Marriage Bureau. By Mary Oliver and Mary Benedecta. (Michael Joseph.
los. 6d.)
Tr-ins book on the success of the Marriage Bureau opened three years ago by two attractive young women makes fascinating reading: whether taken as an omnibus of potted novels or as a documentary (contribution to a social survey of our time) which would save the labours of Mass Observers or official: of the M.o.I contemplating a study of the Marriage Customs of the Middle Classes. At neither' extreme of society are its services needed, for a variety of reasons which could be ex- plored with the aid of data given here, but all coming bad to the question of meeting people. A number of the moo photographed mannequins and "glamour girls" have been among the Bureau's clients because their life brings them into contact with no eligible men: fortunately, they usually want to travel, and so can be easily "mated" to Empire-builders, who ask for nothing better to take back to astonish the Club or the Station. Instances could be multiplied of entertaining and some- times significant facts—the young, for instance, in pre-war London tended to be much more lonely than the middle-aged, and cynics should note that people are very honest and very accurate when asked to describe themselves on the registration forms. The Bureau has only been cheated once: by a "country clergyman of about sixty who has settled down in the rectory with one of our clients as his housekeeper. Periodically we write them as tactful a letter as we can, saying we hope they are happy and will let us know when they are going to be married." There is, of course, a fee payable on matrimony.
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