in their view be essential if divorce by consent were to be introduced in respect of all marriages in the Colony, and they would be just as necessary if such divorces were only made available to Chinese residents. They fully recognize that a system of safeguards would be contrary to Chinese tradition, but they feel that the informal social sanctions which were doubtless effective in the stable, pre- dominantly rural society of traditional China could not provide adequate protection for the rights of individuals in the highly mobile and complex urban environment of modern Hong Kong - far less so where one party to a marriage moves abroad. In fact, it is their view that the safeguards actually proposed in the Report are quite unrealistic and would prove woefully inadequate. Hu, while reserving his opinion that safeguards are unnecessary and fundamentally undesirable in respect of Chinese marriages, would nonetheless agree that should they be introduced, they ought to be of a character that would offer a real guarantee of their effectiveness.
71. The Sub-Committee feels strongly that the matter of these safeguards is one on which members of the legal profession, and particularly those with extensive experience of matrimonial matters, are entitled to speak with considerable authority. It is the experience of such practitioners that parties to matrimonial proceedings of any sort, more particularly women, are subject to all kinds of sub- jective and objective emotional pressures and fears which are not immediately discernible, and which may well be such as in reality to nullify their apparent consent. It is felt that in divorces by consent as they now exist in Hong Kong, women are peculiarly susceptible to pressures of an unfair kind. Indeed, it is notable that several of the objections to the proposed statutory recognition of this form of divorce which are set out in the Report (at p. 56) relate to the danger that women will be imposed upon and that their consent will not be genuine.
72. In the opinion of the Sub-Committee it is absolutely essential that the proposed safeguards, if they are to be at all realistic or effective, should take the form of a judical proceeding. The sug- gestion in the Recommendation that parties should "appear before an Assistant Secretary for Chinese Affairs, or a District Officer or such other Public Officer as the Governor may designate for that
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