U.S. SOLDIERS’ WIVES

Grey River Argus, 21 March 1945, Page 4

U.S. SOLDIERS’ WIVES

IN N.Z. & AUSTRALIA Thousands Waiting to Leave (P/2C. 11.0.) WASHINGTON. Mar. 20. Mr. Eliot Coulter of the U.S. Slate Department, revealed that 1,846 visas had been issued < for the Australian wives of American servicemen, and 273 visas to New Zealand brides up to February 1, 1945. These figures, however, had not told the full story of a huge wife problem which U.S. servicemen were building up overseas, because the Consuls had not issued the visas until there was transportation in sight. At present, there were eleven hundred Australian wives and three hundred children wa’ting to come to America with visas that were good for four months. There were probably a further one thousand to two thousand who had not yet been completed their visa arrangements. There were fifteen thousand fiancees who were unable to get visas, because they were not yet married. There were approximately 350 wives and live hundred fiancees waiting in New Zealand. There also were a large number* in England. Senator Fulbright, of Arkansas, and Representative Sadowski of Michigan, have recently introduced Bills to grant immediate citizenship to any alien, otherwise eligible for naturalisation, who is married to a serviceman, provided that she took the oath of allegiance. _____