TRUTH IN DAILY LIFE.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19199, 4 January 1928, Page 13

TRUTH IN DAILY LIFE.

—♦ — HYPOCRISY A VANISHING QUALITY. ! COLLUSION IN DIVORCE. ;f BCU OCR <■<■■'■■ COaSJSSJO.STJtST.) LONDON. Noveuiber -o. ;,] r .(ustko Hill has recently ma.de coi'iie decisions and pronouncements in the Law Courts which strike a new note of frankness. \ ca=e was before lus Lordship m which Mr Harold Walker, an engineer, of Onslow Place. .South Kensington, petitioned for a divorce on the ground_of the misconduct of his wife. Lilian Blanche, with the co-respondent, Francis John Lambert. Answers had been filed denving the charges, but the suit was not "defended. There was a claim for damages by Mr Walker, who asked (be Court to exercise- its discretion in his, favour, as he had himself been guilty of misconduct. Mr Justice Hill, giving judgment, said that the petitioner and the respondent separated in 1921. In 1922, or cai-lv in 1923. the wife came to the husband and asked him to provide her with evidence to procure divorce. "In my view," declared Mr Justice Hill, "it is always an odious proceeding, but one know"s how common it is." The husband, he continued, did not at first assent. Tlic wife then was supported by her 'mother in asking the husband. He did not then consent, but a little later, when he had turned it over in his mind, he met a woman in a restaurant and in conversation it turned out that she wanted to divorce her husband, or her husband wanted to divorco her, and she was anxious to provide him with evidence for divorce. "A Chivalrous Act." "So," said his Lordship," "these two go off and stay together on two occasions in order that each may provide, the one his wife and the other her husband, with evidence upon which they can get a divorco "Well, I have heard of some husbands who regard it as a chivalrous act to commit adultery in order that their wives may get a divorce, but to my mind, however, it comes about, the commission .of adultery is a beastly thing and is not to be treated lightly because it is done at the request of either side." The husband, continued the Judge, had said that he only committed adultery with one woman on two occasions. He also said that he was anxious to marry another lady, who had been called to support his statement, and who said that she was anxious to marry him. In these circumstances his Lordship thought he would be doing no good if he refused to exercise his discretion in the petitioner's favour. Refuge in Truth. Commenting on this case, the "Daily Express" writes: "As a people we have been rather famous in the past for dodging awkward issues and sweeping them under the sofa. Since the war—it is one of the few things for which the war may be thanked—there has been much less of this habit of evasiveness. But of the disillusionment of that vast catastrophe and the chimeras and will o' the wisps that accompanied it, our people are more and more taking refuge in truth. "Their attitude towards life is firmer and franker than it was. They discuss many things that were formerly taboo—in fact, there is nothing nowadays they-will not discuss. They are far more inclined than they used to be to look realities in the face, instead of squinting at them, and to look below the surface instead of skating over it with avcrted~eyes. Humbug and hypocrisy were never at a greater discount in Britain than now. The fierce and universal indignation against 'Dora' is one proof of it. The determination to squeeze the nonsense out of our gaming laws is another. Sutcliffe's election to the Yorkshire captaincy shows, in a widely different sphere, that forms are losing their old pernicious power. Facts and realities and not bunkum and appearances are what move our people now. It is a most wholesome development. Nothing can go very wrong with a nation that refuses to delude itself and to be put off with shams."