MARRIAGE MADE DIFFICULT.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 225, 22 September 1924, Page 8

MARRIAGE MADE DIFFICULT.

DUNEDIN GIRL'S EXPERIENCE. EHTERING THE UNITED STATES. KELT SHE W_S A CRIMINAL. (By Telegraph.—Special to "Star.") ]_ UN'EI-IX. this day. A New Zealand father bade adieu to his daughter three months or so afro. She was going to the United States to be married to a New Zealander who is settled there. The father made all the arrangements that he could think of for her comfort on the voyage and for her entry into the United States, lie had two or three personal interviews with the Consul in Wellington, and arranged for the issue of a passport number, this being an important matter, seeing that each country lias its quote of immigrants. This planning made matters easy, he thought, for all parties. All that the Vancouver authorities would have to do was to cable to Wellington at the fathers expense and get a number that had been reserved or issued, but the arranging was spoilt by the issuing of some new regulations, the existence of which were not known in New Zealand. When Ihe Vancouver authorities cabled to Wellington, the Consul at Wellington could not issue a passport until he knew that the passenger had complied with the new regulations. The upshot was that the young lady was subjected to much annoyance, the extent of which may be guessed after perusal of the following extracts from her letter. Vancouver, Sunday. Augtisi 24. Yesterday we spent re the quota, etc., but with no satisfaction. I fear we arc going to have some little trouble. We have to go licfore the board on Monday. If Wellington lias got mc in the quota and reserved a number it will not be so bad, but otherwise it is useless. Tied by a Thousand Chains. Monday, August 2."i. I have spent the whole morning with an immigration man. and oh! it was as if 1 was a criminal. The questions he asked mc, and the way he cross-examined me — it was wicked. I had to go in alone of ourse, with two men present, and a girl taking all down in shorthand. First I had to swear on oath, holding up my right .land, with my left on a Bible, that I had sicned truths and told truths, aid my! He was the slowest, driest and hardest old man possible, with huge, glassy eyes and a big nose, and huge horn glasses. ] shall never forget how I felt as I sat.in the. chair. I felt as if chained down with a

thousand ibains, and as if [ had committed an awful crime. I sat twentyeight minutes being cross-questioned all the time. He actually asked mc how old mum was when I was born, and dad too, and how long you had been married. I was supposed to answer these questions right at the moment. Then he said to mc. "I cannot do anything for you," and he handed mc a paper, saying that fie refused mc admission into the United States of America* Can you imagine how I felt? Tears ran down my cheek. What else could I do when they were not going tt. let mc in, and everything possible had been done for mc by influential men? I had been sitting there for three-quarters of an hour, being asked the most horrible questions, and I felt, as the boys say, "all done in." when this hard old fellow softened and said he was sorry, because he fully understood the position and what it meant to mc. He said that all I could do was to pay a bond* of 500 dollars nnd go to the United States and be married, but 1 would have to return in three months and report at the office. A lot of consolation that was to mc. However, he asked mc to sit in another chair for a while. Presently he got on the 'phone to the Consul. He told the Consul that I was a special case, and he woukl like, to consider mc. and so on. I was running backwards and forwards from 9.:.0 till 4.30. and 1 was dead tired and with no satisfaction. But, to make a long story short, 1 am now "all set."' and all we have to do is to go ahead. I could never tell you what I have been through. -