The Merthyr Express

"Merthyr Express" Diary. All fixtures advertised in the "Express" will he included in the diary free of charge. i Saturday, MARCH 5. | Pavilion Rink, Blackwood—Hockey Match. Sunday, MARCH 6. Hope Church, Merthyr.—Special address. Special Address, Christians' Meeting House, Tredegar; also March 13. Monday, MARCH 7. Theatre Royal, Merthyr.—"Can a Woman be Good?" Palace, Ebbw Vale.—"Mother." Central Skating Rink, Wellington-street—Daily. ikatng Rink, Angel Buildings, Merthyr. Special Meetings at Siloh Baptist Chapel, Tre- degar. Tuesday, MARCH 8. Free Lecture, Christians' Meeting House, Tre- j' degar; also March 15. Thursday, MARCH 10. Concert at Bethania Chapel, Dowlais. Drill Hall, Merthyr.-S th Battalion (Welsh Regiment) Band Concert. Good Friday, MARCH 25. Cantata, Market-squaw Church. Merthyr. Easter Monday, MARCH 28. Llangadock Races. Eisteddfod at Abergavenny. 'Eisteddfod at Abergavenny. Eisteddfod, Mountain Ash Cottage Hospital. Easter Tuesday, MARCH 29. Eisteddfod at Bargoed. Wednesday, MARCH 30. Eisteddfod at Bethania, Dowlais. Monday, APRIL 4. Eisteddfod, St. John's Hall, Troedyrhiw. Tuesday, APRIL 19. I.L.P. Lecture at Workmen's Hall ,Abercynon. Monday, MAY 9. Bargoed May Day Show Whit-Tuesday, MAY 1?. Eisteddfod, Cwmaman, Aberdare. Thursday, MAY 26. Athletic Grounds, Treharris.—May Day Show. Tuesday, AUGUST 2. Eisteddfod at Abertysswg. Eisteddfod at Maesteg.

Notice to Subscribers. Three editions of the "Merthyr Express" are printed every week one for 'the Aberdare VaJ ley from lHrwain to A bercynon; one for the Bor- ough of Merthyr Tydfil and East Glamorgan; and one for West. Monmbuth, inclusive of the Rhymney Valley. Subscribers in one district desirous of obtaining the edition in another district can be supplied with it through their regular agents by tending 4"(it card to the publisher, Glebeland- street, Merthyr, intimating their wishes and nam• ing the agent. :—:

WEATHERING THE STORM. THE Government have weathered the storm and emerged triumphantly from a tempest that threatened engulphment The hurly-burly has done them good. It has convinced them of the earnestness of their own followers in support of the cardinal policy which was before the electors in January, and of the prudence of conforming to the wishes of all three sections constituting the majority, even in the matter of procedure. On Monday afternoon, which was predicted with much unction as the fateful day for the Ministry, Mr Asquith, in a king for the whole time of the House up to the 24th of March, explained the intentions of the Govern- ment with regard to the House of Lords, in terms which gave satisfaction to Liberals, Labour, and Nationalists and,Mr. Lloyd George subsequently not only confirmed the Prime Minister's statement, but clenched it by em- phatic declarations on behalf of the whole government, which made the situation perfectly clear and satisfactory. The Government will proceed by resolutions "few and simple," said Mr. Asqutb, the purport and effect of which would be the absolute exclusion of the House of Lords from; all financial matters, the limitation of the veto in order to secure the. predominance of the will of the House of Commons upon any measure in the lifetime of a single Parliament, and the subsequent reform of the House of Lords upon an elective, demo- cratic basis. The time of the House up to Easter will be entirely appropriated to votes of supply and the sanctioning of necessary expenditure upon the services, the money to be raised by temporary, loans. Immediatey after Easter the veto resolutions will be introduced, and,after passing the Commons sent gjj),Jo the House of Lords, in order to give that H^use the. erlist I Nit opportunity of pronouncHf^ an opinion upon them. And then will come the real crisis. The guarantees, so much debated and misunderstood, will be sought, and, failing them, resignation and dissolution. The Budget is. to he hung i up" to await the fat of the resolutions, and there is no njore ceitainty of its passage than of the' acceptance of the lesolutions by the J t THE course of events is tolerably clear and we know where we stand. The Government will have smooth sailing for the purpose of providing for the needs of the State by temporary measures. Then the power of the purse will be employed to drive forward the veto legislation. The year 1909-10 will expire without the Budget becoming law and a new year will be entered upon for which no Budget is in process of preparation. Millions of taxes will still be unpaid because they I have no legal sanction, and the country will go on paying interest on borrowed money. These loan operations are having a serious effect upon business in the city, and the Unionist organs which ^clamoured for the rejection of the