WAR BRIDES FOR CANADA.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 September 1919, Page 12

WAR BRIDES FOR CANADA.

TOTAL ESTIMATED AT 32,000, 1 Vancouver, Aug. $. Nearly 1500 British girls are leaving England for Canada every fortnight as the wives of Canadian soldiers. They travel free of charge in transports with their husbands. About 0000 brides, it is estimated, have arrived in Canada this year. The total number of girls in Great Britain married to Canadian soldiers during the war is estimated at 32,000, according to figures assembled in Ottawa. An official of the Canadian Emigration Department, speaking on the subject, said: "The girls are a fine type. They hail from Sussex to Aberdeen. Many are country-bred, with a practical knowledge of farming that will be useful in Canada. Many girls engaged to men who have recently returned to Canada have also applied for passports in England. They are granted only if the girls can furnish satisfactory evidence that they have been engaged two years, and that the men intend to marry them." A considerable number of English girls have arrived in the United States with 'American soldier husbands, while others have obtained passports to the United States to join men to whom they have become engaged in England. A warning to those intending to visit Britain has been given by Colonel .1. Obed Smith, Canada's chief immigration officer. "Those who intend to cross the Atlantic this year should make sure before they sail that they can get back again," he said, "When I left London >thero were no fewer than 10,000 Canadians in the British Isles, who, as far as I could see, had not the slightest chance of getting a berth across the Atlantic dining 1010. Anyone applying at a steamship company's office at present would be politely told to apply again some time in October or November." It was estimated, he added, that there were 10,000 married Canadian officers and men still in England, with their wives and children, who had yet to be repatriated. In addition, there are the wives and children of men who had sacrificed their lives, or of men who had been sent to Canada for discharge or for treatment in hospitals or hospital ships. Altogether, the number that had still to be moved would be about 35,000.