https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Sir_Arthur_Conan_Doyle_on_DivorceSir Arthur Conan Doyle on Divorce - Revision history2026-06-04T10:02:34ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.44.2https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=Sir_Arthur_Conan_Doyle_on_Divorce&diff=73418&oldid=prevTCDE-Team at 17:44, 6 May 20182018-05-06T17:44:34Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>''Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on Divorce'' is a letter written by [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] first published in the [[Daily Mail]] on 23 january 1912.<br />
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== Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on Divorce ==<br />
[[File:daily-mail-1912-01-23-p4-sir-arthur-conan-doyle-on-divorce.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[Daily Mail]] (23 january 1912, p. 4)]]<br />
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''To the Editor The Daily Mail.''<br />
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Sir, — In answer to Mr. Easter's question in the Daily Mail, I did not advocate the compulsory divorce ofidiots, criminals, etc. The hardship is that they should not have a divorce if the sane or innocent partner desire it. <br />
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Of the hundred thousand of each sex who are now separated by law, and yet forbidden to marry anyone else, the causes of separation are many, but I should think that cruelty and habitual drunkenness predominate. My argument is that the existence of this great number of enforced celibates must have a subversive effect upon public morals, and incidentally a depressing influence upon that dwindling birth-rate which everyone deplores as a national disaster. After a fitting interval the separation should, as I hold, be changed into absolute divorce. <br />
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As to theology being the root of all the mischief, that was clearly borne out at the Commission, where the objections to reform were based largely upon theological considerations. We have had a striking object-lesson from India of late as to the folly of founding a practice upon texts. It is stated that a million widows have been consumed in the rite of suttee because the original direction in the sacred books were misread "fire," when it was actually "altar." It is a terrible and apposite example of the danger of allowing sayings uttered in a foreign tongue, under different conditions, in distant lands and far-off days, to hamper our common sense and to throw a blight upon living men and women. <br />
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Arthur Conan Doyle.<br><br />
(Pres. Divorce Law Reform Union.)<br><br />
Windlesham, Crowborough, Sussex.<br />
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