETY

Hokitika Guardian, 31 August 1931, Page 6

RUSSIAN SOCIETY

MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE. A COURT AT LENINGRAD. AUCKLAND, August 27. Among places of great interest visited in Russia last .Mayrfiy" T)r J. D. Salmond, of Dunedin, who returned to iNew Zealand by the Niagara, was a marriage and divorce court in Leningrad. The ..Court , held in a room about twelve feet By sixteen feet > n size, and two women at a table presided -over it. Dr Salmond saw a divorce in which no children were concerned, a divorce where there were children, and a marriage.

r l’he divorce in the first place was by mutual consent, and no questions were asked of the man and woman who attended. Somewhat to the amusement of the visitors the wife helped to explain the proceedings to them. Some papers were filled in, two roubles—about four shillings—paid over, and the divorce was complete in lour minutes. The marriage was between a man ol twenty-six and a woman ol twentyfour, and they produced passports and papers, including a certificate of medical fitness. If either of them proved Unfit afterwards he or she would be liable to proceedings by the other partner. Neither! bride; nor bridegroom smiled until the visitors gave them a clap, as they retired. Again two roubles was the cost.

Then a woman came along tor a divorce from a man to whom she had been married for thirty years. Ihe man was not present, but he sent a statement that he was ' -quite agreeable to the divorce. A form was made* out telling him that he had been divorced, and informing him of the amount lie would have to contribute from his wages for the support of his children under eighteen. It all appeared very drab, and casual and unromantic to the little group of ’English people who looked on.