FRENCH WAR BRIDE

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVI, Issue 23082, 22 December 1944, Page 6

FRENCH WAR BRIDE

Language Problem A New Zealand soldier who brought back a French war bride from New’ Caledonia, Private W. G. Harvey, sought exemption from further military service on account of his wife's linguistic difficulties when he appeared at a sitting of the Auckland No. 1 Armed Forces Appeal Board. The appellant produced doctors' certificates stating that his wife, who had suffered a severe illness since coming to New Zealand, needed her husband’s company as she could speak very little English. It would be a long time before she was well. Private Harvev said that his parents, with whom he and his wife were living, could not understand what she said and he had to interpret for them. He found it hard to understand his wife himself and sometimes explained things to her with the help of a dictionary’. The services of a Frenchman had been enlisted to teach her English. The appeal was referred to the Director of Mobilisation, Wellington.