place in America is customarily registered with the consul for
transmission to the home town in Italy."

In some countries of Latin America great confusion may be caused by the
fact that a marriage performed in church is not legal in the eyes of the
state unless a second ceremony is gone through before the civil
authorities. A Guatemalan woman, deserted in this country, had no
recourse in law because she had had only the church ceremony in her
country. Her claim to the status of common law wife was invalidated by
the man's producing proof that he was already married at the time the
religious ceremony was performed.

Having established the fact that a legal marriage has taken place, the
case worker must keep in mind the possibility that it may have been
later dissolved. It is not at all uncommon to find that a deserter who
has gone off with another woman has started proceedings to get a divorce
by "publication." This can happen when the two have gone to a state
where such unfair divorce procedure is permitted. Publication in these
cases takes place in local newspapers which there is little or no chance
of the wife seeing; and she may later find herself a divorced woman with
no legal claim for support for herself or children, and suffering under
charges of misconduct without having had a chance of being heard. The
National Desertion Bureau found this proceeding so common an abuse that
it established a clearing bureau in its central office, and its local
representatives in different parts of the country notify this bureau as
soon as any action for divorce is started by a man with a Jewish name
against a wife whose "address is unknown."[23]

What are some of the other points at which the investigation of cases of
desertion may differ from the technique generally accepted? The