WIVES UP IN ARMS

Shannon News, 20 July 1926, Page 1

WIVES UP IN ARMS

RUSSIAN REFUGEE RIVALS. HUSBANDS LURED AWAY. DOMESTIC UPHEAVALS IN CHINA. SHANGHAI, June 10. The conduct of the pretty Russian women refugees, in China has precipitated a crisis in the homes of the British and American -women resident in the country, particularly in the Treaty Ports. British wives there declare that these fascinating - rivals from Southwest R,ussia and Siberia, some of them princeses, many of them socalled aristocrats, and virtually all of them with no fortunes other than their faces and other attractions, have lured husbands away from them and broken up their homes. English girls with fiances in the Par East similarly assert that the fair Russians tire causing their betrothed husbands to break their engagements. An English judge in the Shanghai Settlement Court makes the unequivocal statement that most of the divorces lie tried recently were almost entirely due to the fascination of the Russian refugees, who are characterised as real vampires of the kind made famous on the films. New Eastern Problem. The judge’s comment has let loose a flood of letters from indignant British and American wives on the one hand and from protesting Russian .vomen on the other, which appear in the English newspapers of China. The British wives attack the morals of the Russians, and demand their expulsion from China. The Russians retort by describing the British wives as flat-chested and flaxfooted, and worn out by hunting, hockey and golf. Tiie Russian women refugees, in fact, are presenting another Par Eastern problem in China that no me seems able to solve. The refugees owing to the revolu;ibn have lost their nationality, and are under Chinese jurisdiction. They are apparently permanent residents, because no other country will accept them, and they dare riot return to their own land. They are unable ‘to find employment as typists end school teachers, virtually the only avenue open to white women in China, owing to their ignorance of the English language. Many of them, owing to their good Looks and attrac.ive appearance, secured employment as singers, exhibition dancers and dancing partners In lie restaurants and else-where. Gives Husband Warning. Following- are typical extracts from some of the letters published in the Chinese English press:— , From an American wife.—“l sympathise with these Russian women refugees', but it is not the sort or sympathy that will let any of them take from me my husband, who brought me away from home and my own people to this country. This is .air warning and meant for my husband as well as his Russian ’lady riend.’ ” From an American who married a 'Russian refugee—“ There seems to be i ttie doubt that the Russian women .s by far a “be.ter fellow’ than the average woman of other countries.. The Russian girl is not mercenary; she tacitly shows a man that he must exert himself if he wishes to hold her interesit, and this arouses the hunter’s instinct in him. She is also brought up to be interesting; she qts in with her husband's affairs as well as his mood. It is for this reason that he finds in her a friend, a weetheart and a wife.” Influx a Godsend. ’

From a Briton who maried a Russian—‘The plain truth of the matter is that many\men out here are faced with the alternative of going home to be married ,which is prohibitive in cost, or marrying a Russian. The Influx of Russian women to 'the Far clast has been a godsend.” From a Russian girl refugee In China —“I wish to defend rny Russian refugee sisters, and to inform other women that are afraid to call a spade a spade. We Russians have not the flait chest or the flat feet. We are not the ‘Good-fellow-how-much-yougot’ kind. We do not take up the fox hunt or hoc-key or golf and get so tired we can do nothing.” The men, meanwhile, with the women fighjting over them, feel they are appreciated at last.