simple definition be adopted of close relationships among which intermarriage must clearly be prohibited (i.e. as between siblings, parents and children, children and their parents' siblings, etc.), it being left open to people to apply more rigid rules if they so wish, in accordance with either traditional or modern systems of Chinese law. Prohibited degrees of relationship could easily be brought to the attention of the parties to a contemplated union by requiring them to make a statutory declaration before registration of the marriage that they were not within such degrees.
24. A further question of essential validity which must be the subject of legislation is the age of marriage, a question dealt with by the authors of the Report with special reference to the custom of sampotsai (see p. 49 to 51), but not the subject of any recom- mendation. The matter ought to be clarified, and the Sub-Committee would recommend that 16 should be the minimum age at which a marriage could be contracted.
25. The Sub-Committee notes that the related matter of consents is not the subject of any recommendation, though it may have been the intention of the authors of the Report that the provisions of the Marriage Ordinance should apply. These do not, of course, have any bearing at present on the essential validity of marriages outside the scope of the Ordinance. The very stringent parental control imposed by Ch'ing law and by Chinese custom, which is widely regarded as inappropriate to modern conditions, and is repugnant to both Nationalist and Communist legislation, is probably falling into desuetude in Hong Kong, though it may well have staunch defenders. It would in any case be removed by the second condition of New Recommendation No. 1 that the parties must marry of their own free will. At the same time, the statement in the Strickland Report, at p. 45, that the requirement for consent of a parent or guardian "is in conformity with the law of modern China" is wholly erroneous, apparently being based on the curious belief that the Nationalist Codes were still in force. The Marriage Law, 1950, not only makes no provision at all for parental control over marriages, but specifically lays down that no party may interfere in a marriage freely contracted, such interference constituting a criminal offence. The age of capacity is relatively high, however
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