AMERICANS IN NOUMEA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25238, 29 May 1943, Page 2

AMERICANS IN NOUMEA

MARRIAGES NOT ENCOURAGED (O c ) NOUMEA, May 22. Following a statement Issued by the Island Command and published in French in Noumean journals, New Caledonian girls will think twice, before encouraging United States soldiers as suitors. Going beyond a former announcement that troops contemplating marriage would need special permission from the general commanding, permission which this vear has resulted in about a dozen weddings, it is now stated that “ authorisation to marry will only be granted to soldiers in very exceptional circumstances since, after all, considering legal and other complications, marriage in an active theatre of war cannot be regarded as in the interest or for the happiness of one or the other of the contracting parties. The official statement enlarges on tne difficulties which surround such marriages. With the actual combat front only a few hundred miles away, it is stated, troops may be sent elsewhere at a moment’s notice. Other obstacles to FrancoAmerican war-time marriages arise from the fact that it is difficult and sometimes impossible for American soldiers to conform strictly to the requirements of the French'marriage laws. Legal complications also surround the problem of entry of the wife to the United States after the war. “ The American military authorities,” the statement says, “ cannot guarantee the entry to the United States of tire wife of an American soldier. This question is very complex, . and comes under the jurisdiction of the immigration authorities/’'