Wang on Divorce

Proud is every Chinese citizen that China has large-mouthed, large-spectacled Dr. Wang Chung-hui in the Permanent Court of International Justice at The Hague.

But China takes even greater pride in what Dr. Wang does with his spare time, of which Hague justices have plenty. For the past two and a half years Dr. Wang, as president of the Judicial Yuan of the Nationalist Government, has been working on an entirely new code of laws for his native land. Bit-by-bit this code, called Yueh Fa, has been enacted by the Nationalist Government. Most notable change in the laws is that affecting marriage and the family, which the Legislative Yuan passed last December. Excerpts: "The duty of a wife to obey her husband, provided in the old law, is not recognized by the new. . . . Whereas under the old law a married woman . . . could not dispose of her property without her husband's consent; under the new laws women enjoy full and unrestricted disposing capacity. . . . Concubines do not enjoy any legal status under the new law."

Up to last week the new laws had made little mention of divorce. Formerly husbands could declare themselves divorced, as did famed Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kaishek, and marry again without much trouble; dissatisfied wives had to bear their lot. The December enactments of the Yueh Fa gave wives the right to instigate proceedings, but did not specify the proceedings. Last week Dr. Wang's theories on divorce became Chinese statutes.

If a married Chinese couple wish to part, all they now have to do is to call in two neighbors, who sign with them a declaration of the couple's intention to separate. The divorce is then in effect. If either party to the marriage objects, however, the other party may sue for divorce.

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