question of a return to legalized prostitution in India, in which
reference was made to Lady Henry Somerset's letter in _The Times_,
and to another memorial which was shortly "to be made public," and
which was signed by a very large number of ladies, as an indication
that women were no longer, as formerly, opposed to the system of State
Regulation of Vice.[11]
On May 25 _The Times_ published the text of this Memorial, which
is signed by ladies of the aristocracy, together with a few other
prominent women, numbering in all one hundred and twenty-three.
The Government of India proceeded at once to repeal the Cantonments
Act Amendment Act of 1895, in the Viceregal Council held at Simla July
8, which action had received the approval of Lord George Hamilton
by telegram, July 6, 1897. Since that day, therefore, the military
authorities have been set free to return to the establishment of
brothel slavery, the registration and compulsory examination of women,
the employment of procuresses, and all the infamies which we have
described as existing when we visited India in 1892.
Meanwhile, the women of Great Britain have arisen in mighty protest,
and a Memorial signed by 61,437 women of the United Kingdom, addressed
to Lord George Hamilton, as representative of Her Majesty's Government,
was presented at the India Office on Saturday, July 31, 1897, as
follows:
"It declares the unaltered and unalterable hostility of the
signatories to every form of State Regulation of Immorality, whether
embodied in the system which was known as the Contagious Diseases Acts
or in any other form, including the slightly modified and more subtle
garb of certain Indian Cantonment rules.
"It objects to the principle of all such legislation, a principle
based on the assumption of the necessity of vice. It opposes the
system in all its forms, because it inevitably becomes, in regard
to women, an engine of the most shameful oppression, removing the
guarantees of personal liberty which the law has established, and
putting their reputation, their freedom, and their persons absolutely
in the power of the police; while in respect to those women who come
immediately under its action, it cruelly violates the feelings of
those whose sense of shame is not wholly lost, and further brutalizes
even the most abandoned.
"The Memorialists, while deploring the existence of disease and
favourable to moral methods of diminishing it, urge that no permanent
diminution of disease will ever be attained by measures which do not
strike primarily at the vice itself, and express the hope that the
Government of our country will be withheld from the crime of ever
again entering into any compact with evil by its attempted regulation."
We have been deeply impressed with the thought that, in our search
for the cause of the present moral confusion, we need to go further
back than the influence of high-placed military officers and ladies
of the aristocracy. There have arisen occasions in the past when the
Christian public have been able to successfully resist the invasions
of materialistic and immoral counsels, although they were advocated
by the rich and mighty. Only the blind can be led by the blind:
those who have clear vision will not follow such leadership. Whence
this far-reaching influence, then, which has blinded the eyes of so
many? Alas! these are the days of a paralysed faith, and faith is as
indispensable a faculty of the human mind as is reason.
The re-enthronement of faith is the need of the hour. Science we have,
and scholarship: but hesitancy and doubt rule the scientific spirit,
and timidity is the vice of the scholar. The soldier who hesitates and
doubts and grows timid will not win a single battle. His must be the
prophetic spirit of faith which "laughs at impossibilities, and cries,
It shall be done." But the Church militant has been ridiculed out of
the warrior spirit, and has laid aside its mightiest weapon, faith;
and as to leadership, many are pointing to science and scholarship and
crying, "These be thy gods, O Israel!" Science and scholarship have
their place and their power, but they are not the Christian's mightiest
weapons. Learning cannot take the place of the inspiration of faith;
statistics can never teach morals as forcibly as "Thus saith the Lord."
More than this: statistics can never overturn the "Thou shalt not" of
an Almighty God.
David has essayed to go forth to meet Goliath, well loaded down with
Saul's armour, and David will meet with the defeat he deserves if he
does not repent of the folly of matching such weapons against one who
defies the armies of the living God. The warfare is a spiritual not a
carnal one. What wonder that with such weapons courage has failed, the
citadel is imperilled, and "counsels of despair" are urged. But these
shall not prevail. That unrepentant soul shall not go unpunished by
the wrath of a just God, who enters into complicity with the vice of
fornication by consenting to the proposal for its State management.
