MIXED MARRIAGES.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 18 December 1926, Page 5

MIXED MARRIAGES.

ENGLISHWOMAN’S STORY. DOCUMENT AND £2OOO EXPLAINED. An Englishwoman who married a Japanese 'and whose sister married a Chinese, appeared in the Divorce Court, London, to pursue a jjetition against her husband and to explain how she came to accept £IOOO on the understanding that she should bring a divorce suit and to consent to receive another £IOOO when it was all over. She was Mrs. Elizabeth Pauline Ishiwava, of Clifton Gardens, Maida Vale, and her husband, Tarayosh Ishiwara, is a student in motor engineering. Dr. Chew and Airs. Chew (her sister) were in 1922 managing a Chinese restaurant in Oxford Street, London, and Miss Gibson, as she was then, assisted them. She met the Japanese student at the restaurant, and after several proposals on his part she accepted him. The wedding took place in February, 1923, at the register office, Paddington, and it was without issue. Within a month of the marriage he suggested they should move to an hotel in Edgeware Road, London, and he told her to go on «in advance, promising to follow later. “My husband, from that day to this,” said the wife, “has never been back to me, and I have never had a penny piece from him. ’ ’ The Document. She returned to her sister’s restaurant and helped her, also doing a little film work to eke out a living. In 1925 she went with her sister to Shanghai in an endeavour to trace her husband, but failed. Though of limited means himself, the husband was related to members of a wealthy Japanese business firm having branches all over the East, and they were approached. Acting on the advice of a Japanese lawyer whom she consulted, Airs. Ishiwara signed a document, which opened:— In consideration of the sum of £IOOO sterling now paid to mo by the company, and the further sum of £IOOO sterling to be paid to me by the company in London so soon as the decree nisi shall bo granted in the Divorce Division of the High Court against my husband, I hereby release and discharge my said husband and the family in Japan from all claims whatsoever. vShe agreed to return to England and to institute proceedings as soon as she arrived in London and to pay costs incurred. This- contract she signed. “I received the £IOOO and I returned to England,” added the wife, “and instructed my solicitors.” She_ explained that she was without means when she went to Japan, and it was argued for her that her husband’s relatives had a right to provide her with money for a divorce and to secure provision for her afterwards. The husband had no part in the transaction and the divorce proceedings were genuine. The divorce judge, in granting the decree, held that nothing improper had been disclosed.