Budget, and belittled the financial confusion which would, result from that CO nrp, now almoajt swearing at the Government for not ta^ng tfyp Budget befote ^very^fiinlg eSfe 'aid "rescuing the country from an unprecedented and rapidly- growing intolerable mess. With the most consummate impudence they blame the Govern- ment for it all, conveniently ignoring the fac' that it is entirely due to the House of Lords. There would have been no financial chaos if the Lords had not violated constitutional usage and usurped the functions of the Commons. The Unionists would rejoice in the downfall of the Government if they would only have the goodness to defer the crash until they had just cleared up the mess. Mr. Balfour and Mr. Chamberlain have even offered their assistance to enable this to be done. We are glad that it has been declined, the Government preferring to do things in their own way with the support of their own friends, and let the consequences accumulate and intensify for the benefit of those who damned them, and as an object lesson to the country which it will never want to be repeated. The fate of the Budget is extremely uncertain. The Government have given their word that it shall not leave the control of the Commons until the veto resolu- tions have been disposed of. If those resolutions are rejected by the Lords—as they are certain to be—and the King prefers another dissolution to the creation of peers the situation will be without parallel in our history. No Government j —Liberal or Tory—charged with the duty of unravelling the tangle can be envied. The Budget will, indeed, be dead. The whisky tax, the tea duty, the income tax, will have no legal sanction, and a General Election will cause another six weeks' delay before a new Parlia- ment will be regularly constituted for putting things straight. Then there may have to be an entirely new Budget framed for the year past, concurrently with another for the new year entered upon. Much of the money already paid in anticipation of the Budget becoming law will have been unlawfully collected and how is the taxpayer to be righted ? There will have to be some sort of legal sanction given to what has been done, because it cannot be undone but, on the other hand, it will be impossible to recover the immense amount of money lost to the nation by the failure of the new taxes, which were relied upon for their proportion of the national needs. A nice kettle of fish. We shall reach this point about the same time that Halley's famous comet attains its nearest proximity to the earth and sun, and once more the arrival of this mysterious visitor from the depths of space will sychronise with an epoch- making event in British history.

THE CRISIS IN THE COAL TRADE. WE have got rid of a political crisis for the moment, but one of even more serious import to South Wales confronts ns through the break- down of the negotiations for new terms between the coal-owners and their workmen. Both parties,after prolonged discussions in conference, on Saturday found further progress impossible with an inflexible attitude upon the vital points mutually put forward as indispensible. The arrangement at the outset -of the negotiations was that they were to be comp'eted by the 28th February, but there is no reason why they may not be resumed with, we hope, a greater measure of success duiinT the present month. The employers who intimated; to the workmen's side, on Friday last, that unless they could submit modified proposals it was useless to prolong the discussion, have nevertheless expressed their willingness to meet them again if they are able to offer fre h suggestions. There is a gleam of hope in this keeping the door ajar, and the workmen s representatives have ar- ranged to hold a conference of the larger miners, organisaion for the purpose of considering the late t aspect of the situation. Upon the question of minimum it is understood that the Federation of Great Britain will decide for South Wa'es as well as for other districts of the! country, but leave all other question •• to the judgment of the district as pùiylocal ma ters. That gives the Welsh leaders a latitude of 1 action which they may be trusted as, men ofl know edge and experience in the trade to exerc se wisely. The same thing may; be said of the employers. We believe that neither employers nor workmen desire a breach of their industrial relations and activty, and if the misfortune should come to pass it will be entirely due to the fact that both sides are honestly convinced of the vital nature of their own propositions to their permanent interests. We Earnestly hope that a way out of the difficulty will yet be discovered that both parties can accept, and that the incalculable disasters of a stoppage will be avoided.

