USVI Public Records

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the rights of the people, [ rather be out of it The Chairman remarked: This is a resolution subject to thr&e discussions; first discussion is still open, a Committee has been appointed and the Council by vote adjourned for one hour for the Com- mittee to investigate and report. Ido not see anything unjust in the matter. 2nd Member for Frederiksted Country Distriet (M. M. Skeoch) remarked: Mr. Chairman. It seems to me that there is so much unpleasantness over this matter that I think it best to let 't go over until another {meeting. 1 think myselr that it would not be the correct thing to do to force a matter like this through the Coun cil knowing it would cause unpleasan:- Nness Znd Appointed Member (Noll) remark- ed: Mr. Chairman. I feel very strong- 'y on this imatter. It seems that when certain questions of importance arise in this Couneil* alli we can hear about is the Rules of Business. If one ean play the Rules of Business another can play it aiso. The proposition before the Coun- cil today lis one that demands quick action. [ krow it does. The morals of the girls of this island are not what they ougnt to be, and still the “overnment is accused of wanting to establish a- broth- el instead of a training school. It is nothing but lack of confidence in the ““overnment of the Virgin Xslands. The Council is asked for the use of the Cay for one vear, and the members of Christiansted are blocking the idea of putting school there; how are they block- ing it 7 By playing the Rules of Busi- ness. That’s real unadulterated poli- tics. [ will play politics myself as long as this bill 1s before the Council. We should lay aside our commercial ambi- tions and trust the Government. To be continued. The s. s. "‘Saranac’’ arrived here early this morning with St. T omas and Eng- lish mails. The Naval Band will render its usual Friday night concert on the wharf this evening. Correspondence On Divorce. (Continued IV) “'The ground has been taken that wo- man would lose her dignity if marriage could be annulled. Is it necessary to lose your liberty in order to retain your moral character—in order to be pure and womanly? Must a woman, in order to retain her virtue, become a slave, a serf, with a beast for a master, or with society for a master, or with a phan- tom for a master ? If an infinite being is one of the par- ties to the contract, is it not the duty S, LR2. A YIR of this being to.see to it that the con- tract i< carried out? What consideration does the infinite being give? What con- sideration does he receive? If a wife o.7es no duty to her husband because theg husband has violated the contracte and has even assaulted her life, is it possible for her to feei toward him any real thrill of affection? Ifshe does not, what is fhere left of marriage? ¢Vhat part of this contract or sacrament re- mains in living force? She can not sustain the relation of wife, because she abhors him; she cannot remain un- der the same roof, tfor fear that she may be killed. They sustain, then. on- ly the relations of hunter and hunt>d- of tyrant and victim. [s it desirable that this relation should last through life, and thzt it should be rendered sacred by the ceremony of a church? Again Iask, is it -desirabie to have families raised under such circumstances? Arce we in need of chiidren born »f such parents? Can the virtne of others be preserved only by this destruction of happiness, by this perpetual imprison- ment” A marriage without Jlove is bad enough, and a marriage for wealth or position is low enough; but what shall we say of a marriage where the parties actually abhor each other? Is there any morality in this? any virtue in this? Is there. virtue in retaining the name of wife, or husband without the real and true- relation? Will any good man say, will any good woman de- clare, thata true, loving woman should be compelled to be the mother of chil- dren whose father she hates ? Is there a good woman in the world who would not shrink from this herseif; and is there a woman so heartless and so immoral that she would force another to bear th t trom which she would shudderingly and shriekingly shrink ? Marriages are made by men and wo- men; not by society; not by the state; not by the church; not by supernatural beings. By this time we should know that noth- ing is noral that does’' not tend to the wall-being of seatient beings; that noth- ing 18 virtuous the resualt »f which is not good. We know now, if we know any- thing, that all the seasons for doing right, and all the reasons against doing wrong, are here in this, world. We should have imagination enough to put ourseives in the place of another. Let a man sup- pose himself a helpless woman beaten by a brutal husband-—would he advocate di- vorces then ? Few people have an adequate idea of the sufferings of women and children, of the number of wives who tremble when they hear the footsteps of a returning husband, of the number of children who hide when they hear the voice of a fath- er. Few reople know the number of blows that fall on the flesh of the help- less everyday, and few know the nigh-s of rerror passed by mothers who hold babes to their breasts. Compared with these. all the hardships of peverty borne by thuse who lovg each other are as noth- ing. Men and women truly married bear the sufferings and mistortunes of pPOV- erty together. They console each other. In the darkest night they see the radi- ance of a star, and their affection gives to the heait of each perpetual sunshine'”. (To be continued.) TELEGRAMS ST. CROIX STA iION» Spa, July 12th. -The Allies served in ultimatum upon the German delegation to the conference here late this afternoon, that the Germans must agree by three o’clock tomorrow afterncon to deliver the Allies 2,000,000 tons of coal monthly, Otherwise, the Germans werc informed, the Allies will take measures to enforee the terms of the Versailles Treaty. The German and Allied conference was brough* to a temporary halt this after- noon by the coal question. The Allied Premiers meeting, which convened at 10.30 o’clock to discuss the German reparations proposition and the question of priority in coal deliveries from Ger- many, was unable to finish its work in time for the general conference to meet at 11.30, the hour previously fixed. Chancellor Fehrenbach and his colleagues who had arrived with a numerous staff, were informed in the anti-room by the members "of the conference that the full meeting had been postponed until the afternoon. The Allied ministers are apparentiyv not very favcurably impress- ed by German reparations plan. The pre- vailing view, the correspondent was in- formed, was that the plan was somewhat indefinite on the essential financial points It is understood that the German dele- gates have in reserve another plan of amendment of much greater importance than the plan submitted yvesterday, was present at today’s meeting of the Pre nmiers. Spa, July 13th.—The Russian Soviei Govt. had not replied up to this after noon to the request of the Allies. that an armistice be arranged with Poland. The message was sent by wireless o the Soviet authorities ‘through the British Govt, because of the relations already existing between Mr. Lloyd George and M. Krassin, the Roisheviki Minister of Trade and Commerce. The Polish Premier is due to arrive in War saw today from Spa bearing the assur ances of the Allies that ample arns and munitions will be supplied Poland in case the Russians do not agree to an armistice or unduly delay their reply London, July, 12th —A wide-spread strike of gas workers for higher wages is causing great domestic hardships and industrial loss. In Manchester, where the troubie began, and other Lancashire towns, there has been no e¢as for sev- eral days.