Letter from Lourenco Marques, British Consulate General, Portuguese East Africa (Mozambique) to the Foreign Office, 28 November 1949

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No. 96.

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British Consulate-General,

Lourenco Marques,

Portuguese East Africa,

28th November 1949.

Sir,

I have the honour to report that an enquiry was recently made of me whether I would solemnize a marriage between a male white British subject born in the United Kingdom to a coloured woman, a South African citizen, born in the Union of South Africa, both parties being residents of the Union of South Africa.

1. The law of the Union of South Africa now prohibits, so I understand, marriage in the Union between white and coloured persons, but I cannot see that I can refuse to marry such people if they comply with all the formalities and conditions of the Foreign Marriage Act, which takes no account of the new citizenship laws of the countries of the Commonwealth.
2. I have asked my enquirer to produce evidence of the national status of the two parties and so have avoided giving a direct reply for the present. In the meantime, I should be grateful if I might receive your instructions as it is likely that once British subjects in this predicament become aware that they can be married under English law at the United Kingdom Consulate there will be other applications. It is important that I should be in a position to explain to them their position under South African law and the penalties, if any, to which they will expose themselves in the Union. Thus, I can imagine that if either or both of the parties are citizens of the United Kingdom and the Colonies, and not Union citizens, they might well find themselves barred from returning to the Union or be subsequently deported. It would be necessary to know whether the courts of the Union would refuse to recognise as valid such a marriage where either the man, or both parties, were United Kingdom citizens, (and not Union nationals at all), and what the position is when both parties are Union citizens. It would seem desirable indeed that instructions and information should be circulated to all Consular Marriage Officers.
3. I have not discussed this matter with my South African colleagues.
4. I am sending a copy of this despatch to the United Kingdom High Commissioner in Pretoria.

I have the honour to be with the highest respect,

Sir,

Your obedient Servant,

SGD. G. EDGAR VAUGHAN

His Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs

LONDON SW1