The Law of Divorce

From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia

The Law of Divorce is a letter written by Arthur Conan Doyle first published in The Times on 10 june 1920.


The Law of Divorce

The Times (10 june 1920)

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.

Sir, — The Bishop of Norwich pleads for yet further delay in bringing the British law of divorce into some sort of accordance with that of all other Protestant countries. Surely the Bishop must be aware that there has been no change in our divorce laws since 1857, and that the report of the Royal Commission advocating change appeared in 1912, after a drastic examination, spread over two years. Has there not been enough dilly-dally already ? These sufferers, whose tragic letters shower down upon our society, are not stocks and stones to which the flux of time makes little difference. They are flesh and blood, who see year by year their chances of any earthly happiness receding away, while their lives are further embittered by the knowledge that their wrongs would have been righted eight years ago had the recommendations of the Committee not been smothered up by that accursed ecclesiasticism which seems to be the very antithesis of the Christian spirit. And now the Bishop pleads for more delay !

Yours faithfully,

ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE (President, Divorce Law Reform Union).
June 7.