GOSSIP. At the time of writing the outlook in Wales coalfield is very gloomy. The Conciliation Board met at Cardiff on Saturday, and after a six hours' sitting the members separated without having come to a settlement on the points in dispute. As both sides were dete'mined a deadlock was reached. The owners, at the close, handed to the men a memorandum indicating that nothing could be gained by prolonging the negotiations. The men's side, recognising this, accepted the position, and intimated that they might, after a lapse of a few days, ask the owners to meet them again. This elicited from the owners an expression of readiness to resume negotiations immediately the workmen's representatives had any pro- posal to submit to them. Then the party separated. Later in the day the Executive Council of the Miners' Federation met and took steps to secure the holding of a national conference of miners, convened by the Federa- tion of Great Britain, to consider the whole situation. Some of the miners' leaders profess to be optimistic. It will be nothing short of a calamity if all the Associated Collieries are closed, and it is to be hoped some means of avoiding that will be found. The administrators of the Carnegie Hero Fund have awarded to the widows and children of five brave coiiicry workmen who lost their lives in the Deri mine disaster, on October 29th la t. <- During the hearing of an appeal by the New Tredegar Gas and Water Company, at the meeting of the Merthyr Assessment Committee, on Saturday, it was stated that so far as the gas works were concerned, about a third of fife quantity of gas made was lost through sub- sidence of the mains in con sequence of the land slide in the Rhvmney Valley. A week or two ago I stated that some change was contemplated in connection with the Wes- leyan Churches in the Merthyr district. Two or three years ago Shiloh Ch was detached from the Welsh circuit and converted into a mission church, and the evening services are now conducted in English. Recently a re- arrangement of the English and Welsh circuits was suggested by a Conference committee, but the members of Shiloh Church could not agree to the conditions and that idea has been aban- doned. It is now proposed to convert the English circuit, which includes churches at Merthyr. Dowlais. Cefn, and Troedyrhiw, into a mission centre. 'this proposal is subject to tj ft approve! of the lo a! so icties, and it is said are 1iLc:" to arr epl'' v-'pgestion. If they do the Cher es ,j}] le ciic financi 1 assistance from the Mission Committee. It is [sugfcestfjj Jjiat the new arrangement should, take effect at the beginning of the next con- nexional year, that is, in September. Mission Churches have been very successful in other industrial centres the services appeal more to the masses than do the ordinary services. Whether that will be the case in Merthyr remains to be seen. The experiment, if made, will certainly be watched with interest. The most rainy February of recent years finished its career on Monday by sending rain in greater or lesser quantity in all parts of the kingdom.. » » Sir D. Brynmor Jones, K.C., the new Recorder for Merthyr, was, on Monday, re-elected un- opposed as M.P. for the Swansea District. Questioned after his return, with regard to Welsh Disestablishment, Sir David said that matter appeared to him to be out of the question jthf$S«issi&a. his view* the immediate step which ^thg'cj^h members shovJd^take was^to "stmitwl, "toireroer "wTiat" wouT^d be its logical consequence—a Council of Education for Wales framed on the lines of the scheme of 1905, or of the Education Bill of 19(¡6. Mr. Edgar Jones has made his debut in Parliament. Last week-end he notice of a question relating to lady inspectors of factories and workshops in Wales. The text of the question and the reply of the Home Secretary (Mr. Winston Churchill) will be found in another column., The cost of education, especially in districts like Mertbyr, where new schools are required, is becoming a very serious burden. Much more is spent on schools now than in former years, and it has often been urged that the expenditure should be curtailed. It is now reported that the President of the Board of Education (Mr. Walter Runciman) has appointed a Departmen- tal Committee to inquire into and report whether the cost of buildings for public elementary schools can properly, and with due regard to their suitability and durability, be reduced by the use of materials or methods ol construction different from the ordinarily employed at present, and, if 80, what steps should be taken to facilitate the adoption of such materials or methods, and whether any alteration in law is required for the purpose. Mr. Runciman has been greatly impressed with the gerat cost of erecting school buildings in accordance^with modern standards Eleswhere will be found the text of a manifesto issued by the Association of Poor Law Unoins in England and Wales on the Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws. This report deserves the earnest consideration of all persons interested in Poor Law Reform, as showing