A WIFE'S PLACE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 171, 21 July 1936, Page 9

A WIFE'S PLACE.

HUSBAND'S PERILS.

SHOULD THEY BE SHARED?

LADY WILKINS' OPINION,

LONDON, June 17,

Lady Wilkins, golden-haired wife of the explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins, is to go with her bearded' husband's expedition by submarine to the North Pole as cock. It was only on condition that she "pulled her weight" that Sir Hubert agreed to her going. She is taking cookery lessons now, so . that she will be a full-time, not a courtesy, member of the crew. When her husband went •on the Ellsworth expedition to the Antarctic, Lady Wilkins was left behind in NewYork. She swore that never again | would she stay at home, waiting, wonder- | ing, worrying. Henceforth Ruth's words should be her guide: "Whither thou I goest I will go." | Lady Wilkins has one piece of advice |to offer girls about to get married: | "Even if it means hardship, cooking, mending socks, go with your husband." Sir Hubert and Lady Wilkins have been married for more than six years. But he has gone,- literally, to the ends of the earth; she has stayed in civilisation. They have not been together for more than six months. "That's no way to live," said Lady Wilkins. "I will never be left at home again." Only four members of the Mount Everest expedition, which recently abandoned its assault on the roof-top of the world, are married. Sailing Till Husband Returns. The leader's wife, Mrs. Hugh Ruttledge. has shut up her island home off the rock-bound Argyllshire coast, and is travelling in her yacht round the until her husband's return.

Another member's wife has left her I own home and gone to spend the time . of waiting with her parents. The home of a third is in Kenva. I The fourtn wife, Mrs. Noel Hum- j plireys, accompanied her doctor husband as far as Darjeeling, in the foothills of the Himalaya. Though tlieV have i been married only two years, this is, the second time Dr. Humphreys and his : wife have been parted by expeditions. When Dr. Humphreys led the 1934 j expedition to Ellesmere Land, his wife went to Tower Bridjre to see him off. As the ship was leaving Dr. Humphreys called out: ''Why not come as far as Graveserid?" Mrs. Humphreys leapt aboard and I accompanied her husband .down the river. Everest Is Not For Women. Would any of the wives, left behind to wait while their husbands strove to reach the world's highest point, have accompanied them if they had the chance? The answer I received from an official of the expedition last night was that, probably, none of them would have shirked the risks. But the question of wives going with their husbands on the expedition never arose. The reason: No woman could have stood the strain of such an ordeal. "Mountaineering such as an Everest climb is vastly different from a polar expedition." he said. "Although most wives whose husbands go on expeditions would naturally wish to be with them, they have a full sense of its hardships. "No Everest mountaineer has sought permission for liis wife to accompany him."