CONFIDENTIAL
2.
Sir,
Ref
GOVERNMENT HOUSE,
HONG KONG.
26th September, 1946.
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I have the honour to refer to your despatch No. 75
of 4th July, 1946, and to your telegram No. 176 saving of 28th
August, 1946, on the subject of the validity of marriages
performed and decrees of divorce made absolute during the Japanese
occupation in the Internment Camp at Stanley.
2.
I am advised that the validation of de crees of
dissolution of marriage made in Stanley Camp is not analogous
to the validation of marriages celebrated either at Stanley
or in other parts of the Colony during the occupation.
3.
I will deal first with the question of marriages.
The Japanese instructed Ministers of Religion that they could
proceed to celebrate marriages by complying with religious
requirements. It was impossible to celebrate marriages in
accordance with the laws of Hong Kong. This impossibility existed,
of course, not only at Stanley but also throughout the rest of
the Colony, owing to the fact that the Japanese did not appoint
any Registrar of Marriages and ignored completely the provisions
of the Marriage Ordinance, 1875. There appears, therefore, to be
some authority for saying that in such circumstances the right to
celebrate marriage in accordance with common law revived.
4.
>
It seems therefore, only right and proper to enact
an Ordinance which for the purpose of removing doubts will declare
that all the marriages specified in the Schedule to the Ordinance
shall have the same validity as if contracted and celebrated in
accordance with the provisions of the Marriage Ordinance, 1875.
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
GEORGE HALL, P.C., M.P.
RECEIVED -7 OCT 1946
C. O, REGY
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