abroad. At the same time, it is clearly the duty of the Government to put the law into such a form that it can serve the evolving needs of the Chinese community and give effect to, rather than obstruct, well-established changes in Chinese social thought.
6. The members of the Sub-Committee would not pretend that as lawyers they have any special ability to judge the state of mind of the Chinese community as to marriage reforms, though they would suggest that Chinese opinion in the Colony must by now have adjusted to the various reforms in the law of China itself that have been wrought in the last forty years. If the Government is satisfied that the time for reform is ripe, however, the Sub-Committee feels that a policy of reform would be welcomed particularly by the legal profession as well as by most members of the community in general, for it is generally agreed that the present legal position regarding Chinese marriages in Hong Kong is archaic, clumsy, uncertain, and often oppressive.
7. The Sub-Committee feels that the Government would in general be well-advised to implement the policy which underlies the Report, should it decide to go ahead with legislation. On the other hand, the Sub-Committee has come to the conclusion, after careful examination, that the Report does not cover all the points which ought to be taken into consideration when legislation is prepared, and it also feels that some of the detailed suggestions made in the Report leave something to be desired. Before turning to the detailed recommendations, however, the Sub-Committee would call attention to some general questions arising from the Report.
8. First, the Sub-Committee is of the view that neither the Report nor the White Paper on Chinese Marriages in Hong Kong (Hong Kong: Colonial Secretariat, 1967; Code No.: 0339103) give sufficient emphasis to ways of overcoming the likely difficulties in securing compliance with legislation of the kind proposed in a community of which the majority have scant knowledge of the nature and function of law, and its relationship with their own long-established customs. It is not the intention of the Sub- Committee to suggest in any way that these problems are insur-
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