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UNCLASSIFIED
SAVING DESPATCH
HKK 14/4
From the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
To the Governor, HONG KONG
16 April, 1969
No. 154
A
CHINESE MARRIAGES IN HONG KONG
Our Legal Advisers have commented as follows on the proposals set out in the enclosure to your savingram under reference:
"As I understand paragraphs 9, 11 and 13, it is proposed that where the legal system of a country provides for the Chinese modern marriage and persons contract such a marriage in such a country, whether before or after "the appointed date" that marriage shall be capable of being dissolved in Hong Kong by mutual consent provided that both spouses can show that on the date of the divorce there existed a real and substantial connexion between the two parties and Hong Kong.
2.
This proposal is founded on the changes consequent in the law of England on the House of Lords decision in Indyka versus Indyka, changes which in the opinion of the Governor's legal advisers will lessen the risk that such divorces would not be recognised in England,
3. Notwithstanding, however, the above mentioned decision, the basic rule still remains that the English courts continue to recognise decrees of divorce pro- nounced by the courts of a foreign country (including for this purpose those of Scotland, Northern Ireland and of Hong Kong) if, and only if, these are granted by the court of the husband's domicile. This basic rule is subject to (1) any statutory exception made by a United Kingdom Act applying to England; and (2) any other exceptions which may be recognised by English judicial decisions. In Indyka v. Indyka the House of Lords decided that recognition may be extended to divorce decrees of foreign courts granted:
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