162 
CHINESE MARRIAGES. 
On the other hand, in his work on Extraterritoriality Sir 
Francis Piggott, late Chief Justice of Hongkong and a jurist of 
considerable eminence, gives some very cogent reasoning to the 
effect that for the purposes of succession the English Courts would 
recognise the offspring of the union of, sayi, a Turkish man and 
woman as legitimate and entitled under the Statute of Distribu- 
tions, while Professor Dicey regards the whole question as doubtful, 
certainly not as decided by Bethell’s case or the matrimonial cases. 
The Court of Appeal had little difficulty in over-ruling the 
appellants and they based their decision not on international comity, 
as Sir Benson Maxwell had done, but on the Charter, which he had 
refused to do. This charter was the third one of 1855. 
The Six Widows’ Casa, however, added one new decision to 
the law relating to Chinese marriages. The Court held that a 
child legitimised per subsequent matrimonium according to Chinese 
law is legitimate and entitled to share in the two-thirds share which 
the Statute of Distributions gives to the children of a deceased 
intestate. In doing so the Court followed the well-known English 
case of In re Goodman’s Trusts, L.B. 17 Ch. Div. 267, where a 
child similarly legitimised under Dutch law was held to be legiti- 
mate and entitled to share under the Statute in English property. 
It now remains to notice the last two cases in the Colony, 
those of Ngai Lau Shia vs. Low Chee Xeo in Singapore and 
Cheang Thye Phin vs. Tail Ah Loy in Penang, in both of which 
the author appeared as counsel for the claimant ladies, both here 
and in the Privy Council. Neither case is as yet locally reported 
but the decision of the Privv Council will be found in the Law Re- 
ports 1920 A.C. 369. 
Nigai Lau Shia claimed to be a lawful daughter of the late 
Mr. Low Kim Pong, a wealthy Singapore merchant: she had at- 
tempted to prove a ceremony between the deceased and her mother 
as a t’sai but the evidence was disbelieved. It was then argued 
on her behalf that her mother should be presumed to have been a 
t’sip of the deceased from cohabitation and repute, in which she 
succeeded, the Court holding that such a presumption may be made 
upon ]> roper evidence. It also decided that the Courts here will 
now take judicial notice of the fact that the Chinese are a poly- 
gamous race. 
Tan Ah Loy claimed to be presumed to be a t’sip of the 
late Mr. Cheang Ah Quee, the last Captain China of Perak. She 
failed to prove a ceremony of any sort and Mr. Registrar Gibson 
found against her, as he Avas unaware of the decision in Ngai 
Lau Shia’s case and thought that the Six Widows’ Case had de- 
cided that some ceremony was necessary to constitute a proper 
secondary marriage. Her claim was upheld by the Court of Appeal 
and the Pri\ T y Council both of which held that no proof of a cere- 
mony is essential, and presumed for her a marriage as a t’sip from 
cohabitation and repute. 
i 
Jour. Straits Branch 
