MARRIAGE TO A JAPANESE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 9, 8 December 1926, Page 12

MARRIAGE TO A JAPANESE.

ENGLISHWOMAN’S STORY. DOCUMENT AND £2OOO EXPLAINED. An Englishwoman who married a Japanese and whose sister married a Chinese, appeared in the Divorco Court, London, to pursue a petition against her husband and to explain how she came to accept £IOOO on the understanding that she should bring a divorce suit and to consent to receive another £IOOO when it was all over. She was Mrs Elizabeth Pauline IshN/ara, of Clifton Gardens, Maida Vale, and her husband, l’arayosh Ishiwara, is a student in motor engineering. Dr. Chew and Mrs Chew (her sister) were in 1922 managing a Chinese restaurant in Oxford street, London, and Miss Gibson, as she was then, assisted them. She met the Japanese student at the restaurant, and after several proposals on his part she accepted him. The wedding took place in February, 1923, at the register office, Paddington, and it was without issue. Within a month of the marriage he suggested they should move to an hotel in Edgeware road, London, and' lie told her to go on in advance, promising to follow later. “My husband, from that day to this,” said the wife, “has never been back to me, and I have never had a penny piece from him.” THE DOCUMENT. She returned to her sister’s restaurant and helped her, also doing a little film work to eke out a living. In 1925 she went with her sister to Shanghai in an endeavour to trace her husband, but failed. Though of limited means himself, the husband was related to members of a wealthy Japanese business firm having branches all over the East, and they were approached. Acting on the advice of a Japanese lawyer whom she consulted, Mrs Ishiwara signed a document, which opened:— In consideration of the sum of £IOOO sterling now paid to me by the company, and the further sum of £IOOO sterling to be paid to me by the company in London so soon as the decree nisi shall be granted in the Divorce Division of the High Court against my husband, I hereby release and discharge my said husband and the family m Japan from all claims whatsoever. _m , She agreed to return to England and to institute proceedings as soon as she arrived in London and to pay costs incurred. This contract she signed. “I received the £IOOO and I returned to England,” added the wife, “and instructed my solicitors.” She explained that she was without means when she went to Japan, and it was argued for her that her husband s relatives had a right to provide her with money for a divorce and to secure provision for her afterwards. The husband had no part in the transaction and the divorce proceedings were genuine. The divorce judge, in granting the decree, held that nothing improper had been disclosed.