CO129-594-7 Proposed legislation to regularise registration of births- marriages and deaths in Stanley internment camp during... 16-10-1945 - 19-12-1946 — Page 34

CONFIDENTIAL

2.

Sir,

Ref

GOVERNMENT HOUSE,

HONG KONG.

26th September, 1946.

ら4185-

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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