WHITE GIRLS AND BLACK MEN.

Colonist, Volume LX, Issue 14545, 25 October 1917, Page 2

WHITE GIRLS AND BLACK MEN.

epidemic 3T w EDDrrc;«

LURE OF lilvill WAGEb

JK'i thiii tho last few months, 1 nm ' toTu (writes the London correspondent of a. Home paper), there has been a perfect epidemic of marriages between; English girls, principally munition j workers, and negroes who have come ■ to .Britain from the West Coast of i\\-\ rica on war work. Seldom a week', passes now that a dusky bridegroom does not lignre in the matrimonial cere-1 mony in tome part of London. The! negroes ure engaged in factories and at the docks, .ami while thousands ot white men are- in the lighting line the coloured ones arc winning their way '■, into many an English home. Already there is quite a negro colony in tiie East End of London, and the police are becoming anxious as to the future. They have no complaint to make against the coloured men, who, by all accounts, are on their best behaviour and giving very little trouble Some of the negroes, I learned on inquiry, are earning handsome money, not a iew of thorn turning over an income of £1U ;irid £12 a week. Tins iv itself is always an attraction to a girl of simple birth. The coloured mer., however, show their affection, and devotion in a variety of ways, and, not content wit!i Laying fancy presents for I their English .sweethearts, they aisu j "look after" the--fathers and mothers j of their brides.

A registrar in an East End area says that he has married no fewer than 100 couples in the last six weeks, and that there is quite a boom in East End weddings.

"Tho courtships appear to be swift, j and sweet," he smiled, "and, to be frank, tlic pairs that come here all seem to be quite happy and contented. J asked one bru.iK.Tte why she couldn't find an English husband, and she replied that she wouldn't exchange her' nigger boy for all tho white men m tho, world. A" favourite explanation is that colour makes no difference to the alfections of the heart.'-' One of the instances communicated was that of an eighteen-year-old girl who renounced a private in a London regiment and transferred her heart to a negro. She iiad met the latter at a dance, and was so carried away with him that the,' were married ii{ three, weeks.

Another .story is told of a 'llappcr' 1 who vanished from home, and when next heard of was dov.n with a coloured man in the West End of London. He had wooed and won her in less time than it takes to have a cup of tea, and their wedding was quite a lightning ailViir. "This wave of weddings is nothing new," said a police inspector of a large district close to the London docks. "The girls seem to take very quickly to foreigners and dov.n here we liave young women .married to Chinamen, Japs, Senegalese and Zouaves. The addition of the negroes from West Africa will add to the gaiety of the neighbourhood. . So far as their general conduct is concerned, I must say we have no 'objection to raise. They' give i very-little trouble, and are usually j well conducted. Our experience in tins quarter is that- whenever a shmdv arises it is the woman's fault, and not [ the negro's." j A clergyman rook a different view. .'"I have repeatedly warned tho girls in this district." he "observed, "but" my j words continue to f:il! on deaf ears. It seems to me that the real attraction is the money which the negroes are ablej to <:omma:id in munition factories! throughout tho country. Ao,. J cannot tejl you whether'such 'alliances turn otib happily, but I deplore the increase of weddings with negroes on national as well as. sentimental grounds."