Evening star., 1944-01-13
Cromwell Charges
Wife Deserted Him
For British N. P.
BY the Associated Press,


BY the Associated Press.
ELIZABETH, N. j., Jan. l3.-
There are 80 rooms in Doris Duke
Cromwell's mansion near Somer-
vile, but James H. r. Cromwell's
counsel told Chancery Court yester-
day that Mr.. Cromwells bedroom
was. occupied by his successor in
his wife's affection"
John E. Toolan, Mr.. Cromwell's
attorney, identified the occupant as
"a truant member of the British
Parliament who found Duke Farms
(the estate near Somerville) as we'll
as Mrs. Cromwell's home in Homo
lulu more relaxing than London,
then undergoing the fury of Teu-
tonic bombing"
This was in 1910, Mr.. Toolan told
Advisory Master Dougal Herr. That
is the year Mr.. Cromwell, seeking
limited divorce which would not per-
NIT either principal to remarry, all
leges the tobacco heiress, often called
"the richest girl in the world" de-
serted him.
Valet Reported Kept Waiting.
Her conduct had been repre-
hensible" before that, Toolan said,
but "the acme of refined cruelty was
reached" when the valet was kept
waiting until noon before he could
get his masters clothes. Mrs. Crom-
well had notified her husband to re-
move them or she would do so, the
lawyer related.
Mr.. Toolan appeared with Meyer
E. Ruback, another lawyer, to ask
that Chancery Court declare null
and void Reno divorce obtained by
Mrs. Cromwell, enjoin her from
claiming such a decree or seeking
any advantage under it, and urged
the Reno court to annul its decree
on the ground that Mrs. Cromwell
was a resident of New Jersey, not
Nevada.
Chancery earlier had enjoined
Mrs. Cromwell from proceeding with
her case, but she obtained a decree
on the grounds of extreme cruelty
and noncohabitation. Mr.. Ruback
told Mr.. Herr there was precedent
with Supreme Court backing for
his motions.
Humiliation Charged.
Mr.. Toolan also said Mrs. Crom-
we'll had "humiliated" her husband
greatly by rejection of her duties as
wife Of the American Minister to
Canada, post Mr.. Cromwell held
until he became Democratic candi-
date for the United States Senate
in 1910. Then she probably cost him
thousands of votes in the campaign,
he added.
Reached at Santa Barbara, Calf,
Mrs. Cromwell refused to comment.
Mr.. Toolan said the story of "her
carryings-on in Ottawa will have to
be told at the divorce hearing in
this cause, painful and shocking as
that story will be-"
Among incidents hindering the
campaign, Mr.. Toolan said, were
Mrs. CromweIl's refusal to let her
husband use Duke farms, as earlier
agreed; her refusal to see him when
a child was born in Honolulu while
he was campaigning: "the British
Casanova" and her return to Homo
lulu after visit here two days be-
fore the election.
She not only publicly forfeited a
chance to vote for her husband, Mr.
Too1an said, but also for President
Roosevelt. Four years earlier she
had given s50,000 to the Roosevelt
campaign.
Mr.. Cromwell, incidentally, con-
Quoted his campaign from the Spring
Lake summer home of his mother.
the widow of E. T. Stotesbury.
wealthy Philadelphia banker.
Mr.. Toolan termed a Reno charge
that Mr.. Cromwell had sought ST.
900, 900 from his wife as "a wicked
and objectionable falsehood." She
and her financial adviser had sug-
gested a 100000 foundation, he
said, but Mr. Cromwell was to be
only one of five trustees, with no
chance to touch the principal.
MIR. Herr allowed 80 days for Mrs.
Cromwell to answer the motions.
Thus far she has ignored the New
Jersey divorce case, even as Mr..
Cromwell ignored the Reno suit.
They were married in 1885. Mr..
Cromwell is now Al and Mrs. Crom-
well 30.