But can this vice ever be actually exterminated? Probably never
entirely by human law; but neither can stealing, so far as we are able
to judge. The vice of stealing is likely to continue so long as the
city of London exists, in spite of the most excellent human laws. Shall
we then license stealing? No one who has a purse to be protected would
advocate such rash legislation.
A conclusive answer to the plea of "a necessary evil" has been already
given by our Judge. Looking upon the vices of those about Him, and the
inevitable crop of increasing vice, with its attendant misery, to which
his people were tending, He cried: "It must needs be that offences
come; but," He added, "_woe to that man_ by whom the offence cometh!"
And shall we listen to proposals to set aside the sentence of Divine
Justice for the tradition of men, and embody in human legislation the
teaching, "It must needs be that offences come; but _peace_ to that
man by whom the offence cometh"? Let us rather, answer every specious
array of misleading statistics, every false doctrine of medicine,
every fresh cry of alarm, every blasphemous utterance against Christ's
sufficient power to redeem, every infidel attack upon the sanctity of
God's holy law, with the inexorable "Thou shalt not" of God's eternal
commandment.
FOOTNOTES:
[9] "Lord George Hamilton himself instigated disregard of his own
command by sanctioning the repeal of the law which had embodied it,
upon a pretext so grotesquely irrelevant that an admission of its
ingenuousness is tantamount to a charge of imbecility against the
sanctioning Minister."--_The Shield_, November, 1897.
[10] Lady Henry Somerset addressed a letter to Lord George Hamilton,
January 27th, 1898, withdrawing these propositions. But alas! such a
tardy withdrawal cannot undo the mischief wrought to the native girls
of India by the repeal of the Cantonment Acts Amendment Act of 1895
(see Appendix C).
[11] Additional colour was given to this, later, by Lady Henry Somerset
placing the name of Lord Roberts (author of the "Infamous Circular
Memorandum," the history of which we have given in chapters 1 and 5) on
the Advisory Board of the Duxhurst Inebriate Home of the B.W.T.A., at
the Annual Conference of the Association in June, 1897.
APPENDICES.
A. FAC-SIMILE REPRODUCTION OF THE CIRCULAR MEMORANDUM ISSUED BY LORD
ROBERTS.
B. FAC-SIMILE OF A REGISTRATION TICKET.
C. LETTER TO LORD GEORGE HAMILTON.
Appendix A.
[Transcriber's Note: The following text is the transcription of a
page of a multi-part document.]
_The photographic reduction of the following document was originally
issued by the Friends' Association for Abolishing the State Regulation
of Vice. It is here reproduced by their permission._
The Names of the Commander-in-Chief and of the Quartermaster-General
who were in office on the date of issue of each of the Circular
Memorandums mentioned in the following Parliamentary Return.
_According to the Indian Army and Civil Service List, 1870 to 1876;
India List, 1877 to 1886._
--------------------+-------------------+-------------------------------
Date of Circular. |Commander-in-Chief.| Quartermaster-General.
--------------------+-------------------+-------------------------------
20th July, 1870 |LORD NAPIER[*] |COL. P. S. LUMSDEN.
20th November, 1871 | Ditto | Ditto.
23rd August, 1872 | Ditto | Ditto.
30th September, 1873| Ditto |{ Ditto or
| |{MAJOR-GEN. E. B. JOHNSON.
8th July, 1875 | Ditto |COL. F. S. ROBERTS.
8th May, 1876 |{ Ditto or } |MAJOR-GEN. F. S. ROBERTS.
|{SIR F. P. HAINES} |
19th August, 1876 |SIR F. P. HAINES | Ditto.
28th February, 1878 | Ditto | Ditto.
24th November, 1880 | Ditto | ----
23rd April, 1883 |SIR D. M. STEWART |MAJOR-GEN. SIR C. M. MACGREGOR.
26th November, 1883 | Ditto | Ditto.
12th July, 1884 | Ditto | Ditto.
17th June, 1886 |SIR F. S. ROBERTS |MAJOR-GEN. E. F. CHAPMAN.
