THE DESERTED WIFE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 12 August 1924, Page 2

THE DESERTED WIFE.

HER LEGAL POSITION IN FRANCE *Tliere~ are innumerable complaints that the new French law making desertion a penal offence is almost impossible of execution. As the law. was exceedingly belated, having been passed as late as February of this year, it is considered the more unfortunate that it should prove ineffective. As early.as 1888 the United States made desertion a punishable offence, and its example was followed bv England 20 years later. In Eranee, the parents, according to the “code civil,” are under the obligation to amintain their children. There was, however, no penalty attached to the non-execution of this obligation, and only civil proceedings could be taken against the defaulting parent. The present law prescribes imprisonment of three months to a /year or a fine of one hundred to two thousand francs for any person who for three months fails to execute his or her obligations towards his family (states a writer in the Manchester Guardian). The weak points of this law are obvious. A. penniless woman who may have children or suffer from illness can. not possibly wait for three months before being able legally to enforce -payment of alimony from her husband. At the expiration of the three months she may summon her husband before the justice of the peace. The law does nob, however, specify what justice of the peace, and consequently it is assumed to he the justice of the peace of the district in which her husband is domiciled. A woman may have been abandoned at Calais. If her husband is then domiciled at Toulouse she has.not only herself to discover .his address, but to travel the length of France in order to bring her case before the local court. For the really poor, therefore, the new law remains practically inoperative. It is pointed out that anyone who has been assaulted or libelled has the right to demand the arrest of the oflender, and that desertion is frequently a far more serious offence. Until the law concerning desertion is accompanied by the right to demand arrest it cannot fulfil its purpose. The unwillingness of French legislators;, to make it operative is one more instance of a national dislike to undermine the status of father in any way. Since: the father is more often the breadwinner than the mother, ,an effective new law concerning desertion would give the Frenchwoman power in the family, dislike of which is the main reason for the withholding from her of the vote.