MAN'S LIFE SAVED.

Western Star, 11 June 1935, Page 3

MAN'S LIFE SAVED.

£>—- AND A DEBT PAID. MURDER ON HIGH SEA. INSANITY PLEA SUCCEEDS. A great-grandson of Marshal- Ney, the famous soldier of Napoleonic days, paid a debt of gratitude to an obscure Goalies© steward by helping to save him from the gallows! Philip Rodriques, .47, captain's "boy" of the Ellerman. and Bucknall cargo liner City of Batayia, had been accused of double murder in the Red Sea.

This formerly "docile and inoffensive little man," as -he was described at his trail, killed two Malay quarermasters in in their sleep by Cutting their throats with a razor; cut the throat of another member of the crew; attacked the cook, then nearly killed himself by cutting his own throat. The captain sent out an S-O.S. for a doctor. It was picked up by th« Malda., homeward bound from the Indian Ocean.

BURIED AT SEA. The two men who had been lulled weree buried at sea. Rodriques was transferred to the Malda and brought to England to stand his trial. This Is. where the marshal's great-grandson, Mr A. E. Ney; came in. He is a leading official of the Ellerman and Bucknall Steamship Company. "Some years ago," said Mr Ney, "I took my wife and two-small boys for a cruise. Rodriques looked after "the boys. I shall never forget his devotidn to them. He became so fond of them that he was jealous if anyone else 'went near. When I heard of the dreadful business in the Red Sea I knew Rodriques could not have been in his right mind. I determined everything possible should be done to save his life."

The company undertook all" the expenses of the defence. A London medical specialist was sent to Liverpool to examine Rodriques in prison. Two barristers were briefed to defand him at his trial.

Mr Ney travelled from London to the Court prepared to give evidence of good character on behalf of the Goanese, one! of the humblest of 12,000 employees he controls.

ABJECT MISERY. " The man—black-bearded, rolling his eyes so that only the whites showed — was a picture of abject misery in ihei dock. Bandages still covered his selfinflicted throat wound. Mr Francis Peregrine, his leading counsel, in cross-examination of the <ap. tain and members of the crew, called as v.-itnesses for the prosecution, established that Rodriques had been suffering from delusions of persecution. "This is a case," he said, "of an over-conscientious servant who began to worry because he wrongly thought he was not giving satisfaction." The two medical officers of Liverpool Prison were called as witnesses by the! defence. Dr Higson, the senior, sail

that, in his opinion, at the time Rodriques committed the offences he was in a state of acute mania due to delusionali insanity.

A plea of insanity was successful. Rodriques, instead of being sentenced to death,, was ordered to be detained in Broadmoor during His Majesty's pleasure, And a debt had been paid.

TRAIL OF MISERY.. 3>

' 'PROFESSIONAL" BIGAMISTS. GROWING EVIL IN BRITAIN During recent years in Britain there have been, on an average, about 500 prosecutions for bigamy annually. The number is on the increase, and representatives from the several Departments concerned are engaged upon an inquiry with a view to suggesting means by which the growth in this class of offence might be reduced, if not -stopped' entirely.

A huge number of those who break the law in this lcspect do e-o in ignorance. They are mostly women who, not having heard anything- of deserting- husbands for many years, believe they are, at liberty to marry again. This, of: course, is not the case.

Recently a judge had before him a woman charged with bigamy, and made so-.no caustic remarks upon the injustice! she suffered. Her husband left her and her children, and she heard nothing of him for over 15 years. The wife married again, and, very shortly afterwards, her legal husband turned up, infoimed the police, and the woman was prosecuted.

SINISTER SIDE OF BIGAMY. There is however, a much more sinister side to the offence. Official facta and figures now under consideration! show that the office.of the marriage re-git-tnu' is a place of which criminal use is made by "professional bigamists," as a. famous judge 'described them.. Nothing is easier than for two persons) to go through a marriage ceremony at a. registrar's office. Perjury is:ofte,u committed by the bridegroom for financial considerations.

Two men, recently convicted, of bigamy, confessed, in one case, to oJßlit such "marriages," and in the other to six. Tho amount, of which they had defrauded their victims totalled over £lO,000.

In a large number of the cases under review a, trail of misery has been k'l'l women robbed of their money, involved iu financial obligations, and,' worst of all, bearing children to men win,* h;.w, cheated and defrauded them

A variety of interesting * suggestions) are now being considered. One is that no marriage shall bo solemnised, eilliriat a registry office or in « church, without the production of proof that the. parties arc lawfully entitled to entei< into tho contract. That proof, it is sug. gested, might take the form of a birth certificate, endorsed by the appropriate authorities.

A marriage entry would bo entered upon the back, afher the ceremony, and only upon the production of evitlence of the death or divorce of one of the parties could a subsequent marriage of tho person affected be permitted. There is also under consideration the desirability of so amending the law that the absence of one spouse from tho other for a specified period, without knowledge of his, or her, whereabouts should, upon duo notice being advertised entitle either party to marry again without the risk of prosecution for bhr amy. n ~

Every morning Lucie, th c eight-year-old daughter of a farmer in Poinerania, has two mice for breakfast—as her guests. The mice have been trained to sit at a doll's table on two tiny ehairu tuid. drink milk out of immature' cup