SAILORS’ WIVES

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1063, 29 August 1930, Page 10

SAILORS’ WIVES

NINE AUCKLAND WEDDINGS DURING U.S. FLEET’S VISIT NO NEWS FROM HUSBANDS Apparently several Auckland girls loved the American sailors when the United States Squadron visited here ill 1925. % However, when the squadron sailed away week after the ceremony the girls were left grass-widows. Nor have they received any consoling messages from the sailor husbands in the intervening years. These women, who are finding it difficult to obtain their divorce, hope to do so under the Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Bill which Mr. H. G. R. Mason, M.P., has introduced into the House. The records show that nine girls were married to American sailors in 1925. Three of these had followed the squadron across from Sydney. Six were married in the Registrar’s Office in High Street, and the other three in City churches. Most of the girls were quite young. Those who came from Sydney were aged 21, 22 and 25. Two of the Auckland girls were aged 21 and one 24. The nationality' of these women would be the stumbling block if they appiwi for their divorce, and it is expected that the measure presented by Mr. Mason will clear the way for these brief marriages to be annulled.