DESPERATE MOTHER

Taranaki Daily News, 2 August 1930, Page 14 (Supplement)

DESPERATE MOTHER

>TOWAV/AV OX LINED. Colombo, July 22. Mrs. Amelia Bennett, driven to desperation by her husband’s futile search for work in Australia, stowed away with her three children on .board the Moreton Bay at Freemantle. Before the steamer sailed she hid herself in the bathroom, where she stood shivering all night, while her youngest child, wrapped’ in a". skirt, was cradled in the Ijath. The mother, not knowing" the whereabouts of her other two children —-Leslie, 15, and Edna, 14—confessed that she was a stowaway next morning ami was ivnnited with tiie children at inid-dqy. They boy had sheltered beneath a tarpaulin on deck and the girl, after 1 wan.detihg about the ship, ha» fallen asleep in a secluded corner. ■ . ’ The mother and children were quartered in the isolation hospital aft. Sympathetic passengers raised £l2 for them. The mother appeared in Court at Colombo to-day and arrangements were made.' whereby she will be accommodatid with tlio children at the Y.W.C.A. until they, are sent back to I remant.le Ly the next steamer.