some features in the existing system which, if altered, would result in grave hard- ships to particular local government areas. During the recent General Election the Free I Trade Union did splendid work throughout the country, and as a result the funds have been greatly reduced. For the present the Tariff Reformers are beaten, but the struggle is certain to be renewed ere long, and active preparations are now being made by the Free Trade Union for another ngfit. A great cam- paign is being planned in order to win back the agricultural South to its Free Trade allegiance. It is proposed to organise a staff of Free Trade canvassers in every county, men and women who know their case, and who know the people, and who, in the cottages, in the fields, and in the lanes, can explain the great economic truths of Free Trade to the labourer and his wife. To re-capture the villages, and to defeat Tariff Reform a third time, it is necessary that Free Traders of all classes should assist the union to the utmost within their power, even to the point of sacrifice. An appeal for funds is now being made by the Earl of Beauchamp, president, and Mr. Alfred Mond, treasurer of the free Trade I Union. « I (The Tredegar, Rhymney. Xantyelo, and Ebbw Vale districts of the Manchester Unity of Odd- fellows have been combined under the new title of the Gwent district. The new district em- braces 25 lodges, having a capital of £35,500 and a membership of 2.400. The Rev. John Archibald Williams, curate- in-charge of Maesycwmmer Church, has been offered and has accepted the living of Main- ham, Nottinghamshire, in the diocese of South- well, vacant by the voluntary retirement of the Rev. E. Cunnnigham. Mainham is about 13 miles from the nearest market town—Newark— and althought the population is small it has a fine church, which was held by the retiring vicar for 37 years. The vicarage is acharmipg abode and is surrounded by about two acres of gardens and lawn. The presentation right was in the hands of two sisters-the Misses Cust. The Rev. J. Archibald Williams, L.I.H., of Durham University, is the son of the late Rev. J. S. Williams, who was for many years curate of Cefn, and later on vicar of Llanfynydd, Car- marthenshire, and grandson of the late Rev. Rees Williams, Rector of He was ordained deacon in 1892 and priest in 1893. As curate-in-charge of Maesycwmmer since 1892, Mr. Williams had at first much to contend against and much up-hill work to accomplish, but during the eighteen years of his ministry he has gained the esteem of ali, and the Chirrch under his charge has made such progress that a site has be secured oa which a new and larger one is to be shortly ejected. There is a flourishing Lads' Brigade and Sunday School in connection with the Churcb, and a Dorcas Guild. Mr. Williams expccts to settle at Main- ham in June, and all who know how devotedly he has laboured at Maesycwmmer will be pre- pared to acknowledge that this preferment— to, possibly, a lighter field of labour—has been well deserved. In his wife, Mr. Williams has as most estimable helper, who will no doubt win the hearts of Mr. Williams' parishioners as she has won the hearts of those at Maesy- cwmmer. The Tyranny, of the (writes a correspondent in an Anglican paper) is a fiction the tyranny of the choir is what congregations suffer from. When will organists learn that the only way to get a congregation to sing heartily is to play loud ? Wliat, and drown the choir ?" they would say. Yes, that is the best use the organ can be put to. If you want to get a hearty congregational service, the choir should merely lead and act as backbone to the congregation's singing, • congregation's singing, The question of forming a Joint Water Board for the Rhymney Valley is engaging the atten- tion of the local authorities. One or two con- fcrences have been held, but the Councils do not appear to be unanimous. One of the speakers at the last meeting of representatives of the District Councils suggested that Merthyr and Tredegar should be asked to take part in the deliberations, f Sir Alfred Thomas, M.P., the customary sessional dinner to the mf-mbers of the Welsh Party and a few private friends, at the Devon- shire Club, last Friday evening. Owing to various circumstances, principally engagements in the country, many of me Welsh members were unable to be present. Among the guests were Mr. Lloyd George, Lord Aberdare, Sir D. Brynmor Jones, K.C., Mr. Edgar Jones and Mr. D. A. Thomas. The proceedings, as is always the case on these occasions, were private, and j were practically limited to one or two compli- mentary speeches and to listening to a choice programme of Welsh music. The guests present appeared to attach special significance to the following quotation which was printed on the menu cards :— Na boed neb yfory'n fradwr Rhag i'w blant fendithio'r dydd Gwell na byw yn ddynion arwerth Fyddai svrthio'n ddynion rhydd. F Mr. D. Rowland Thomas is making a splendid fight in the Hammersmith Division for a seat on the London County Council. Mr. Thomas is running in conjunction with Alderman Ben Cooper, and, of