MARRIAGE TRAPS FOR GIRLS.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 7920, 18 August 1917, Page 2 (Supplement)

MARRIAGE TRAPS FOR GIRLS.

(The wgr has cost a glamour over marriage, and young girls are apt to make hasty and foolish alliances. The following article, from “ Pearson’s Weekly”, is timely and useful.) BOY AM) GIltL MARRIAGES. THE DANGER OF GtfSTTING MARRIED TOO YOUNG. Boys of fourteen and girlj of twelve can l»o legally married the law of England stands at present. It is not, of course, suggested that children of such tender years often take advantage of the privilege allowed them by our out-of-date laws, but a sad numb r of youngsters of fifteen and upwards are married in Britain every Also, the consent of parents or guardians is not necessary to legalise these Im>v and girl marriages. In London alone there are 80 me tiling like 15,000 married couples whose ages? ore, in the case of hu&bands, bitween seventeen and nineteen ; and in the caso of the wives, from sixteen to nineteen. Well over 2,(XK) of these boy-li ns bands and girl-wives are living apart from each other.

The question of lx>; ,uid girl marriages forms one of our pricing social problems. The** immature unions are a

constant danger to tho individuals concerned, to the State, and to the future generation. Many times it hits been suggested, by men and women who havy: fully studi<<d the subject, that boy and girl marriages should l>e forbidden by law. Failing this, they aay, at leant there should Im* a law to make necessary th . oonsent of the parents or guardians of all prospective a isbands and wives who are. under age. l b ink lor a moment of the possible perils consequent upon tile unions of young people under the age jf twenty. As these articles are intended as guides to girls who are ignorant of tho facts of life, and who, through th- ir unsus)pecting innocence, are likely to be trappy d by one or another of matrimuny's pill alls, let us consider the presold subject from their standj>oint. I l ' rst. then, no on c . will surely disagree with the statement that a young girl cannot be trusted to know her own

mind thoroughly when her arc aroused and >!ie “falls in love.” Again, a girl under twenty is too immature* — both pliArsically and mentally—to l>o a perfect mother. With regard to the mental unfitness «>i young girls for wifehood and motherhood, it is an established fact that a juvenile mother soon agtls beyond her years owing to her responsibilities and! cares. This, again, adversely affects her children; JTt-o she is not capable, try as bard a > she nuy, of training her children in the best way, simple/ because her own character is m yet unformed —she is but a child herself. fcui.-h disabilities, then, tend to lead to domestic unhappimsq for, because she lias too much “on her shoulders” the very young wife is apt to mismanage her household; things do not run, as smoothly as they would under tho oj\ro of a grown woman, and consequently tin* husband may suffer. One more outstanding argument against youthful marriages presents itue!f: One of the chief factors in a stuc-

<*«>.'! ul marriage is friendship true, understanding comradeship. But, wlien two jHH/ple marry at a time when botli of th in are growing, mentally as well as physically, there is every likelihood of them growing apart in interests’, because one may develop more than tho other or in different directions, and consequently that tragedy of nine unhappy marriages out of ten —lack of a satisfactory companionship—usual','/ asserts itself. Then, the husband or wife, or both, realise that, had they waited a lew years, they certainly never would have fallen in love with each oth Ir at

Sufficient lias been written to prove the perils that lurk in the paths of very young girls who get married to youths. (V.ses out of number could be describ'd to illustrate the |>oiiits already made, and they all tell the same trage story—a hasty boy and girl marriage, rapid disillusion, and consequent unh i ppiness. No girl under twenty years of age at least should dream of consenting even to a tentative engagement until she hasl consulted with her parents or guardian', and they have met and questioned the would-bj husband. To follo-w tho sweet call of romance at an age when mind and body are ns yet undeveloped, u to couTt grave disaster. Th-. game of love is not for children. WHY BIGAMY IS COMMITTED. REGISTRY OFFICE MARRIAGES AND THEIR DANGEROUS SECRECY. Over ten thousand marriage-* are celebrated at London registry offices alone overj yeai. and it has been e>timated that oiio marriage in every five in England takes place in a registry office, Since the war bigamy ha, been prevalent, and this is no doubt due to tho lax system of registry office marriages. It provides unscrupulous miln with a quick and comparatively simple and sale me.ns of conducting their villainies. Several times the Female Aid Society has |M‘titinned for the abolition of that wlii'h enshrouds the celebration of marriages at the offices of Registrars. As the law stands at present the lack of adequate publicity in such marriages affords undeniable facilities for immorality and for crimes against innocent and unsuspecting girls. Thu above-mentioned Society has sugg* sted to the Home Secretary that publicity should be given to the notification of banns of marriage by exhibiting a list of per-oils to be married in such fashion " in or outside the post-office nearest to the regia tr- office.” This would prevent cases such aa the following : In lone instance a man, while his wife was alive, married two other women it registry office?. In another a soldier took a young girl to an office in Bermondsey - not a registry office — where the “marriage ceremony” was performed. The poor girl’s discovery was as rapid as it wa,i sad. It cannot In* too widely known that r.nyone is free to call at a registry office to find out the names of those who are elnnit to he married. But this right is seldom if ever, exercised. So, it is the secrec y the ease with which the marriage can he ‘kept dark.” that fornix the chief danger of weddings before a Registrar. The following tragic case goes far to prove the base uses to which unspeakable scoundrels sometimes put registry offices. Some time ago a girl, not then eighteen, met a man who-*? ago was near the forties. She was impressed by him niq), after several meetings, he induced her to place her trust in lvm to

such an extent as to leave her parents’ home and marry him. Marriage was his proof of the honesty of his intention^.

