CUSTODY OF CHILD

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22434, 2 June 1936, Page 9

CUSTODY OF CHILD

FILM ACTRESS' FIGHT WARRANT FOR HER ARREST QUEBEC, May SI A four years' legal battle between Mr. Harry Bannister and his divorced wife, Ann Harding, film star, for the custody of their daughter Jane, aged seven, took a spectacular turn yesterday when Mr. Bannister rushed by aeroplane from New York to Quebec to attempt to prevent the actress from sailing with the child in the Empress of Australia to-morrow for England. The California Courts allowed each parent six months' custody of the child, but Mr. Bannister claimed that his former wife might establish her residence in England, where she is going to make a picturo, and there would be no legal means of forcirg her to return tho child. Tho wife claimed that she had no intention of remaining permanently in England. She said she would return with the child within six months. She checkmated any legal moves Mr. Bannister might take in Quebec by secretly" sailing lute yesterday in the Duchess of Atholl. For a time Mr. Bannister refused to believe his divorced wife actually had evaded him and insisted upon searching the Empress of Australia from stem to stern. When finally convinced that his daughter had gone he swore to a formal charge of kidnapping against his former wife and a warrant for hpr arrest was issued which will be forwarded to England by tho Empress of Australia. It is expected that tho Court hearing will bo held at Southampton.