FRENCH ON THE RHINE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16323, 12 January 1921, Page 7

FRENCH ON THE RHINE.

OFFICERS MARRY GERMAN MAT DJ*. PARIS, November 27. Scores of French officers in the Rhineland are wondering whether they are really married, as a result of a declaration from Berlin invalidating all marriages in German territory which wore noi performed before German priests or officials. It seems that the charms of the flaxen-haired maids along the Rhine have proved too much for the hearts of Fiench army officers, who began, donning horizon blue and escorting tins. Gretchens before the commanding officers. who, under military law. have the right to perform marriage ceremonies. The inter-Allied Rhineland Commission then assumed full control of the occupied regions, but referred nil requests for marriage to tho German authorities, holding that tlio French commanders no longer were the authority on marital ceremonies. Franco-German alliances thus far have proved fairly happy, as not a single divorce Ims been applied for in tho internationalised families, but the devoted Grote-liens, due to pressure from relatives, are insisting that the ceremcnies must l>o .performed as Berlin dictates in order to ensure the legitimacy of their offspring. In some oases the French officers have consented, but have found themselves confronted with numerous difficulties, their semi-wives being insulted by German officials, who ireat them as traitors of the Fatherland.

Berlin does not approve of such unions, a-- is shown by recent instructions to German Mayors to convince lovelorn maidens that they hare nothing in common with the French conquering heroes along the Rhine.