open to the charge of being anachronistic and discriminatory, and the charge would be particularly difficult to rebut if the new category of Chinese marriage appeared in any way to be a "second best" form of marriage.
16. The Sub-Committee believes that, in a sophisticated and largely urban society, the creation of a new form of marriage based on racial or communal discrimination is scarcely tolerable. Quite apart from being open to misinterpretation, it would be out of harmony with the general trend of legal development of the world as a whole. More particularly, it would be quite out of step with the international policies, based on Article 3 of the United Nations Charter and Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, for other aspects of which the authors of the Report have shown a very proper solicitude.
17. One particularly undesirable concomitant of any legislation in respect of Chinese marriages as a distinct group would be the need to define the expression "Chinese". In the past the Hong Kong legislature has wisely refrained from attempting such a definition; the application of Chinese traditional family law to the Chinese community by the Courts, on the theoretical basis of relieving Chinese people from the harshness of English law in some respects, has so far been accomplished without having to attempt to draw a firm line between Chinese and non-Chinese. It is to be hoped that such a definition, which besides being discriminatory and anachronistic, would be extremely hard to frame, will be avoided in future legislation. Yet, unless the unpalatable task of definition were to be left to the Courts, it would be an essential feature of the legislation contemplated in the Report as it now stands, for there are many people in the Colony of mixed race to whom the application of the law would otherwise be doubtful.
18. The Sub-Committee feels that when once the polygamous character which now attaches to Chinese marriages is removed, as will clearly be the case if there is legislation of the kind proposed, there will be very little basis for a distinction between the kind of marriages contracted by Chinese people and those contracted by members of other racial or cultural groups, except possibly in the means of dissolution, which is dealt with below. All marriages
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