PATRIOTIC MARRIAGES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1156, 9 October 1913, Page 4

PATRIOTIC MARRIAGES.

LINK WITH CHINA

Marriage as a method of retaining a Chinese youth’s association with his native land was explained to Mr Justice a’Beckett in lie Melbourne Criminal Court a few days ago. Reference was made in several translated letters read in the course of a case to the desire of the relatives to have a young Chinese married before he leit his native village for Australia. The Judge asked what was the reason tor such a marriage. Mr Kwang, an interpreter from the Supreme Court in Hongkong, replied that it was the custom of Chinese parents to arrange such marriages in order that the young men who went abroad would have a link with their native place and would be thinking of their countiy all the time. While the husband was away he sent money home to his wife, even if he were away for many years. The young husband might live with his wife for a few mouths after the marriage, prior to leaving China. When he let, his wife would live at the home of her husband's peopl,e. She could not obtain a divorce. The purpose of the marriage was to prevent a severance of the young man’s ties with his native land.