MUST DISCLOSE NAME.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20280, 14 April 1934, Page 17 (Supplement)

MUST DISCLOSE NAME.

Divorce Judge’s Surprise for Parties. A x , Indian Army colonel, who said he was “ advised it was not necessary to divulge the name of the woman ” to the London Divorce Court, caused Mr Justice Langtori to make a definite statement to the contrary recently'-, while hearing a petition for divorce by the colonel’s wife, says the London “ Daily Express.” Mrs Phyllis Mary Mitchell Carruthers, of Gloucester Terrace, Hyde Park, asked for divorce from Colonel Nigel Laurie Mitchell Carruthers, of the Indian Army, alleging misconduct by him at Simla. Colonel Mitchell Carruthers did not defend the suit. Mr T. Bucknill, for Mrs Mitchell Carruthers, said that her solicitors had been notified that Colonel Mitchell Carruthers had apparently been advised in India that it was not necessary to supply the name of the woman to the English Divorce Court. Mr Justice Langton said the petition would be postponed because he thought it ought to be made clear what this Court wanted. He did not say the solicitors had been in any way remiss—they had done what they could, but evidently Colonel Mitchell Carruthers had received advice in India which was entirely wrong. “It is most important that people should know what the requirements of the Divorce Court are,” said the judge, “ and that such advice should not be given again. “Counsel had suggested that there should be a decree nisi, not to be made absolute until the position has been communicated to Colonel Mitchell Carruthers.” Mr Justice Langton added that all Ie would say in adjourning the petition was that, if the name were properly disclosed and he. was satisfied that the court had been given proper in nrrnatioa, ne would consider the question of abridging the time in which the decree should be made absolute. If it was made clear that there was no species of collusion that Colonel Mitchell Carruthers had been wrongly advised and now thought better of it, the matter would go through and Mrs Mitchell Carruthers would not be prejudiced by what had happened.