736 BRIDES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 41, 18 February 1944, Page 3

736 BRIDES

MARRIAGE TO AMERICANS

STATUS OF WIVES (P.A.) WELLINGTON, this day. Figures given to-day by the Minister in Charge of the RegistrarGeneral's .Department, Mr. Parry, of the number of marriages in New Zealand in which the brides were New Zealanders and the bridegrooms American servicemen reveal that up to December last 736 such marriages had been contracted. Of the future nationality of the girls concerned, Mr. Parry said that in general, the wife of an alien under the British Nationality and btatus of Aliens (in New Zealand) Amendment Act, 3934-35, was deemed an alien. There was this exceptionWhen a woman, being a British subject, married an alien, she' was not deemed to be an alien unless she acquired the nationality of her husband, pursuant to the' laws of the husband's country. According to United States law, marriage did not confer citizenship upon a foreign wire. Consequently, a British woman marrying a United States citizen retained British nationality and travelled on a British passport. Before September 22, 1922, the marriage of an alien woman to an American citizen conferred citizenship on that woman. A subsequent measure, known as the Cable Act enacted by the Legislature of the united States, terminated that position.