KISS MEANS MARRIAGE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21731, 21 February 1934, Page 17

KISS MEANS MARRIAGE

| THE WAY IN BRAZIL BIGAMY DEFENCE IN GERMANY A man was lately sentenced in Brunswick, Germany, to six months' imprisonment for bigamy—all because —according to his own story—ho kissed a girl in a cinema in Brazil seven years ago. Charged with having committed a bigamous marriage in Berlin last year, the man—a journeyman goldsmith named Gottlieb—said that when in Brazil he made the acquaintance of a girl and took her to. the pictures. In the darkness lie so far forgot himself as to kiss his companion. The following morning, Gottlieb told the Court, he discovered to his horror that his action was regarded in Brazil as tantamount to a binding promise of marriage. The girl's relatives dragged him by physical force to the registry office, where a marriage ceremony was performed, Gottlieb's protests being explained as being due to his ignorance of the language. Nevertheless, the marriage, alleged to have been so unwillingly and unconventionally contracted, seems to have been a happy one blessed with children. But when, three years later, Gottlieb returned to Europe, his wife declined to accompany him. The Brunswick Court listened patiently to Gottlieb's story, but declined to accept his plea that his "mar-I riage by kiss" was invalid. *