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Show I oo Record Number of Divorces in Wales And in England LONDON, Nov. 7. (By the A8S0 ciated Press ) England and Wales have furnished a record number o; rases for the new term of the divorce court in October. It Is expected that there will be about 2,000 cases, or more than double the total for any previous list About half there will be brought bv people of small means, who have taken advantage of the facilities offered by the official bureau which has been established since the war began be-gan to assist the pocr people in obtaining ob-taining relief in the divorce court without going to the heavy expense which tho ordinary' procedure In ol v ps. There has been a steady Increase In the number of divorce cases in this country since the beginning of the ( war and- the problem has been receiving re-ceiving much public attention. Two parties have grown up, onc favoring moro liberal divorce laws, and the other oth-er decrying the growing number of separation of this kino1 An to the I cause of the increase there h; a divergence di-vergence ot opinion. Official records show that a large number of soldiers on returning from the war have instituted suits against their wives on tho ground of infidelity. Tho claim frequently has been made that the war has resulted in a decided! lowering ol moral standards. This is denied emphatically by D. l-'igur, of La firm of solicitors, who have more than a hundred divorce cases coming up in the next term, and who are handling about one thousand in va-i va-i iou:; stages. "The increase in the number of divorces di-vorces is certainly due to the war.' ,snid Mr. Flgur to a representative ot 'the Associated Press, "but u Is abso lutely wrong to say that there has been a great slump in English morals. I'ndoubtc-dly there hae been many cases of infidelity due to separations incident to the war, but this Is not thel main factor in the increase "The reason we are getting more divorces Is simply because the war has taught both men and women independ ! ence, and has taught them to think Women have learned that they have an indivldualit and that they can look atter themaehes. The men, too, have 'come to take a broader iew of life. I "The fact is that there, would have (been just as man.i divorces before the) war ir people had not been shackled by l.-ck of initiative and by fear of challenging conventions of societj.l The desires for divorce was there but M-Instead M-Instead Ot taking action people went on in the old. unhappy stale Now, I ..tii-i- n. .-. t. i,i s.-.irs .( -ci.ar.it.on. 1. nr.iny couples ha e conn- to a rcaliza- 1 y- timi that th r.,n be happier apail- jv,, That is the situation in a nutshell. K' |