AMAZING LOVE TANGLE.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3452, 6 April 1920, Page 6

AMAZING LOVE TANGLE.

WIFE FOR-GIVES HUSBAND.

BROT:HER~'S UFNIQUE OFFER.

‘ Ellis Island, the famous innnigrants’ gateway to the United States ,and the ' hcene of so many strange human ex,pefrienc.es, tragic and otherwise, has surely never disclosed a more sensational love tangle than that involving a British girl—mother—~Miss Emily Knowles, of Stalybridge, Manchester. The future Vwelfare of this girl -and her baby are wrapped up in family al-1-argexuents of :1 unique and extraordinary kind that have astonished both’ sides of the Atlantic. Briefly the facts of the case fife these;——— Mrs Qfierley R. Spiker, the wife of an American airman, has consented to receive in-:0 her home Miss Knowles, the unmal'luedmotllel' of 1101‘ husband’s war bany, and assist in an‘ arrangement by which, “in order to save the family honour,” Mr Spiker’s brother shall ..m:lrry Miss‘ Knowles. Whether I+,is possible for the arrangement to work out happily is a question that] time alone can‘ answer‘, but in the meanwhile a tremendous. amount of discussion has arisen, in which very divided opinions -are pronounced as to the right. and wrongs of the remarkable ’i‘l'lal_lglllill‘. rß)ln.ance. Miss ' Knowles is described by her friends as :1 girl‘ of smart appezfrance With more than average intelligence. Her

mother, "a widow, is 3, ,Weavel' at the Prellliel"Mill, Stalybridge, where the g'il'l was also employed before joining the W.R.A.F. ‘

The first inkling of her love tangle heoame known when it was announced that she and her four-months-old baby had been allowed to enter the United States on the plea of ' the little one ’s father, ex--Lieutenant Spikerfand his, wife, and the promise of the husband ’s brother, Guy Spiker to marry Miss Knowles, and thus help to right the wrong done by his relative. It was at the suggestion of Mrs ‘Spiker, after she had heard her husband’s confes~ sion of his relationship with the girl while he was encamfied .in England awaiting the call to France, that Miss Knowles took her baby over to America, so that both could live in the Spiker home, in Baltimore, Maryland. Mrs-Spiker declared she had forgiven

her husband and was anxious to adopt

the baby, and prepared to love it like , a mother, while Spiker expressed his oiief that the child was entitled to a ‘father and mother, and to a, home. He stated he had lived happily with his wife for eight years, except. for the period‘ he spent in the aviation service, that he earned £2O weekly as a sheetsteel roller, and was well able to provide for his baby and its mother. rQucstioned by ‘the immigration officials, as to what prompted him to send for Miss Knowles, Spiker remarked: “I felt I'd done her a wrong, and Plll trying to right. it.” Mre Spiker’s afiidavit set forth that she forgave her husband and that the incident did not make a great. change in her happiness. As to the baby, Mrs Spiker’s affidavit ran: “I shall have the same feelings towards Alfred Knowles, if I am permitted to adopt him, as I have towards our own child, who is seven years old.” -‘