THE HEALTH OF THE ARMY IN INDIA.
At the meeting of the General Committee of the National Union of Women Workers, held at Croydon, October 28th, 1897, the following resolution was moved by Mrs. Fawcett and seconded by the Hon. Mrs. A. T. Lyttelton:
The General Committee of the N.U.W.W. views with alarm the recent legislation dealing with Venereal Disease in the British Army in India, believing that it is likely to lead to the reimposition of the system known as the Contagious Diseases Acts which was repealed, after prolonged discussion, by the House of Commons in 1886. The Committee urges that enquiry should be made into the following points:
1. The causes of the admitted steady increase of Venereal Disease in the Army in India under the Acts and Circular Memoranda from 1865 to 1888, from 212 admissions per 1,000 men to 480, as shown in the statistics and chart published recently by Lord George Hamilton's Departmental Committee, and of a similar increase in the Venereal Disease of the Army in England all the time the Acts were in operation, and until their repeal in 1886.
2. The causes of the decrease of Venereal Disease in the Army in England after the repeal of the Acts from 267 admissions per 1,000 men in 1886, to 174 in 1895, but the absence of a corresponding decrease in the same period in the Venereal Disease of the Army in India.
3. The possibility of providing further occupation and recreation for soldiers on foreign service, of suitably modifying their food, and of giving increased facilities for marriage.
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