RED RIOT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17145, 30 December 1929, Page 10

RED RIOT

IN MAEKIAGE LAWS :" LONDON; Dec. 18. "The, ailficoliiea in 'this case," sais Mr. Justice Kill, delivering a considered: judgment in the Divorce Cbiirt, "{ire hot nittfle ;.bv, the English'" law, or jthe laws of, ower .eotihtries sharing with l<JnglaH«la ctnhm'bn view of marriage; They Sue'-rfift by r the laws of the i^viet/' which, hits',"ciit itself adrift from the view of marriage hitherto held in civilised communities.." Mr. Justice Hill was deciding a Russian woman's suit for judicial separation. Mrs. formally a Russian actress, now r&Sidjng ,in Surrey, married hi Moscow, in .1924 according' to Soviet law, Gregory Nachimson, a mining enginer,. carrying oh business in London -as -a director of a. certain Anglorßussian company.' Mr. Justice Hill said that the parties wanted him < to* answer only two questions, ona regarding domicile, and the birier' regarding the validity of a socalled, divorce: in Parisy when the husband signed a certificate dissolving the union J without even notifying the wife. The judgo said that he must first answer the more important question, namely, were they ever married? The English legal view of marriage was substantially common to the entire Christian world: '"Wfe'' regard it as totally different, for instance, from Turkish and other marriages, which recdgnise.a plurality of wives," said the judge, "but the Soviet merely inquires the : registration 08 the marriage, which can; also be terminated by mutual con-' seiit', .;r the desire of one .party only.

"NCir VALID"

. "It is true that if one party desires a divorce, the other party' must apply to the- counts, but the court possesses no discretion. It is obliged to dissolve the marriage, the judge merely registering a 'decree. It is his duty to do so. it is the essence of Soviet marriages, that marriages are dissoluble at the will of either party, and the courts, jtdges, and registrars have no option. . "The petitioner had said that she intended the' union to be for life, but that could not override the law, Which is the exact antithesis of the English law," added the judge. * "It was a common acceptation of marriage in all Christian countries that marriage was based on Christian principles of morality. It was a -voluntary union excluding all others until death, unless the State's courts dissolved the union after complying with all the foins which the law prescribed," 1 * went on the judge. "Only a State's Ministerial \ct could, in Christian countries, give legal form to divorce, but according to the Soviet. law the mere desire of the husband or wile sufficed. Mr. Justice Hill gave his judgment that the petitioner and respondent -had never been married within the meaning of the English law. They were not husband and wife. He did not possess jurisdiction and the parties must go to the Soviet courts. He was fully conscious of the difficulties arising from his refusal to recognise Russian marriages, but the iSoviet had created the difficultiesr.