Digest of stories from The Luton News: Thursday, February 28th, 1918.

At Luton Town Hall on Monday there was a large gathering of ladies to protest against the Matrimonial Causes Bill offering easy divorce. After opening the meeting with prayer, the Chairman (Canon Morgan Smith) said the first thing which impressed him in regard to the Bill was the little it seemed to convey.

It seemed to be so harmless, but he hoped that they would come to see that behind it there was really a great deal. It was really an attempt to undermine the existing laws of marriage in this country. English homes were dependent on the law of Christian marriage, and if they began to tamper with those laws they would undermine the home life. Therefore the Bill practically aimed at the breaking up of the foundation of that English home life.

Speaker Mrs Tyrwhitt Drake said ever since the Divorce Bill of 1857 there had been increasing applications for divorce. In 1910 there was a Bill but forward for the poor to obtain divorce as easily as the rich, and there were now more applications than at any time in the country's history. Mrs Drake attributed this to the unfaithfulness of soldiers' wives.

A resolution emphatically protesting against any legislation which would weaken the life-long bond of marriage and endanger the welfare of the children of the nation was passed unanimously.

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• Luton manufacturers have been much gratified to learn the news of the removal of the embargo on exports to Sweden and Holland. Mr Thomas Keens, Secretary of the Luton Chamber of Commerce, has received an official letter from the War Trade Department that includes a list of goods exempted. The list includes straw and felt hats trimmed and ready for wear, which definition covers the usual Luton exports.

• The Luton Water Company has celebrated its jubilee, for the 100th half-yearly meeting was held on Tuesday in the Town Hall. The one item conspicuous by its absence was any reference to the future possibility of the transfer of the undertaking to Corporation control. but there is not doubt that it was a contingency uppermost in the thoughts of the shareholders present.

• An anonymous letter to Town Clerk Mr William Smith led to the appearance in the Luton Borough Police Court yesterday of Harry Jakins, butcher, of 335 Hitchin Road, Luton, on two charges. The first was for not having the required notice of a purveyor of horseflesh on his shop premises, and the second was for supplying horseflesh for human food to a purchaser who asked to be supplied with meat other than horseflesh on February 21st. The proceedings were taken under the Sale of Horseflesh Regulations Act of 1889.The defendant was fined £15 with £3 7s 6d costs in each case - a total of £36 15s - or two months' imprisonment. The money was paid.

• A meeting was held in the Council Schools at Sundon on Thursday, under the auspices of the Workers' Union, and a large number attended to hear the principles of trade unionism explained. Mr Harry White, of Bedford, dealt chiefly with the position of the agricultural workers, explaining their standpoint under the Corn Production Act, and urged the importance of organisation so that the best results could be obtained for the workers. He pointed out that the organised workers were receiving higher wages and better conditions.

• Luton Nonconformists will learn with gratification that a former Pastor of Park Street Baptist Church, the Rev F. Humphrey, had been mentioned in despatches and awarded the Distinguished Service Order.

• Extensive renovations, both internal and external, have been carried out in the senior and young persons' hall of the Salvation Army (No 1) Temple, Park Street, and a memorial roll of honour and mercy seat has been presented by the soldiers of the corps in memory of comrades promoted to glory, and those on military service.

• Staff Sgt-Major A. Walton (pictured right), Army Service Corps, whose home is at 81 Dane Road, Luton, has been awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre. No particulars are yet to hand other than that the award was for conspicuous service in France and Belgium.

• Pte Arthur Catlin, of 34 Malvern Road, Luton, who died on Thursday week in a Norwich hospital, was in the Agricultural Labour Corps. He contracted a serious illness while working on the land. His body was brought to Luton and interred at the General Cemetery.

• Not yet 19 and an only son, Sec Lieut Alfred Hugh Galbraith (Royal Flying Corps) has been accidentally killed while flying in the East. His parents are Mr Hugh Galbraith, who will be remembered as the old Luton Town footballer, and Mrs Galbraith, of 69 Chapel Street, Luton. On Tuesday morning a brief telegram came from Alexandria, Egypt, giving the bare announcement of Lieut Galbraith's death.

• Pte Samuel Charles Wiseman (Royal Irish Fusiliers) , son of the late Mr and Mrs Wiseman, of Cumberland Street, Luton, has died from pneumonia in the 28th General Hospital in Salonica. He had married a Carlisle lady, and she, with her bereaved children, are now living there.

• News has just been received of the accidental drowning in India of Ralph Beeson, a former apprentice at the Vauxhall Works. The particulars of the accident have not transpired. [Sec Lieut Beeson, 1st King George's Own Sappers and Miners, died on February 15th, 1918, an was buried at Roorkee Cemetery, India.]

• Pte H. G. Preece, of the Beds Regiment, and who before the war was well known in Luton junior football circles, is now an inmate of the 4th London General Hospital, Denmark Hill, after being incapacitated.

• Mr and Mrs Jesse Funge, the son-in-law and daughter of Mr and Mrs A. Kent, of 59 Hazelbury Crescent, Luton, are still unable to get away from Russia. With their little daughter they are now in Ukraine.

• We regret to learn that Mr Edward Barnard, the Borough Registrar, was taken ill at his office on Monday evening. He was taken home and later removed to the Bute Hospital as a precautionary measure. He will be able to return home in a day or two - his illness undoubtedly due to strain consequent upon a large amount of overwork.

• The Borough Food Office at the Town Hall has been transferred from the old rate office to the large committee room. It was a timely change, for every day sees an increase of callers, and the three ladies on the staff are kept very busy issuing forms and advising as to their use. Monday is the most interesting day, for it usually brings itinerants such as music hall and theatrical artistes, who contrive, as a rule, to infuse novelty into their visits.

• Meetings wereheld on Sunday and Monday by the Luton Branch of the Independent Labout Party at Rudd's Rooms, Church Street. On Sunday afternoon a trenchant address on the subject of Socialism was given by Mr Herbert Morrison, secretary of the London Labour Party.

• We hear that Mr William Austin is spending a few days at Torquay, and Mr Barnard, his partner, is deputising for him in his official positions. The other day Mr Austin mentioned to us that he had been working regularly 14 hours a day. His interests are many, and not the least is a valuable local history upon which he is engaged at present.

• Evidently out of its element, an aeroplane being conveyed on a motor lorry down Beech Hill on Tuesday morning, smashed one of the small windows of a passing tram, a projecting wing doing the damage.