course, they are standing as progressive candidates. Hammersmith has al- ways been Tory,both municipally and politically, and Mr. Thomas and Mr. Cooper have a big task before them, especially as their opponents ar men wealth •AifjWocal in- fliifence. Readers will hardly need to be told that Mr. Thomas is a Merthyr boýi:3 îfé was bom here in 1881, and went to London about ten years ago, and was recently called to the bar. He has always t&keD the keenest interest in the political and municipal life of the Metro. polis, and for a number of years he has been closely identified with the various progressive organisations in London. He was specially privileged during the years 1905-7 to gain an intimate knowledge of municipal work as he acted in the capacity of private secretary to the Chairman of the London County Council; first to Sir Edwin Cornwall, M.P., and later to Mr. Evan Spicer. During this period Mr Rowland Thomas won. high praise from aii those with whore he came into contact for the zeal and abilitj with which he discharged his duties. He is t jaember of the National Libera! Club and the Eighty Club.; he is a delegate to the London Liberal Federation and in addition he is Honor- ary Secretary of the London Welsh Liberal Association. A good story is told of a school boy who, out walking with his grandfather, gravely ond that the wind was blowing from the south;1 How do you know ?" asked the elder. See that smoke." said the child it is going straight up. Now the top is the north and the bottom is the south, therefore the wind is blowing from tlu" south." The policy of the Lii.eral Government on the Chinese labour question in South Africa has been abundantly justified by the results. The Chinese are now all expatriated. While the jirocess has been going on native labour supplies have been plentiful beyond all expec- tation, and between 4,000 and 5,000 additional white men have found permanent employment at the pold mines. The output of gold ha* increased year by year at a very rapid rate, and the last year's output was over 25 per cent. in excess of the quantity produced in tie last yeai before the war. Resources on the spot have been found fully equal to all the requirement* of the-industry, and those who opposed- tH. Chitwise experiment as utinecessaSy are justified by the The Liberal policy in granting free represen- tative government to a commonwealth of the United South African Colonies will also prove to be the wisest statesmanship. In the grant of this constitution the King and his Ministers alone had the executive power, and the wisdom of the peers was not consulted. The late Home Secretary, Mr. Herbert Gladstone, has been raised to the peerage with the rank of viscount, and will, it is understood, retain the family name as his title. He will proceed immediately to South Africa to take over the office of High Commissioner and Commander-in-chief, and at the end of the summer the Prince of Wales will go out to inaugurate the FederahPadiamen1 as he did at the inauguration of the Common- wealth Parliament of Australia. # The Hon. Ivor Churchill Guest, eldest son of Lord-Wimborne, has been raised to the peerage witfc the rank of baron. It was thought that his father would have been raised from the baronage to an earldom, in which case there would have been an honorary second title ta be borne by his son, but an independent peerage has been conferred. The Erst contested bye-election came off 011- Tuesday in the small constituency of St. in-the-East, London, where the member who retired on being appointed to a paid office m the Government, Mr. Wedgewood Benn, was re-elected with an increased majority. In January he polled 1,568 votes against 1,134 given to his opponent. This time he received 1,598 votes whilst the Conservative obtained only 1,089-t11e majority being increased from 434 to 509. There is a large Irish vote in.th8 constituency, and last Friday the Executive ot the National League of Great Britain officially intimated to Irish electors that they were not required to vote for the Liberal—though a tried friend of Home Rule—because of the uncertain attitude of the Government on the veto question. The local branch of the League, however, paid small attention to this notice, and after the. speeches of the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the House on Monday afternoon, all doubt was removed and the Irish vote went solid for Mr. Benn. A number of Conservatives were displeased with their for forcing a contest so soon after the General Ele- tion. Col. Seeley will not Le returned unopposed for the Ilkeston Division of Derbyshire, but a walk-over was allowed to Mr. J. W. Pease, in the Rotberham division. Both these gentlemen had made speeches on the reform phase of the House of Lords question, which threatened to bring out opposition, but- the feeling quieted down. Mr. Soares has had a walk-over in tht Barnstaple Division, and Mr. Percy lllingwortb the same for Shipley. One of the funniest consequences of the Lords* rejection of the Budget is the fact that the banks and limited companies have deducted the last half-year's