WAR BRIDES ARRIVE.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 May 1919, Page 3

WAR BRIDES ARRIVE.

TOTAL OP 121 ON REMUERA. fEIBUTR BY GENERA! RICHARDSON. A total of 121 soldiers' wives and 38 children arrived by the Remuera. They had an excellent trip, there being no cases of sickness. Keen interest v.-as manifested by the women in the entertainments and sports on board ship. A striking tribute was paid to the women by Dr. W. C. Sadlier, Anglican Bishop of Nelson, who returned after service as a chaplain in France. Bishop Sadlier said the women were of a remarkably fine type, and from every viewpoint were a credit to the Dominion and to the soldiers. The reception to the war brides was one of spontaneous warmth and hospitality. Among the new arrivals were a number of Scotch tossies, also girls from England, France, and one from Switzerland. As in the case of previous arrivals, the war babies were a particularly bonny, healthy-looking lot of children, who seemed to have taken their long ocean voyage in excellent part. An interesting matrimonial experience was that of one New Zealander who brought back a girl bride from Switzerland. This soldier was wounded and taken prisoner by the Germans. He was treated by German doctors, and the New Zealandcrs' treatment, he said, although very rough, was the same as that given to the enemy's own wounded. The effects of war conditions were evidenced in shortage of proper hospital equipment; for instance, paper bandages were in common use, other material not being obtainable. After six months' imprisonment in Germany, he was sent to Leyain, near Lake J.eman, in Switzerland, arrangements having been irpde with the British Government for the exchange of 500 sick prisoners. While at Leysin he met his future bride. There were only about 18 New 7alanders in Switzerland, he slated, b all who were sent there benefited greatly by the exchange. Another new arrival, who told an interesting story, was the wife of an English naval officer, who accepted an appointment in New Zealand. His ship was destroyed by a German submarine in the North Sea, he himself rescued, and taken on board the enemy vessel. Before the submarine returned to Germany it was subjected to several attacks" by British destroyers, and on several occa- | sions narrowly missed destruction. The officer was held prisoner in Germany until the signing of the armistice, when he was released, and rejoined his wife and family in England. Referring to the number of soldiers' wives who are arriving in the Dominion, General Richardson stated, in the course of his remarks at the Town Hall yesterday afternoon that some of the newly married soldiers would want assistance. "I hope," said the General, "that the people of this country will do their best to see that the married soldiers and their wives and children are properly provided for. There has been some criticism of the action of the action of the soldiers in marrying the English girls, but you cannot send boys of marriageable age to England and expect to control their love affairs. I would not attempt it. In any case, there is not a large number of men who have married English girls. I have made inquiries, and I find that there is only about two or three percent. Therefore, the young ladies of Auckland will still have about !>7 or 96 per cent, to make a selection from. (Laughter.) By far the greatest majority of the soldiers' brides are very fine girls. Some men may have made mistakes, but the man in khaki is not the only one who makes mistakes of that kind.

SOME STKAIGHT HITTING BY ONE OF THEM. The Auckland Herald is being deluged with letters from and about war bridesHere is a particularly lively sample:— Sir,—As one of the much-discussed soldiers' wives who has dared to come to a British country with her husband, mav £ overstep the canons of good taste by offering some criticism of the New Zealand women, who appear to regard us as some strange kind of predatory animal guilty of descending on the sacred fold and stealing therefrom a superman? If the ladies who are so wroth at our dreadful conduct in snaring these unfortunate New Zealand soldiers are right, it is, of course, quite wrong for an Englishman to come to New Zealand in order to marry a New Zealand girl. In my humble opinion, the New Zealand women who have so harshly criticised us find time for this sort of thing because they have so little to do and have remained blind, deaf, and overdressed during a period when the whole feminine world outside the Anstralasian dependencies of England were physically helping the men of the Empire to beat the Germans. I find that New Zealand women are singularly ignorant of anything bitjt their own immediate and domestic surroundings, totally unaware of the great sacrifices other women have made, ready even to criticise the various dialects which we English women are proud to speak, and using a kind of exaggerated cockney "patois" insufferably galling when it is used in derision ot the women from whence they themselves sprung. I find in New Zealand what wo would call "working women" nt Home faring anything! up to £2O worth of clothes, and considering us dowdy" because we have been forced m England to those economies which were necessary to victory. I find ft n almost universal dislike to domesticity, an abominable disregard of duty to children, a fixed intention to destroy the country by "race suicide," and a sort ot hectic rush to squeeze out of the moment nil the alleged "pleasure" this country affords, I seriously object to the assumption of superiority in the New Zealand women. She is in no sense superior, except in the ability to spend more on her back than she can afford. , J « •*? the pit ? in S tone of women and officials alike. They describe us as very good type," just as any of your preposterous red tape officials would describe a newly imported sheep or cow 1 find they are rather surprised at the babies-babies being less common in these new and enlightened lands than in poor old "Darkest England." Englishwomen who took their courage in both hands as 1 suppose the Englishwomen did who witb Englishmen founded this country, ar« disillusioned. They believed, as 1 did, that the hospitality shown to alf strangers—even strangers of foreign blood—in England was as common to Auckland as it is to London. No doubt, in time, this aggressive and' extremely rude antagonism will die down; but, in the meantime, many young and inexperienced British women, wbo believed they were coming among friends, are astonished that people who pride themselves on being British also pride themselves on abusing Britons.