--------------------+-------------------+-------------------------------
[*] Lord Napier of Magdala
On the 4th and 7th Aug., 1893, Lord Roberts disclaimed knowledge of
the contents of the Circular Memorandum of June 17th, 1886 (see pages
63 and 84 of Parliamentary Return [C. 7148], of 1893). But on the 11th
Aug., 1893, Lieut.-Gen. E. F. Chapman, who was Quartermaster-General
at the time, gave very different evidence (see pages 85 to 90 of
the same Return). He stated that Sir F. S. (now Lord) Roberts, the
Commander-in-Chief, went on his usual cold weather tour of inspection
in the early part of 1886, when he would have the fullest opportunity
of consulting the general officers of his command on the subject.
On his return to headquarters he discussed the matter with the
Surgeon-General and the Quartermaster-General. The result of their
deliberations was drawn up by the latter official, sent to Sir F.
S. Roberts for his approval, and then issued by his authority to
the subordinate military officials. A copy was sent to the Military
Department of the Government of India for their information, and the
receipt thereof acknowledged by them.
[Transcriber's Note: The following text is the transcription of a
page of a multi-part document.]
Fac-simile copy (reduced) of Lord Roberts' Circular Memorandum.
EAST INDIA (CONTAGIOUS DISEASES)
--------------------
RETURN to an Address of the Honourable The House of Commons, dated 4
June 1888;--_for_,
"COPY of a CIRCULAR MEMORANDUM by the QUARTERMASTER GENERAL in INDIA,
dated 17th June 1886."
--------------------
India Office, } J. A. GODLEY,
4 June 1888. } Under Secretary of State for India.
--------------------
(_Sir John Gorst._)
--------------------
_Ordered_, _by_ The House of Commons, _to be Printed_, _4 June 1888_.
--------------------
LONDON:
PRINTED BY HENRY HANSARD AND SON;
AND
Published by EYRE and SPOTTISWOODE, East Harding-street, London, E.C.,
and 32, Abingdon-street, Westminster, S.W.;
ADAM and CHARLES BLACK, North Bridge, Edinburgh;
and HODGES, FIGGIS, and Co., 101, Grafton-street, Dublin.
[Transcriber's Note: The following text is the transcription of a
two-page memorandum within the multi-part document.]
COPY of a CIRCULAR MEMORANDUM by the QUARTERMASTER GENERAL in INDIA,
dated 17th June 1886.
(No. 21.)
CIRCULAR MEMORANDUM.--Addressed to General Officers Commanding
Divisions and Districts
Cantonment Lock Hospitals
-------------------------
Office of Quartermaster General in India,
Army Head Quarters, Simla,
17 June 1886.
[Sidenote: _Vide Précis_ of Circulars attached]
IN former years His Excellency the Commander in Chief has frequently
impressed on General and Commanding Officers the necessity for adopting
stringent measures to reduce the chances of venereal disease spreading
more widely amongst the soldiers of the Army.
2. At the present time His Excellency desires me to give prominence
to the following points which appear to be specially deserving of
consideration by the Military and Medical authorities in every command.
The treatment of venereal disease generally is a matter calling for
special devotion on the part of the medical profession.
To mitigate the evil now experienced, it is not only necessary to
deal with the cases of troops in hospitals, but to arrange for a
wider-spread effort which may reach the large centres of population,
and, in this view, His Excellency has suggested to the Government of
India the desirability of establishing a Medical School from which
native practitioners trained in the treatment of venereal disease may
be sent to the various towns throughout the country.
It can no longer be regarded as derogatory to the medical profession to
promote the careful treatment of men and women who are suffering from a
disease so injurious, and in mentioning the step which his Excellency
has taken, he desires me to indicate the extreme importance in the
first instance of medical officers being prepared to study and practice
this particular branch of their professional work, under the assurance
that their doing so must certainly result in the recognition of their
efforts.
Whether or not the Lock Hospital system be extended, it is possible to
encourage in every Cantonment, and in Sudder and Regimental Bazars,
the treatment of those amongst the population who are suffering from
venereal disease. The bulk of the women who practise the trade of
prostitution are willing to subject themselves to examination by Dhais
or by Medical Officers, if by their so doing they can be allowed to
reside in regimental bazars.
Where Lock Hospitals are not kept up, it becomes necessary, under
a regimental system, to arrange for the effective inspection of
prostitutes attached to regimental bazars, whether in cantonments or on
the line of march.