income tax from the dividends payable to their shareholders, and, instead ot paying it over to the Government, are holding it in hand and actually lending it to them on short loans. Thus the country is paying 2t per cent interest, on a big sum of its own money, and the bankers uad financial houses are making the profit. « In the House of Commons, on Tuesday, in reply to a question by Mr. Keir Hardie-as to whether the 60 hours clause in the Eight Hour* Mines Act was intended to apply only to houSe- coal districts and not generally, the Home Secretary said he was not aware that there was any intention on the part of the Government or of the House that the operation of the; pro- vision should be limited to the special class of house-coal mines, though those mines may have been specifically mentioned to illustrate the need of the provision to .meet difficulties in times of pressure; but it was not so limited in the statute, and he could make no promise 88 to legislation on the subject. fhe following Lloyd George story is new to me, but I think it ,s orth repeating :—An English- man and a Welshman were standing on Criccieth platform, and the latter opened a conversation by volunteering the information that Lloyd George was arriving by the next train. The Englishman took no notice and the Welshman; repeated his remark Mr. Lloyd George, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, is coming in by this train" and got the answer, Oh, d-n Lloyd George, he isn't the Lord Almighty, to which the Welshman rejoined, "No, of course not, but he's a very young man yet.—! # # In the House of Commons, on Wednesday; Mr. Keir Hardie asked whether the Government intended to create a separate administrative; department for Wales, with a Secretary of State responsible to Parliament, on the lines which had proved so successful with Scotland. In reply i Mr. Asquith said: I am aware that there is a strong feeling among men of all parties in Walet in support of the hon. member's suggestion.' It is obviously one that could cot be given effect to without legislation, which for reasons already given the Government are not in a position this year, at any rate, to propose. We have a sympathetic mind towards the suggestion. St. David's Day was celebrated throughout the district in whole-hearted fashion. Numerous social functions were held and due homage was paid to Dewi Sant. In Merthyr the national emblem was more in evidence than in former years. All the schools were closed in the afternoon, and a meeting was held under the auspices of the Cymreigyddion Society, in Zoar Chapel, which was crowded, hundreds failing to gain admittance. Welsh airs were heartily and a number of children, dressed in Welsh costumes, sang pennillion in the North Wales style. The Mayor of Merthyr (Councillor F. T.. ames), who was accompanied by the Mayoress, presided. The Welsh Church Commission will meet again on the 8th inst., to consider their long-delayed report. « v At the meeting of the Finance Committee of the Glamorgan County Council, on Tuesday, a letter was read from the Town Clerk of Merthyr regard to the financial adjust- ment between MerthjT and the county, asking for a conference between accountants to arrive' at points of agreement. The committee decided to wait until the financial relations between the county and Cardiff and Swansea' had been de ided, and to ask Merthyr to sug- < crest names for selection of an arbitrator. A letter was also read from Sir Marchant Williams recommending that Mr. Tom Elias, who succeed- ed the late Colonel D. Rees Lewis as Justices" Clerk, should be paid the salary as from the dute of Col. Lewis's death, instead of from the date of his appointment. The committee unanimously agreed to do as recommended by Sir Marchant Williams. Owing to the Housing and Town Planning Bill having come into operation, and the sections of the Housing of the Working Classes Act, adopted by the Merthyr Corporation, dealing with insanitary houses, having been repealed, the Town Clerk advises that houses which have been *ep*«teer'.ted under the latter Act, but have not yet been closed, require to be represented as untit^for human habitation, under the former Act. Cloaifie orders will, therefore, have to be applied for under the new Act. POLONIUft.

Mr. W W. Benn has been elected for the St. George's-in-ihe-East Parliamentary division by, a majority of 509, an increase on his majority at the General Election Mr A. Mathews, of Swansea, was awarded the second prize in the harness section at the Hackney Society's Show, on Tuesday, at the Royai Agricultural Hall, London. Accused of intermarrying Elizabeth Oeeeb whio his wife, Kate Gurny, was alive, James Rudge, proprietor of the Kind's Arms Hotel, Cookham, was remanded in custody, by the Maidenhead Bench on Saturday. Police evidence wa.s given that Rudge made a statement in which he said that h? married Gurney at Brixton, but after twelve months, as they could not agree, they wen* to » solicitor, who drew up a deed of separation. He added that he thought it was a divorce, and further that he thought Gurney wa» dead.