TNAG-0189-FCO40-225-Chinese-marriages-in-Hong-Kong-1969 — Page 74

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the consent was genuine with no attempt made to inquire into the propriety of the arrangements made for the support of the wife and the welfare of the children.

77. It goes without saying that divorces by agreement made before the Appointed Date should be recognized, as the Report recommends. The majority of the Sub-Committee (Hu excepted) sees no reason why such recognition should be accorded to agree- ments to dissolve all marriages contracted before the Appointed Date. However, since the procedures recommended by the authors of the Report and those recommended by the Sub-Committee are patently designed to add procedural safeguards rather than to make a major substantive change in the making of such agreements, it is felt that they should be applicable to all dissolutions made by agreement after the Appointed Date in other words all such agreements should be registrable. The Sub-Committee cannot see that anyone has a vested right to force an oppressive or inequitable divorce agreement on his wife.

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78. The Sub-Committee recognizes that at present extensive use is made of standard forms of various sorts by members of the Chinese community when they draw up their divorce agreements. It would seem desirable that the Government should give careful thought to the possibility of drawing-up and making available various standard forms of divorce agreement which would suit various cases, all of them subject, of course, to change by agreement with the approval of the court. It is felt that this would both be of great assistance to the parties in putting before them the appropriate contents of such agreements, and would also facilitate the work of the court in considering the provisions made.

79. Whichever system of registration is adopted, whether that of the Report (with its very limited safeguards), that recommended by the majority of the Sub-Committee (with its more elaborate safeguards) or that suggested by Hu (bare registration), it will be realised that it will involve the exercise by the Hong Kong authorities, whether judicial or administrative, of a new type of jurisdiction. To the extent that such dissolutions will only be possible when both parties are present within the jurisdiction (and it is strongly urged that their presence should be a requirement for registration),

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