26 JUNE 1920, Page 3

In the-House- of Lords on. Tuesday, Lord Buckmaster's Divorce. Nil

passed--its third reading by 154 votes to 107. The Lord Chancellor hinted that the Government might give the

facilities--in the•-House of Commons, and that the Attorney- General would take charge of it. We are glad that the Bill- has. passed the Lords. It is -the - right and proper outcome of- the anxious; able, and sincere investigations of the Royal Commission. on Divorce several years ago. In the debate on Wednesday it• - was argued by the opponents of the Bill that the floodgate& would be opened to collusion and that marriage wouldpractically' become terminable at wilL But it seems to us that the .Bill has been expressly framed with -a view- to preventing . this -obvious danger. The right principle upon:—which to base_ divorce reform is that collusion should be made extraordinarily difficult and that the wrongs and injuries for which divorce should be granted should not be capable of being simulated. Surely habitual drunkenness-is not capable of simulation. Surely long desertion against the express will of one of the parties cannot be simulated. Surely incurable insanity is not easily simulated. Surely, again, , a man would not become a convict for a great number of years in order to secure a -divorce.