or condoning polygamy or impugning the legally absolute character of the monogamous marital bond. Thus after the enactment of the Chinese Civil Code in 1930, despite the introduction of mono- gamy as the sole legal basis of marriage, protection was afforded to concubines who had already acquired the status of members of the household of a head of a family before the Code came into effect. Under the law of the People's Republic, which specifically abolished concubinage as an inferior status, even more generous terms were given to former concubines, for they acquired the full status of wives. The fact of concubinage is recognized by French law for purposes of succession, dependant concubines being entitled to some maintenance out of the estate.
53. Accordingly, should public opinion so require, a compromise could certainly be reached which would still permit the establish- ment of a fully monogamous system of marriage in the Colony (a major policy objective, quite clearly) but which would obviate undue harshness in the application of a rule that might not be fully understood, particularly by the women most concerned, for some time.
54. A further point which the Sub-Committee feels should not be ignored by the legislator is the status of kim-tiu marriages (though it should be added that these do not in any way appertain to the status of concubinage). In Chinese traditional law these marriages did not really constitute polygamous unions, as the husband assumed, by a fiction, two separate legal personalities for the purpose of transmitting the succession to two separate ancestral lines. In general, the purposes of kim-tiu are probably served more often nowadays by adoption rather than by the establishment of two separate households - a luxury that few can afford. It is notable, however, that there was some opinion in favour of retaining this institution, which originally had a statutory basis in Ch'ing law. It would seem rather doubtful if such an exception should be made in favour of what must be construed in the world as a whole as a polygamous institution unless the Government has reason to believe that opinion in its favour would be strong. A possible solution would be to abolish the institution as such, but where an intention to create it is clearly demonstrable, to recognize the legitimate
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