The isolation of women found diseased, and their maintenance while
under treatment, becomes also a question to be dealt with regimentally.
In the regimental bazars it is necessary to have a sufficient number of
women, to take care that they are sufficiently attractive, to provide
them with proper houses, and above all to insist upon means of ablution
being always available.
If young soldiers are carefully advised in regard to the advantage
of ablution and recognise that convenient arrangements exist in the
regimental bazar, they may be expected to avoid the risks involved
in association with women who are not recognised by the regimental
authorities.
The employment of Dhais, and insistance upon the performance of the
acknowledged duties, is of great importance.
The removal of women who are pronounced to be incurably diseased
from cantonment limits, should be dealt with as a police question in
communication with the civil authorities.
In regard to the soldiers themselves, there are means at the disposal
of Commanding Officers to enforce a more careful avoidance of contact
with women who are diseased, where venereal is largely prevalent, the
increase of the regimental police in controlling the movements of the
men is imperative.
Frequent medical inspections should be ordered, and every endeavour
should be made to make the men realize their own responsibility in
assisting their officers, by indicating the women from whom disease has
been acquired.
Much may be done to encourage a feeling amongst the men that it should
be a point of honour to save each other where possible from risk in
this matter.
The medical inspection of all detachments before leaving or entering a
cantonment should be enforced by General Officers.
In conclusion, His Excellency desires me to impress upon all concerned
the necessity for meeting the present difficulty by increased
individual effort.
However much legislation may be desired to check the spread of disease,
it is necessary to abandon a sense of false modesty in dealing with
the matter in question, and to recognise that, as in the case of all
other diseases, its open treatment, and the widespread knowledge of
its disastrous effects, are the surest means of effacing it in each
locality.
(By order)
_E. F. Chapman_, Major General,
Quartermaster General in India.
[Transcriber's Note: The following text is the transcription of a
page of a multi-part document.]
RELATING TO CONTAGIOUS DISEASES (EAST INDIA)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
_Précis of Circulars issued in the Quartermaster General's Department
regarding the adoption of stringent Measures to reduce the chances of
Venereal Disease spreading more widely amongst the Soldiers of the
Army._
-----------------+------------------------------------------------------
Number and Date | PURPORT.
of Circular. |
-----------------+------------------------------------------------------
No. 43, dated | I. Officers commanding troops on the line of march to
20th July 1870. | ensure the effective inspection of prostitutes
| attached to their regimental bazars.
|
| II. When any woman is found to be diseased, measures
| are to be adopted for her isolation on the march,
| and her transfer to the first or nearest Lock
| Hospital for treatment.
|
No. 87, dated | Forwards a copy of a report by the Sanitary
20th November | Commissioner with the Government of India, reviewing
1871. | the working of the rules for the prevention of
| venereal disease amongst British troops for the year
| 1870, and calls special attention to the necessity
| of officers commanding stations affording more
| efficient and energetic means for preventing the
| admission of casuals to the vicinity of the
| barracks.
|
| Any increase of disease should at once be met by
| increased energy on the part of Station and
| Regimental authorities, and especially of Regimental
| Police.
|
No. 51, dated | Forwards copy of a communication from the Government
23rd August | of India to that of Bombay, regarding the disposal
1872. | of incurable women attending Lock Hospitals, in
| which the former approves of a proposal to employ an
| incurable woman on small wages in the duties of the
| hospital at Mhow.
|
No. 80, dated | Directs that the practice of levying registration
30th September | fees from prostitutes be discontinued.
