W(B)L 51-7433
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
Registry HWB 18/15 No.
DRAFT Letter
Type 1 +
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
To:-
From
H. H. Stewart
Top Secret.
Secret.
Confidential.
Restricted. Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
J. M. Bridgman, Esq., Treasury
Telephone No. & Ext.
Department
In Confidence
Sain
не
Recently the Hong Kong Government sent us copies
of new draft Hong Kong (Non-Domiciled Parties) Divorce
Rules.
it was
2. The amendments proposed are extensive and they Therefore
thought
have considered it appropriate to revoke the existing
in
draft Rutha rules and react them in modifying form. The were
havever got 다 referred to our legal advisers who immediately came
further than
across a major onag.
no
Their consideration of these
draft rules has not progressed beyond the enabling clause before discouring
Clause because the situation at present appears to be
that Secretary of State has no legal power to make
the rules.
Evidently we must rectify this omission
as soon as possible, and we believe that this can be
done by an Order in Council made under Section I of the
Ministers of the Crown (transfer of functions) Act 1946.
3. Our legal adviser minuted as follows:
"The Hong Kong Divorce Jurisdiction Order in Council 1935 (made under section 2 of the Indian and
Colonial Divorce Jurisdiction Act 1926) applied the
provisions of section 1 of that Act to Hong Kong in
like manner as those provisions applied to India,
subject to certain modifications, one being that in the
application to Hong Kong the reference in those
provisions to the Secretary of State in Council of
India section 1 (4) of the Act should be read as
referring to the Secretary of State for the Colonies.
So far as I can ascertain this provision is still
in force without any amendment and no provision
/was made in