MORE DIVORCES

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 83, 9 April 1931, Page 13

MORE DIVORCES

GROWTH IN ENGLAND

DUE TO NEW ACT

A striking increase in the growth of divorce is" revealed by official statistics for Groat Britain, published by the Stationery Office, during the last twenty years (says the "Morning Post"). ' There were 3396 divorce decrees in England and Wales .during 1929, and it is anticipated that the number for 1930 will be between 4500 and 5000. The official figure for 1913 was 577. Divorces havo become more and more frequent in' all parts of the ■country, and among all classes, fewer and fewer petitions have been defendod, and there is every indication that the number of decrees made absolute will continue to grow year by year until they reach a figure that before the war would have been considered beyond belief. Decrees granted in the first post-war year totalled 1654. There was a leap in the figures during 1920 and 1921, and totals then steadied in tho neighbourhood of 2500 for -five years, but since 1926 there has been a remarkable increase. There are over 900 eases for hearing in London alone during the preeent law term. The astonishing increase in divorce is to some extent attributable to the Order of 1926, which granted jurisdiction in Poor Persons cases to certain High Court District Registries in England and Wales, the. number subsequently being increased. ■ Matrimonial cases thus became triable at Assize Courts for the first time, in English legal history, and the immediate effect was a vast increase in the number of divorces in the country districts. In the year following the order the number of divorce decrees increased considerably, until the number granted annually at Assize Courts alone is more than double the pre-1920 totals for the entire country. Decrees granted at Assize Courts during the last five years have produced an average of roughly 2000, against a slightly higher figure for the Metropolis. MARRIAGES TALL. National figures, taken as a whole before and after the Judicial Proceedings Act of December, 1926, when full reports of matrimonial cases were madeillegal, present an even more remarkable picture. Tho total number of divorces granted during .the five years 1926-1930 was about 17,720, giving an annual average of 3545. The previous five years revealed a total of 13,668, an annual average of 2773, while in the five pre-war years, though a total figure is not available, the average was only 582. The official statistics also show that the percentage of persons married per thousand of the population in England and Wales in 1920 was 20.2; in 1929 it was 15.8, while in 1926 it had 'fallen as low as 14.3. The number of marriages in 1929 was nearly 80,000 less than in 1920, while no year has shown an increase in the marriage rate in any way proportionate to the increase in divorces. The percentage of illegitimate births has remained practically the same for twenty-five years. Simultaneously with the increase in divorce there has been a rapid growth in the proportion of petitions filed by women and iv the number of allegations of perjury, connivance, and collusion. The number of . interventions by tho King's Proctor has largely increased, unt4l during 1930 there were, fully 100 interventions, nearly all of which were successful. In spite -of the fact that the Order of 1926, together with the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1923, has established "easy divorce," there is still widespread agitation for further extension of tho law or of legal facilities.