minutiae of customary ceremonies and the like, insofar as they were concerned with marriages in the future. Hu, on the other hand, accepted the policy espoused by the Report of treating registration as an adjunct - albeit an essential adjunct - of an otherwise cus- tomary ceremony which would receive legislative sanction of some kind; however, he thought that a registrar of marriages should be present at such a ceremony, thus avoiding the problem of post- registration.
21. As to the third paragraph of the Preamble, the Sub- Committee agrees with the authors of the Report. However, they would go further, urging that legislation should declare, for the removal of all doubt, that the children of concubinary relationships existing before the Appointed Date are in every sense legitimate in the contemplation of the law of Hong Kong. Further, the Sub-Committee, believing strongly that there is no compelling reason of law or logic for linking the questions of marriage and legitimacy in the determination of status, would urge that even when the status of concubine is abolished, this abolition should not extend to the legitimate status of the issue of persons who would formerly have been concubines. Such children should continue to be regarded as legitimate children. On the one hand the principle of severing marriage and legitimacy for the purpose of determining status is well enough known in private international law, where a presumption in favour of legitimacy often operates, so that no particular difficulty need be anticipated on that score. On the other hand, the introduction of a strict rule of legitimacy (a term of different significance in Chinese law) in place of the former liberal rule of Chinese law would be both retrogressive per se and also opposed to the trend discernible in most European countries, where the consequences of illegitimacy, if not the status itself, are fast dis- appearing. (See, for example, current legislation in both the United Kingdom and West Germany which would enable illegitimate children to inherit as children upon intestacy. It is believed that similar legislation is contemplated in Hong Kong, but this would not cure the mischief which would result from the introduction of the notion of the illegitimacy of the children of concubines; at present, such children do have rights of inheritance upon intestacy,
10