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Show CUSTODY OF GIRL IS AWARDED TO FATHER Little Olga Eills, of International Inter-national Fame, Again in Spotlight. CONTROVERSY IS OLD Latest Development in Case Arises in Court at Tokio, Japan. TOKIO. Dec. 16. Lit lie Olga Ellis, th 9-year-old American girl whose "ownership" "owner-ship" has been In doubt since the Massachusetts Massa-chusetts courts In 1912 gave the right of custody to her mothor, has now been legally le-gally restored to her father by a decision deci-sion of the Tokio appeal court. Unless Mrs. Ellis should carry the case to the supreme court, this ends a case which has traveled from Massachusetts to Japan and has attracted international attention. atten-tion. The cane beeran in 1012, when Mr. Ellis, then a Unitarian clergyman in Boston, allowed hlB wife to be committed to a hospital for the insane In Massachusetts on t-ha advice of a number of physicians. Three weeks later Mrs. Kills was released, re-leased, and soon after she brought a suit in the probate court for the custody of her lltUe girl. Flees to. Tokio. i In view of Olffa's1 age at the time 4 years the Massachusetts courts gave the custody of the child to the mother "until further order." but the father, after a year's experience of separation, was so wrought up that he bolted to Japan wt-h hs daughter. Attempts were made to extradite him on a charge of perjury, and he was arrested ar-rested by the Toklo police. The charge of perjury, It was subsequently learned, was sworn to by Mrs. Ellis. After detention de-tention for twenty-four days, , Mr. Ellis ws liberated on receipt of documents from Massachusetts certifying that do criminal proceedings had ever been Instituted In-stituted against him. At the time Mr. Ellis formally called attention to the fact that his wife's attorney. David L. Walsh, late gov-e gov-e r nor of Massachusetts, had been elected lieutenant governor while the case was in progress. The charge of perjury was made In the absence of any clause In the extradition treaty between be-tween Japan and the United States covering cov-ering th taking of a child by her father. fa-ther. Attempts to Kidnap. Mrs. Ellis neat appealed to the Boston Bos-ton press to enlist help, and the result re-sult was that she arrived in Japan early In 1915 under an assumed name. She made an attempt to take Olga away by stealth, but failed. Next she appeared at her father's house In Tokio with her attorney and a bailiff bearing a provisional order from the lower court for the delivery of the child to her on the plea that the father was planning to remove re-move her from Japan. The order was suspended on representations by the father. fa-ther. In April last year she brought a suit against the father in the courts of Tokio for restitution of the girl. The lower court gave a decision in favor of the mother. The father appealed and the higher court has now awarded the child to him. There the case rests, unless it is carried to the supreme court. The judgment was based largely on an opinion prepared by Professor Yamaha Ya-maha of the Imperial university, who held that the family law of Japan applied ap-plied to the case. Inasmuch as American international law adheres to the principle princi-ple of domicile, and "Mrs. Kills and her husband and child have legally domiciled themselves In Japan. Mrs. Eills broke Into tears when the decision was given against her and had to be helped from the court. |