TWO WIVES AT ONCE.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume VIII, Issue 52, 13 February 1918, Page 7

TWO WIVES AT ONCE.

THE HUN SCHEME TO RAISE A XEW ARMY. Before the Patents Controller in London further details were given of the proposal, mentioned in the House of Commons to allow every married German a “secondary” wife.

Mr. W. M. Meredith, managing director of Messrs Constable and Company, appeared in support of their application for a license to publish a translation of the pamphlet by Herr Torges, which Mr. Balfour says has been distributed broadcast in Germany under the title “Complementary Marriage: The Only Sure Means of Building up a New and Powerful Army and Ennobling Morality.” The question for the Controller was whether it was " in the public interest’ ’to republish this pamphlet in England. The pamphlet, Mr. Meredith said, covered 24 pages. The complementary, or secondary, wife was to have a rather smaller marriage ring than the other, and might or might not live in the same house, but the husband could not take her without the consent of the principal wife. Mr. Meredith rather gathered that one child by the secondary wife would lie deemed sufficient. The State would maintain such children and when young men they were to produce an even more Prussian type of militarism than we had seen yet. Mr. Meredith did not advise that the book should be produced as a shilling shocker, blit he thought Messrs Constable should issue.it at 3 6 to keep it to a select audience. Mr Temple Franks, the Controller, said he would lock into the matter. Even if he advised the publication of the book, some other Department like the Censor or the Foreign Office <>r even the Government might override the decision.