HIRED BRIDEGROOMS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 798, 19 October 1929, Page 26

HIRED BRIDEGROOMS

NEW GREEK BUSINESS CHEAP NATURALISATION A new profession, due to the enterprising spirit of the modern Greek, has made its startling and somewhat amusing “debut” in Athens, says a United States exchange. It is the profession of the “paid” bridegroom, who marries the alien girl dancer or actress, or generally the foreign woman whose stay in Greece is declared by the police as undesirable. | Regular marriage agencies were | not, of course, an unknown fruit of civilisation over there. What is a I unique feature for Athens is the way in which the “girls” have succeeded —in combination with enterprising agents—to beat the law, by traus- | forming one of these agencies into ! a special bureau for paid “bride- | grooms,” which marries the girl threatened with expulsion from the country. After the marriage ceremony, the bridegroom hands the girl over to her “friend” in the guise of secretary, and he has no other marriage responsibility. The nuptial veil, and the orange flowers, together with the 10,000 drachmas (£2S), are all the pair need to secure the Greek citizenship for the alien girl, and enable her to stay as long as she pleases.