BIGAMOUS BRITAIN.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 January 1920, Page 12

BIGAMOUS BRITAIN.

"HALF THE CRIME OF THE COUNTRY." It seems clear that heavier sentences have not frightened the bigamists (writes the London Daily Mail.) Once again their crimes are the main feature of the trials at assizes now proceeding throughout the country. At Worcestershire Assizes, Mr. Justice Rowlatt declared (hat "half the crime of the country is bigamy.'' At the Old Bailey the bigamy cases accounted for over 25 per cent, of those on the list.

The, popular idea seems to be, that the offenders are practically all men, and there is a very proper desire that, womanhood should find effective protection. In the years immediately preceding the war, however, women were the victimisers instead of the Victimised in onethird of the cases, the totals of which varied between 130 and 130. In 1017 there were 435 cases at assizes and quarter sessions and 128 of the prisoners were women.

■ Taken at face value, the figures look disquieting. It has been said that they indicate a widespread relaxation of public morals. But obviously the standard of morality of these persons was low and feeble before the cataclysm of 1014. The war provided the requisite temptation. It made bigamy profitable. Women "married" to obtain the separation allowance; soldiers discovered in the allowance a means of provision for clandestine partners. Then soldiers thousands of miles away from home deceived respectable women rather than face, the lurking perils of the street. It is noteworthy that in court, these "wives" usually say, "he treated mu well."

When estimating the facts provided by the judicial statistics, one must give due weight to this further fact, that war breeds divorce and bigamy as surely as a swamp nurtures mosquitoes and malaria. An examination of the categories into which the cases fall suggests that British bigamy is likely to require fewer policemen when the fevers of war have subsided.

Among offences not arising out of war conditions are those committed by men and women as the result of ill-assorted unions early in life. In this class is the. ignorant woman who re-marries in the belief that a seven-years' separation without sight or knowledge of the missing partner is sufficient presumption of decease. This ignorance is being dispelled. There are many, too, who formed illegal ties because divorce was expensive and out of their reach. Here, again, possible offenders may now be expected to take advantage of the safer methods of release afforded by the Poor Persons Divorce Act.

In a third category conies the rascal who pleads that he is "the victim of too much susceptibility"; but he is negligible in numbers. Our island bigamist is no were thief of heart'

Tlic dregs'at the bottom of the cup sort themselves out into the wholly despicable mercenary bigamist, a thief of spoons or of what Mr. Wcmmick railed "portable property." Heavy sentences may deter, but will not entirely eradicate iiim. The type will persist so long as tongues are glib and so long as women witli a little money in the savings bank fail to temper their emotions with sufficient wisdom. Or until ibe commission of the crime is made more difficult by such alteration hi the preliminaries, of marriage as will secure complete identification of the parties to the contract. As Sir Bernard Mallet, the Kegistrar-Gcn-era!, has pointed out, the marriage laws of this country afford less security against bigamy than those of almost any other civilised State.