No: 6
SECRET.
574-88746
GOVERNMENT HOUSE,
HONG KONG.
66
14th February, 1947 •
(17) on
Sir,
I have the honour to refer to your despatch No. 265
54185/46 of 19th December, 1946, on the subject of the validity firstly, of
on
(16) • 54185/46
the Christian marriages solemised in the Colony during the enemy
occupation and secondly, of the decrees of divorce pronounced by
the then Chief Justice in Stanley Internment Camp.
2.
I am in agreement with the proposal that the concluding
three lines of Clause 2 of the draft Bill, a copy of which was for-
warded to you under cover of my confidential despatch of 26th
September, ly46, should be deleted. This provision was copied from
Section 1 of the Marriages in Japan (Validity) Act, 1912. In the
case of those marriages something like thirteen years had elapsed
between the first marriage and the validating Act and presumably
the marriages were not, as is the case in Hong Kong, considered to
be valid at common law. The provision was inserted here before the
last point had been considered.
3.
other proposals in paragraph 2 of your despatch under reference,
namely that every individual affected shall be informed in general
terms of the legislation contemplated before it is introduced and
that each marriage shall be made the subject of a provisional order
which would be similar to those made in the United Kingdom by the
Home Secretary under the provisions of the Marriages Validity
(Provisional Orders) Acts, 1905, and 1924, and would be confirmed
at a later date by legislative action. The marriages which are so
far known to be affected by the proposed legislation are 557 in
number; of these some were celebrated in Stanley Internment Camp
On the other hand serious difficulties arise from the
A
and others took place in various churches, in hotels and in private
RECEIVED
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
A. CREECH JONES, F.C., M.P.
24 FEB 947
C. O. REGY