WARNING TO GIRLS

Putaruru Press, Volume XII, Issue 562, 8 March 1934, Page 1

WARNING TO GIRLS

NOT TO MARRY INDIANS Details of the hardships undergone by British girls who marry Indians are given in a letter to “The Times,” by Miss Ethel J. Shepard, head deaconess, of Lahore. She points out that there are large numbers of such marriages between white girls and Indian students who go to England to complete their studies, and adds:— “I imagine that it is fairly hopeless to expect these headstrong young women to listen to any advice from their elders, but perhaps if they have some idea of the hardships and humiliations they will have to face they may at least pause to think. “For one thing, practically all those young men are unemployed. It sounds very well to say that they are going to practice as a doctor or a barrister. They do not add that these professions are so overcrowded that there is small chance of their making even the barest living for years.” Miss Shepard goes on to cite a few cases of such marriages.

“An Englishwoman who came out to marry a Hindu barrister a few years ago,” she states, “has just died of tuberculosis owing to the appalling poverty in which she had to live. “It takes a sturdy European woman to live in a hovel and struggle to do Indian conditions, with the temperature frequently at 116 deg. in the shade.

“Two English girls have recently come out, one married to a Hindu, the other to a Sikh. Both these men are workless and living with their wives on the charity of their parents. “One of the girls told us that when she realised the bonditions under which she had to live she seriously contemplated suicide . In spite of that her sister is now coming out, having married a Mohammedan against his father’s express commands. “He proposes to leave her with her sister until such time as he can find work, or can screw up his courage to tell his father of her existence. “Then, only last week, a Punjabi arrived from America with a young American wife. He has also married without his family’s knowledge, and has left his bride with some American missionaries while he tries to find work—a fairly hopeless quest at the present time.” Miss Shepard declares that if girls must marry non-Christian Indians they should at least obtain an assurance that the man has the consent of his family to the marriage, and the means wherewith to keep a wife.