1873. |
|
No. 90, dated | Calls attention to Circular No. 87 of 1871, and
8th July 1875. | strongly impresses upon Officers Commanding
| Divisions, Districts, and Stations, the necessity
| for strengthening the regimental police of corps
| when venereal is on the increase at a station, it
| being the general impression that the disease is
| not, as a rule, contracted from the registered
| women, but from unlicensed prostitutes who wander
| about the lines as hawkers, or are employed as
| coolies by the Public Works Department.
|
| 2. Requests that it may be pointed out to regimental
| Commanders, and the Lock Hospital Sub-Committees,
| whose special duty it is to supervise the working
| of the Lock Hospital rules, how important it is that
| they should more actively exert themselves to check
| the prevalence of this disease.
|
No. 35, dated | The Commander in Chief in India having had under
8th May 1876. | review the annual reports on the working of the Lock
| Hospitals at certain stations, His Excellency
| regrets to find that the results are not
| satisfactory when compared with those of previous
| years.
|
| 2. The Lock Hospital rules, as they stand, appear
| to meet all requirements, but it is considered that
| much greater vigilance and interest on the part of
| the local authorities is required for their
| efficient working.
|
| 3. The authorities most concerned in working out
| these rules are Commanding Officers of Regiments
| and Batteries, their Medical Officers, and the
| Sub-Committees, and their attention is called to
| the following points:--
|
| I. The number of women on the register is not
| in proportion to the number of men who visit
| them.
|
[Transcriber's Note: The following text is the transcription of a
page of a multi-part document.]
COPY OF CIRCULAR MEMORANDUM
-----------------+------------------------------------------------------
Number and Date | PURPORT.
of Circular. |
-----------------+------------------------------------------------------
|
No. 35, dated | II. The improvement of the conditions under which
8th May 1876 | the women ply their trade, such as greater
--_contd._ | privacy, facilities for ablution, &c. &c.
|
| III. The kind treatment of the women and every
| reasonable inducement being held out to them
| to attend the Lock Hospital when suffering
| from disease.
|
| 4. Commanding Officers of regiments and batteries
| are to report at once to the General Officer
| Commanding, when any increase of venereal disease
| occurs amongst their men. Such reports to show the
| supposed causes of the increase, and the measures
| adopted for its suppression, and after remark by
| the Deputy Surgeon General to be forwarded to the
| Quartermaster General's Office.
|
| 5. The Lock Hospital Sub-Committee are to be
| assembled at least once a month, and their reports
| forwarded to General Officers Commanding.
|
| 6. It is considered that a Careful attention to these
| points will contribute considerably towards checking
| the spread of venereal disease, and His Excellency
| hopes that no effort will be spared by either
| Regimental, Medical, or Local authorities to ensure
| more satisfactory results than have hitherto been
| obtained.
|
No. 67, dated | The annual reports on the working of Lock Hospitals
19th August | during the year 1875, show that much venereal
1876. | disease was contracted when on the line of march;
| Commanding Officers' attention should therefore be
| called to Circular No. 43 of 1870, and to the
| Medical Regulations which direct the Medical
| examination for venereal disease of every unmarried
| soldier on the day of his arrival at a new station
| from the line of march; and the effective inspection
| of the prostitutes accompanying the regimental
| bazars.
|
No. 11, dated | As it would appear that the great increase which
28th February | prevails in a regiment on the line of march is
1878. | attributable in a great measure to illicit
| prostitution, requests that the necessity for the
| exercise of greater care and vigilance on the line
| of march may be urged upon regimental authorities.
|
| 2. If necessary, some restriction should be placed
| on the men going out of camp, by posting picquets
| in different directions, and strengthening them
| when cases of venereal increase.
|
No. 68, dated | Draws attention to Circular No. 67 of 1876, and
24th November | requests that the instructions therein contained
1880. | regarding the medical examination of all unmarried
| soldiers on first arrival at a new station may be
| carried out, care being taken that the examination
| of the men is conducted with the utmost decency.
|
| 2. These medical examinations are of importance in
| detecting the existence and arresting the spread
| of venereal disease.
|
No. 23, dated | Forwards for information and guidance an extract from
23rd April | a ruling of the Chief Court, Punjab, regarding the
1883. | registration of women convicted of practising
| illicit prostitution.
|
No. 69, dated | The Commander in Chief requests that careful
26th November | attention of Cantonment Committees and Lock Hospital
1883. | Sub-Committees may be directed to the following
| points, wherever free quarters for registered women
| have been, or may hereafter be, established:--
|
| 2. Where cantonment funds can afford it, experienced
| and reliable Dhais should be employed to supervise
| the registered women.
|
[Transcriber's Note: The following text is the transcription of a
page of a multi-part document.]