A SOLDIER'S DIVORCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18642, 25 February 1924, Page 8

A SOLDIER'S DIVORCE.

DESERTED BY FRENCH WIFE. TWO PETITIONS NECESSARY COMPLICATION OF LAWS. fa* TKLEGE.U?H —PRESS ASSOCIATION.] DUNEDIN. Saturday. A divorce application probably unique in New Zealand was the 'case of Percy Collins Wilkinson v. Helene Irene Suzanne Wilkinson, ah application for divorce on the ground of desertion, which was heard here to-day. Mr. C. J. L. White, counsel for petitioner, stated that he was the victim, of the idiosyncrasies of international law. Petitioner left New Zealand in, April, 1915, as a member of the military medical corps. In 1917, in Northern France, he met a young French girl, Helene Irene Suzanne" Hareux, living with her parents at Amiens. In September of the same year he married her in accordance with the French law before the Mayor, and then lived with her there and in England and Dunedin, where they arrived in 1919. The wife soon became homesick, and in 1920, on receiving money fro?.? her father, she returned to her parents. After her departure petitioner sent letters and cablegrams and £70 in money. He subsequently received a. cablegram from his wife stating that she would not return, and suggesting that he should seek a divorce. In 1921 respondent instituted divorce proceedings against petitioner at Amiens on the ground that he had left her "in complete abandonment." Petitioner entered a counter-petition on the grounds of desertion. Mrs. Wilkinson's petition was dismissed and Wilkinson s was granted. Wilkinson then considered that he was legally divorced, but on taking legal advice here he was informed that the divorce would be recognised in the French Court, but according to New Zealand law ho was still legally married, because he was alwavs domiciled iii New Zealand, and the domicile of the wife being that of the husband the French Courts had no jurisdiction. His counsel . i t-wefore advised the petitioner to wait three years and to institute the present proceedings. Service on respondent was effected on September, 1925, when fie papers were returned. The Dr't'kh Consulstated that the lady was now married to an Italian. £oa.i*l s'ated that if the Court found that there was no existing marriage capable of dissolution he would ask the Court to make an order to that effect, thus releasing petitioner from an embarrassing position. After hearing counsel and cadence Mr. Justice Sim held that in ac-ovdanco w.th a Privy Council decision' the French Court had no jurisdiction. A decree nisi was granted. _