[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majestys Government }
Printed for the use of the Cabinet. April 1906.
CONFIDENTIAL.
Miscellaneous No. 191.
V
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
minimumi
TLC.O-885
17 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
A Note on the Subject of Colonial Marriages Bills.
OF these two Bills the first seeks only to legalize marriages with the deceased wife's sister, while the second proposes to legalize in the United Kingdom any Christian marriage which is legal in any British Colony. The first Bill, though apparently the smaller, will provoke far more opposition than the second. It will be regarded as an indirect attempt to assert the principle of the validity of marriages with the deceased wife's sister, and as such will encounter, without affording the relief which is desired, all the obstruction which has hitherto hindered that project.
This obstruction cannot, of course, prevent His Majesty's Government from carrying any measure on which they are resolved. But having regard to the state of business at the end of a Session, and to the fate which so often over- takes small Bills which are treated as highly controversial, the prospects of such legislation are not good.
In fact, it may be said that the one chance of a smooth and prosperous passage for the Colonial Marriages Bill consists, not in raising, but in studiously avoiding, this vexed, vexatious, and infinitely wearisome controversy. Further, if it be right to legalize the marriage with the deceased wife's sister in the United Kingdom, a measure to that end should be introduced, and would, no doubt, easily pass the present House of Commons. But what have the Colonies to do with such a controversy? Their complaint is not against the state of the marriage law in the United Kingdom. That is as much our business as our insular fiscal system. It is that marriages which have the sanction of the Crown in Australia and
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Canada are void of legality in the United King- dom. That is the anomaly they ask us to redress; ard in that consists the only reason for the inter- vention of the Colonial Office. Let us adhere to the simple general principle that Christian marriages legal in Colonies are legal in the United Kingdom, and I am pretty certain that the Bill will not be factiously opposed in the House of Commons. Logic sustains it no less than practical politics. If we legalize the marriages of Australians who have married their deceased wife's sister, with what reason can we refuse similar recognition to Canadians who have married their deceased wife's niece? Since every argument in support is common to both, to select the one connection for honour is, in effect and by implication, to mark the other with blame. For these reasons I trust the second and larger Bill may be adopted.
April 17, 1906.
W. Ś.
FRINTED AT THE FOREIGN OFFION BY J. W. HARBISON.—20,'4/1906.