MARRIAGE BY PROXY.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 March 1917, Page 8

MARRIAGE BY PROXY.

ANZACS PUZZLED AND DUBIOUS. When it wa9 announced in London that a Bill had been introduced in the Australian House of Representatives to legalise marria.ee by proxy among Australians on active service, the troops in England were said to be puzzled to understand the meaning of. this legislative move. According to the ''Weekly Despatch," tliqy declared that they would rather not marry at all than by proxy. "When I marry I am takipg my girl to the alter myself," remarked one misehie-vous-eved Anzac. "I am not troubling any pal to act in my place." An Australian staff officer who belongs to the "original Expeditionary army, remarked that he had never had any demand from his men for marriage by proxy, but thc,re was not the slightest doubt as to the nieaniug of the proposed legislation. "It is," he says, "to get •Australians to marry Australian girls.

"Whsn an Australian conies over to England he may be tempted to forget the sweetheart he has left behind him. and marry an English girl. That is all very well from his point of view, but it is jolly hard on the lass waiting for him in Australia, and worrying her heart out whether he will be killed or not.

'■' There have been so many cases of Australians marrying English girls and disappointing their own sweethearts that 1 suppose the Australian girls in seld-de-fenoe have been making representation - ! to the Commonwealth Government. "On the other hand, one of our boys, badly wounded and with an even chance of dying and recovering, may feel he would like to marry his.sweetheart and secure to her the pension to which the widow of an Australian soldier is entitled. Thousands of miles away, his only chance of achieving his desire is to marry lier by proxy. "Again, there are any number of Australian soldiers who v>'ould, no doubt, . welcome the opportunity of marrying their sweethearts and making sure that no rivals estrange their affections. "The majority of the Australians 011 active service are bachelors, and, of course, it would be extremely hard lines on the pretty Australian lasses if they found that the affections of their sweethearts wcr« being diverted by the very attractive English girls, and the Australian Tommy is more romantic and sentimental than most people suspect. : "Distance may lend enchantment to the view, bat in the case of. the Anzacs distance very often means all the difference between an English and an Australian bride. Besides, how hard to resist falling in love with the charming and *ympatli«tic nurse who tends you back to health."