THE
CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1953.
Page
DIVORCE
AND THE
QUEEN'S PROCTOR
THE STORY OF THE CHANGES IN MARRIAGE AND MORALS THAT HAVE GONE TO MAKE THE PATTERN OF SOCIETY IN 1953
by CHARLES
BERRY
.
Charlie Dilke Spilt the Milk On his
back frum wap Chelbed.
THUS the ribaldry of the late Victorian music hall com- memurated the ruin of one of the most brilliant ris- ing politicians of that time.
In the early 80's Sir Charles Dilke, Liberul
MP
for Chelsea, seemed almost certain 1 Aurrerr1
stone as leater of the Lib-
cral Party and Prime Mink-
"The Queen's Proctor intervenes "For nearly a century those words have been able to strike fear into the parties to a divorce suit. The Proctor is the civil servant who can investigate the decision of judges. He is the man who remains for many a figure of mystery and power.
He fought
MP's
jon Was
due
in
ter of England. Then in the months-and full Lide ប success his run Dilke. career was abruptly wreck-
an
He sent for T. M. Healy, ed by a disastrous divorce
and quite case, the real facts behind an Irish M.P.
often an intermediary in
who
What are his methods? How
This article,begins. does he work?
They a survey of the Proctor's cases. show, through the drama of the courts, the changes in the public attitude towards the marriage bond that have led to the trend today: 33,000 divorces a year in the Courts of England.
to
save
honour
Mrs Crawford did not in court. in
say a T Own
To a lawyer the situation at that point was clear, siaru- though It might seem
to
Healy at once hastened to sco few #
well Crawford. It was too into. He word might
and her confession had already informed the Tories, defence,
stood uncontradicted. *In August the petition was
filed. Dilke duły
vigorously repudiated the charges in an
his Chelsea con- ing open letter to which remain obscure even dillent negotiations. Healy, suluents, and at the General anyone else. today.
was later the first Election of December 1803, he
The confession was evidence 3] the was again returned to Parlic- On July 17, 1885, Donald Governor-General
against Mrs Crawford that sho Crawford, middle-aged Irish Free State, decided to ment
A had commitled adultery with Scottish lawyer and Liberal find out whether Crawford
It was not evidence About a year earlier Dike Duke, but member for Lanurk, return could be induced to with.
had become engaged to Mrs against Dlike that he had cou- ed home at midnight to find
mitted adultery with Mrs Craw- Mark Pattison, widow an anony MIÐUR letter de.
furd. Newly thereupon asked Craw rector uí Linen nouncing his young wife's ford to
do nothing. Crawford
Oxford. The news had Infidelity.
that he would accept sald judgeship
Liberals kept secret from all but when the were next in office, "A Scoltish friends.
asked Bealy with
His request
RS Crawford
MRS
draw.
п
of the College, been fow
wns Lu mata
It followed that the petitione was entitled to his accroc, while Duke, by standing by and doing noining, could ciuim to be dis
Nono the missca from the suit.
Di-concealed contempt for his colleague in Parliament. was only an English one," replied Craw when the petition was lied and less, it was open to him, it he
22 and was the sister ford. Healy woke
of Dilke's sister-in-law. She dheussion confessed that
and did
"No,
Mrs Pallision
not even
the learned the news in a
Joseph from
lotter
Chamberlain,
her lover consider it worth while bother- Dilke's closest friend. Her reply
in: Gladstone with such an was prompt. fimmotal propusa),
she was Dilke, and that repaired to his house every day at noon and committed adultery with him after he had finished the fencing
'Outrageous'
Bha telegraphed the news of the engagement w The Times.
1
so chose, to give evidence, and 10 repent on oath the actiuis he nau aireauy so publicly made.
the did not so choose.
-| As soon as she returned from India in October she married at the Chelsea Parish
in
Four months iater, February 1888, the trial began in a bluze of publicity.
practice in which he used to A FEW days later Gladstone Dilke Joseph Chamberlaja
miked with Healy. "Have Church. engage during the morning.
you seen Crawford?" he asked. was best man. The news that Crawford "Yes." "What does he want?" "Preposterous and even out- intended to cite Dike
rageous suggestion-a judgeship, as co-respondent, reached
English judgeship." Glaristone who immediately
There was BOW that the case might
Gladstone observed, seriously damuge the Lib-
tone, "I think thoughtful eral Party-a general elect- Crawford would make a judge."
pause
The case for the petitioner was simple. It consisted almost entirely of a confession made by
and
in
a
his wife.
DOCTORS' REPORT MAKES
FIRST-RATE DRAMA
By JEREMY TAYLOR
London. The doctors and,
Judge approved
THE responsibility of advising
Dilke lay with his counsel.
eminent Those included two
Rus- practitioners, Sir Charles sell, then Attomgy-General, and Sir Henry James, a future Lord of Appeal.
Who is
the Queen's Proctor?
AL
Air Ite prezens Harold Himoux Kent, a tall, quter-spoken parrister who April appointed in Wan this year,
fle
49
years
old, married, with a 19-year-old and 22-year-old daughter. The family home is at Farley, Surrey,
SON
As Queen's Proctor he draws no salary. But he is also Treasury Solicitor: for this bo draws £4,500
year,
Tile sial
consists of the
Assistant Queen's Proctor,
who draws between £1,200 and
year,
A £1,750 senior legal
at £1,150
A
suzistent
100 £1,500
П year, and others not separately listed.
As Queen's Fructor he has an office in Old queen Street; as Treasury Sollei- tor he has another office in Storey's Dos far away, Gate.
