"WAR-WEDDINGS."

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 47, 18 June 1915, Page 8

"WAR-WEDDINGS."

AND HOW THEY LIGHTEN THE PREVAILING GLOOM.

Of all the social changes which tiie wand of war has wrought, sureiy none is so remarkable as that winch has eclipsed the wedding—ever the supremest occasion in a woman's life. This e i pse extends from the smartest nuptiai* in St. George's St. Margrvt s or St. Paul's, hnightsbridge tnr;e classic London churches famed for elaborate weddings—down to the marni'ge ol : tho sailor and his lass eelebr.weJ in a dockyard church in a home po't. All are quick and quiet, in kc.p.ng with our naval and nii'it.i:y pr<.-fara-tions for the great, st ■-hn.ll'.'iitie ever flung at us a.s an Empir:. Indeed l.undieds of weddings are not c-eleor.ited in a church at all, but bv sp".-::il licence in the Registrar's office; and the honeymoon is no more than a matter of hours, for the groom is due back in the trenches immediately.

"NO FUSS" WEDDINGS

To the great regret of trade in gen eral, litl e attention is paid to frocks or entei taining. "No fuss" is the accepted watchword for the war-wedding. As for presents, these are often bestowed upon the bridegroom's regiment, and they range from tobacco to wadingboots; and for th% officers, field-glasses, tinder-lighters, and the electric torch which has proved such a blessing on dark nights in that never-ending maze of "ditches."' The time-honoured cake is conspicuously absent, and even when present it is speedily cut, and "good-luck" pieces posted with the soldiers' gifts which go out in shoals from Southampton. It may seem strange at first glance that there should be a perfect epidemic of war-weddings at such a time of unique national strain and stress, but love remains the same—perhaps intensified by that very strain and stress. Besides, a paternal Government has been pretty generous in the matter of pav, pensions and allowances to possible widows, orphans and dependants. in fact this endowment, running as it does into hundreds of millions of pounds, is really a form of "wedding-insurance ; so that all ranks are directly encouraged to marry without anxiety as to what will become of wife or child jn the event of death or disablement. This is why weddings are the order of these dark days. . Sudden week-end leave is given to the young officer or man. There's a quicK motor-run to railhead, and thence by train to Boulogne, which is the real base of our fast-growing Exoeditionai v Force. Now over to Folkestone —up to Victoria and home in time for tea ana eager talk. Is it not strange how reluctant the returned hero is to speak of trench-life and all its attendant horrors? . He'd rather discuss the social changes in town and country life at home, and how queer a world it will be when all the armies find their dreadful occupation gone and a lasting peace restoied. You'll hear regrets for the spring and summer of this year, lovely seasons dropped from the calendar of oidinaiy life and sacrificed to the god of War. "Let's change the subject," says the groom-to-be, and votes for a visit to the theatre, whose fortunes he has changed so completely in these past few weeks. Pessimists prophesied that by Christmas not a single theatre would remain open, whereas new plays are boldly produced with lavish outlay, and "Home-l'u.l boards are the rule rather than the exccption.

WORTHY OF GEXEROTS TREAI MENT.

Clearly, then, people must have some distraction from the prevailing aiixiei*. It must be borne in mind that the Great War is not so much a war ot piofessional armies, with remote effects upon the peoples p.: Ixme, as a desperate clash of whole nations, ideals and civilisations. Our own official es'.mate of three million men in arms, apart from our Regular and Indian forces, brings home to us sharply the fact that there is scarcely a family in the land, to say nothing oi the Colonies or the Navy, which has not given some dear hostage to the Cause. "And," savs Mr. Wilton Churchill, •'not one of these .110,1 but is a volunteer engaging himself to fight be>olid the seas without hopes of gain or desne for bootv, but simply for a spiritual and moral ideal. To find anything approacnin" a parallel one must go back thiougn the mists of history to the Crusades. Xo wonder the wealthiest Empjre acts generously bv such sons! Xo wonder she should wi>h such a stock to marry and propagate its kind to carry on the

noble traditions of Great Britain THE NAVY.

And so with our matchless Xavy- no man coerced or bribed, but our very fishermen volunteering 111 thousands tor the deadlv work of trawling for submarine mine's; each trawler now becomes "His Majesty's Ship." with a naval officer in charge and the sunk wires often clogged with a shining giobe oi high explosive powerful enough to blow the bottom out of the hugest armoured cruiser afloat. Jack's war-wedding, by the way, is commonlv celebrated by the chaplain ot his ship'—that guide philosopher ana friend whose peculiar position of peiil and service is unequalled in the Chimb, of England. Hut whether naval or military, there can be no buying of furniture. no home-making until the great conflict is over. "Twenty-four hours after the cere--111011,v," said the witty regimental news paper, "published' in the trenches and passed from eager hand to hand the bridegroom lelt for Boulogne by the famous 'One o'clock special trom Victoria Station. And before midiug'was cosilv installed in the "Carlton' dug-out, pelted with something far hotter than confetti or old shoes! His bride went back to her mother's and dreamed of the time when lie il come again...unannounced as good tortune is, and equally bard to recognise! "We're eating her cake here, and wearing the mufflers her bridesmaids gave us, .Meanwhile the colonel is wilting a letter of thanks and promising to keep an eye upon young 1) loi a day or two, until his head conns down out of the clouds, and the sniper becomes a real institution to him again.