Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Wednesday 27 June 1923, page 11


WIFE-BEATING.

AN OFFENCE IN FRANCE.

LONDON, June 25.

A Paris message states that after the longest legal dispute on record in France, the Supreme Court has decided that a Frenchman

may not beat his wife.

The case commenced on May 2, 1872, when a Parisian woman asked the Court to send her husband to gaol for thrashing her.

Hitherto, a Frenchman charged with beat-ing his wife has always been acquitted, but the Supreme Court has now decided that wife beating Is an offence under the penal code.

It is not known whether the litigants are still quarrelling, or have been giving and receiving chastisement throughout the 51 years that have elapsed since the case was launched.