*
A man
01
The manner in which they ample time to become aware of had the fact. Too late, he realista justified tho advice they maven was, in the light of after that he had placed himself in an
mpossible position. events, unfortunate.
his standing could not afford tu Tho Attorney-General re- go through life with a question- markod that in giving evidence mark for shadow, Joseph Chani- his client might be put through berlain advised him that either his whole e, Dilke's honour must be vindicat-
was finished in and in the or any man there ed-or Dlike may be found Lo have been public lue.
ine events of
indiscretions.” And Sir Henry
James used words to the same effect.
of
R.background, the Bri- now racle het, the cast
proventitive medicine enables them to prac-should be dismissed from the
There was only one way 10 challenge the decision
the Court and that was--by the intervention
Queen's to their in- heal as many of the sick as their
of the will permit. State They asked that Sir Charles
Proctor. And in due course EAD with an eye to the tense satisfaction, that they can talents
the Queen's Proctor, Sir A. K. dc-suit with costs. The Judge, in Stephenson, intervened, on the tish Medical Association's who once presented himself only inands and to as tre pune per granting the decree, went out of ground that the decres had been report
his way to express his approval obtained contrary to the facts of doctors' when he had acquired reaction to the National capacitating afieflon now comes
of the course taken.
oll
the
an in- mits.
when do feels mildly unwell. This does not imply that there Health service which has all Thus the disease can be treated aro problems; Too many afford the in far more doctors still cannot the fascination of a first- easily and quickly
equipment they need; too many rate drama.
patients are coming to regard the ns a dis- general practitioner
1
cases.
come,
Proctor intervenes
the case, and that material facts Ład not been brought before the court,
That Dilke
9
was responsible The health service and the up penser of patent medicines and public, however. To the bare conclusions most
is not for the intervention may be doctors are happy in the service, surge in wonder drugs
composed of lawyers, but of regarded as certain, but it was medical treo tenant; 100 most think they can now do fortuitously, at the same time, to paly on the "specialist" for
many plain persons who believe that if 110% made dormally on his behalf state offelals silll try to work a woman is proved to have com- and he was not allowed to be
ut mass production treatment mitted adultery with a man it is party to the proceedings at the techniques
Bob unlikely that the man will second trial. have committed adultery with
more for more people, most, thinks No doctor need now feel pangs are a godsend one of conscience when he prescribes free drugs might be templed to answer: costly drug. "Elementary, my dear Watson."
And, at the root of the mat-
But these are not insoluble hec. But it is not so olementary, ter, is the essential fact that problems. And the doctors have)
most doctors are dedicated to come to realise that the solu-
They want to tions lie within their power.
In 1948-Just five years ago—
the Association reported that their profession.
comes
most doctors were bitterly op- posed to state medicine. The majority thought their would dwindle, their relations with their patients decay.
Now there are still a largo samber of discontented doctors. Their discontent, however, 110 langer rasts on a theoretical ob- jection but on the practical prob- tems which must be overcome before the system can approach its own ideal.
Odd Fact
The doctors are confident that the problems can be overcome---- and are ready and willing to play their part in overcoming them.
That is old, perhaps, for some doctors who might have earned £2,000 a year before the war are doing well to make £1,000 to- day..
And every doctor today aver- ages 2,500 patients on his st against previous a optimum : nearer 1,000 (a figure approachoi in many parts of Canada and the United States).
Yet, of the 13,000 doctors in- terviewed, only about one in five reports he is dangerously over- worked. (A reply to be distingu ished, of course, from a decling that he is really giving the ideal attention to every patlont.) angl
The reasons for this, shift of #reland in abort duace of five years (there years, in most cases, for the bulk of the survey work was done in 1987) are complex:
The Missus
brother-in-law Khrushchev,
Uncle Boris, Cousin Vladimir,
and the rest of the
Malenkov family
The period between decree nisi and desroc absolute gave Dilke
STALK PET
CANAL
PHONECK
This was more than a mere paint of procedure, for it ental- ad that his counsel could take no part in the trial. Having once
OUR
BELOVED MARVEL
THE GREAT
STALIN
ceolined to draw the sword in his defence, he must now go into ballie with his hands tied.
He fought hard, none the less.
On oath, he dented overy allegation against him. He called or" rather the Queen's Prostor called for him-his servants as witnesses to account for his
tho movements on
DOCESIONS which Mrs Crawford had spoken of in her confession. He mus tained A searchmy cross- examination with dignily and, on the whole, with success. His case was that the confession was the Invention of o splicful woman, made to shield her own misconduct with another men,
L answer to the Queen's Proctor, Crawford put his wife into the witness-box. Sne con- ceded that Dilko's allegation
exteur Was true to a certain There was another lover, whose ume she had suppressed up w Lat moment.
It was the only part of hor evidence that could have given what wilke any comfort. For she had to say went far beyond er original admission. She at- clared to a shocked court that Dilke had seduced her, a young bride, very shortly after her marriage; that he had been not only her lover but her mother's belore her; that he maintained in the house signation West End of London; and that she had shared nis favours with the maidservant who attended to her un her clandestine visita to bilke's homić:
Was it the truth?
was not the plcture of a
man · carried honourable away, by a gust of passion, but or a callous sensuallst, Some vi her hearers must have reinent bered counsel's ill-omoned marks at the first trial,
Was she telling the truth? Dilke to the end of his life affirmed his innocence, Bud His many, chief among them devoted wife, believed him.
It Mrs Crawford led she was not only a perjurer, but on astonishingly accomplished actress. Her evidence, at all events, induced the jury to And that Crawford's decree had not been obtained contrary to the Jarts of the case.
The Queen's Proctor's later- vention was dismissed. Official- ly the matter rested where it the first trial, had been alter but Dilke's carcer had perished.
MONDAY:
The Case of the Careless Husband.
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