TRICKED INTO MARRIAGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 147, 22 June 1923, Page 5

TRICKED INTO MARRIAGE.

BY A GERMAN BARON.

ENGLISH OFFICER'S WIFE. COURT REFUSES DIVORCE. (By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright.) (Received 1.30 p.m.) LONDON, June 21. Engineer-Commander Campbell's petition for a divorce from his wife, Marie Campbell, on the ground of misconduct with Baron Trcusch yon Brandenfels, a German aristocrat, was dismissed. Petitioner admitted that he was a consenting party to the earlier proceedings to annul the marriage in Holland. He and his wife and her family discussed it. He was sure that his wife and mother-in-law realised that the annulment proceedings were a mere pretence. He learned in 1915 about respondent's forced marriage to the German baron, and wrote to her: "Your conduct in Germany requires no explanation. I never thought you did wrong." Respondent said she fully explained to petitioner the details of her forced marriage. He did not blame her in any way, and realised that there had been no cohabitation with the baron. It was only at the end of 1921 that petitioner began the present proceedings on the ground of misconduct with the baron, which never took place. Respondent said that the baron proposed thrice a fortnight after meeting her in Germany. He went on his knees and tearfully pleaded that she was the only woman who could save him from drink. When respondent explained that she was already married the baron withdrew, and later left an attache case in her charge. He said it contained military papers. He returned for them later, and wrongfully accused her of having opened the case, and said that as the wife of a British. officer she would be arrested as a spy and shot, but if she married him he would not take action. She thereupon went through the form of marriage.— (A. and N.Z. Cable.) A remarkable story was unfolded 5n the Divorce Court on the first hearing of this action. It was alleged that the respondent bigamously married the baron in Germany In 1915. She admitted a bigamous marriage, but denied misconduct. She married Lt.-Commander Campbell at the Hague in 1900. She obtained a divorce in Holland in 1913 though counsel claimed it was illegal because she was not domiciled in Holland. She went to Germany in August, 1914, and married the baron, obtaining a divorce in 1918, though the baron died the day before the decree was made. She returned to England in September, 1919, and wanted Campbell to remarry her. She obtained an annulment of her own Dutch decree for that purpose. She wrote a letter to the petitioner stating: "You call marriage what is put on paper. To mc marriage is only what one feels oneself. We have only to take scraps of paper into consideration for the sake of others, possibly children." Respondent's counsel said she was charced as bcinsr a snv in

A remarkable story was unfolded in the Divorce Court on the first hearing of this action. It was alleged that the respondent bigamously married the baron in Germany In 1015. She admitted a bigamous marriage, but denied misconduct. She married Lt.-Commander Campbell at the Hague in 1909. She obtained a divorce in Holland in 1013 though counsel claimed it was illegal because she was not domiciled in Holland. She went to "Germany in August, 1914, and married the baron, obtaining a divorce in 1918, though the baron died the day before the decree was made. She returned to England in September, 1919, and wanted Campbell to remarry her. She obtained an annulment of her own Dutch decree for that purpose. She wrote a letter to the petitioner stating: "You call marriage what is put on paper. To mc marriage is only what one feels oneself. We have only to take scraps of paper into consideration for the sake of others, possibly children." Respondent's counsel said she was charged as being a spy in Germany. The baron threatened to have her executed unless she consented to marry him. She did so, though they had never cohabited.