TO AVOID ENLISTING.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIX, Issue 284, 1 December 1915, Page 2

TO AVOID ENLISTING.

MANY MEN MARRY 'HASTILY

ENQUIRIES TN AUCKLAND.

A number of interviews are published by an Auckland paper in sup- ■ port of the statement that many men of: military age and eligible for active service are hastily getting married in order to escape enlistment. Adjutant Holmes, leader of the Auckland Corps of the Salvation Army, said' many young men were olearly engaging in matrimony in orsdier to- evade enlistment. ■/"'•' In one case he made enquiry and found that the young man was employed in. a business where the employers were considering the desirability o'f v giving preference to married men. tTndeK ■pressure, ilie would-be ) benedict 'rtd-i, "initted; that h<^ was" niore anxious ' id' avoid going to the war than anythingelse, and the result w?.^ ;i point-blank 'refusal by the. adjutant J-: marry the man unless he could first prove'•that lie had offered to enlist.' The adjutant,. moreover, is convinced ,that many others are embracing matrimony as a loophole of escape, and he suggests joint action by ministers and the civil authorities in ensuring that there shallbe a minimum of evasion through the marriage service. "There can be no doubt that this question covers a real tragedy-in our national, life," said the Rev. Howard Elliott. . f'lt was always present in some, degree; and our marriage laws in this country, unlike Australia, give no protection to foolish people, and allow neither ministers nor the: regis-J trar* any legal right of objection ; but the question.of marriage has hadl a very marked effect upon the question of recruiting, and that frequently in a highly undesirable way. Repeated 'instances could be mentioned of men who ought to have enlisted, but who hare sought refuge in unpremeditated and hastily-arranged! marriages. All who have this matter under their notice constantly have been .fully aware of it ever since ths' war began, ;md npt only men, but women, have been parties to it, for whilo ministers endeavored to guard themselves from being.a party to any marriage contract undesirable or jmworthy, people have recourse to the registrar, so that when th<? minister declines to marry on moral or religious grounds in the interests of the parties themselves, or out of consideration for his own self-respect, people have the way of civil marriage open to them, so that it has become almost an axiom that people whom ministers will not marry .are married by civil ceremony." "Yes, undoubtedly the marriage service is being resorted to in the hope of evading responsibilities in the .matter' of enlistment," said Mr Livermore, of the local Registrar's Office. "We have-had far more civil marriages this year than last, and-there j is up doubt that a great many of ths ! men.would have been better occupied j in' proceeding to the war. ' On the ! other hand, of course, >it has to. be | remembered that in quite a number j of the marriages celebrated the bride- i groom was-a. man in khaki. Young neople who have long been sweethearts decide to marry before the man goes to the war, and so they go through- the civil ceremony1. Tt is true that the registrar has no power to refuse to marry. So long as j there is no legal objection, the regis- j trar must perform the ceremony when askedto do ko. For instance, there is a little story which ir-ny be quoted as a case in point. The 'daughter of a New Zealand registrar, who was only 20 years of asre, desired to be f married. Her father objected,.. so j *he waiter! until she was 21, and then demanded that he should marry her, and under the conditions of the Marriage Act he had to acquiesce. Tf ministers were to resolve on taking united action, therefore, the civil authorities would have no power to cooperate under the existing law in re r Fusing to marry men who should ob- j piously be in the ranks." j