Divorce Law Criticised

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30741, 4 May 1965, Page 2

Divorce Law Criticised

fNZ.P. A.-Reuter— Copyright) LEAMINGTON SPA, May 3.

Divorce should be banned for parents with children under 16, says the president of Britain’s Divorce Court, Sir Jocelyn Simon.

Addressing a law society conference, he also advocated divorce by consent for couples without children.

Sir Jocelyn Simon, the 54-year-old father of three sons, said Britain spent £4m a year “on promoting the break-up of marriages”—a hundred times more than it spent on marriage guidance and education.

Divorce court judges constantly saw children from split homes playing off one parent against the other and becoming “increasingly insecure, neurotic and disorderly," he said. He declared: “Children who may be affected by divorce cannot petition the legislature with their grievances. Others must do it for them."

A co-founder of Britain's Marriage Guidance Council Mr Reginald Wells-Pestell, opposed both suggestions. He said many mended marriages would have ended if divorce by consent had been possible.

Children were “harmed far more if they are forced to live in an atmosphere of open warfare,” he said.