The two went to Leeds, and were there married at a registrar’s. Then they went to London, and later proceeded to Buenos Ayres. Even there all seemed well, as the man introduced his girl-bride to people supposed to be his sister and brother-in-law. A fortnight pa.ssed, and then the accidental overhearing of a conversation opened the poor girl’s eyes. She realised with terror that she- was to be literally sold into slavery. She left the house and managed to escape, going to the home of a couple whoso acquaintance she had been lucky enough to make during the voyage. She learned in Bueno* AyresJ that her supposed husband had previously lived there for seviji years with a woman, and that bo was the chief of a gang of white slave traders!

As the law stands at present, then, fi is perfectly clear that these/ hole-and-corner registry office marriages are an undeniable danger in more ways than one.

No girl should dream of consenting to be married before a Registrar without first consulting her relatives or friends, or without making absolutely certain h< rs’elf that she is not being duped into a marriage that is no marriage.

WHITE WIVES OF COLOURED MEN.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ENGLISH GIRLS MARRY ORIENTALS.

Most British girls would shudder at tho thought of becoming engaged to a Chinaman, an Indian, or a negro. Yet, strange as it may seem, the men of the East do possess a subtle, hypnotic attraction for numbers of white girls, once the latter have overcome the first feeling of natural repulsion. Horrlblo stories are often reported in the English Pri\s; of the tragedies happening to .white girjs who have got into the clutches of Chinamen ui Liverpool, Manchester or Cardiff.

Now, tlie portion of the gill who ha-3 lawfully married her Chinese lover s but little happier than the lot of the/ poor dupe who lias been trapped by the wily yellow man, with his veneer of European civilisation. The wife may be discarded, actually thrown linto the streets any day; if she is the mother of a little half-caste baby, her pitiful, plight can he hotter imagined than described.

Also, it i»s a fact that some of the Chinese residents of Liverpool and Manchester actually toll or exdhange the British wives they have married before a white missionary. When the Chinaman tires of his white wife, lie has been known to put a notice, in Chinese, outside Ilia house. In a few days the poor deluded wile its handed overl by her lius 1 - band to another yellow man, who pays for her in cash!

But, you may say, such men are only tho very scum of our Chinato|.vns. Are they? Often they are the same yellow men whom one sees parading the main streets of our cities, clad in fashionable European clothes, with diamonds sparkling in their rings and tie-pins. The average Chinaman can appear very “ British” when he wishes.

A warning to all white girls against contracting marriage with Chinese s contained in the “North China Daily News”

Au English girl and her Chinese husband, Woo—their marriage took place at a London registry office early in 1907—were found travelling with the natives in tho steerage of a liner nut long ago, with their two infant children. Recently the woman’s husband left her to go on a journey, and the English girl found herself committed to taking care of her Chinese mother-in-law and her husband’s first wife! Woo admitted that he was married in China before going to London. Tho Englishwoman's interests were cared lor by the British Consul at Chengtn. But, her status in British and Chinese law alike is, to say the least, unsatisfactory. Girls can he bought at any time for a low shillings in China, and the English wife may he reduced! to looking after her in the house.

White girts would do well to remember always the great difference between the people of tin* East and those of the West.

However nice the idea of the “ brotherhood of man” may seem ; n theory, its practice between people of the East and of the West, especially when they nre of the opposite sex, is absolutly impossible. Another great source of danger to British girls with foolish or ignorant ideas of what constitutes! a “romantic” marriage is the presence of so many Indian students in our towns. Indians are often very fine fellows. Wo nil honour them for what they have done for the King-Emperor Iff this war; but as husbands for our British, girls we do not want them. A well-known Anglo-Indian journalist told the writer:

“This problem of the* Hindoo and tho British girl has the odious aspect that the dusky lover is already a married man. He never strikes! his little British sweetheart as being a husband already ; and for good reasons lie may never have seen his wife!

“All good-caste Hindoos vire wedded in infanqv. The Hindoo law or medical student—to fnention a numerous class' —on his return to India finds his clifidwil'e a woman. For the sweetheart or wife he left behind in Britain he doesn’t can* a straw.”

To touch now upon the nauseous subject of marriages between v.lhite girls and black men—Africans or American negroes. Volumes could be'filled with good reasons why white girls should not associate with, let alone marry, black men.

But tin* matter can bo summed up when one slays that for both moral and physical reasons the black man is totally unfitted ho be the husband of a white woman.