Dear Sir,
HONG KONG,
22nd April, 1897
In connection with that portion of my letter of the 14th instant which referred to the Contagious Diseases question, I am sending home to you by this mail by Book Post the Annual Report of the Medical Department for the year 1895, which is the latest Report issued, and you will see from Appendix B in that report that the acting Colonial Surgeon, Dr. Atkinson, quotes certain statistics which appear to demonstrate clearly that the abolition of the compulsory medical examination of women by the order of the Home Government of the 1st September has resulted not only in a serious increase in the average number of men diseased but also in a marked increase in the number of persons contracting constitutional syphilis.
Between the 1st September 1887, and the 1st June, 1894, many of the women were, notwithstanding the above Order abolishing compulsory registration, in the habit of presenting themselves voluntarily for examination, but a second order from home in the year 1894 forbids altogether any examination of women, even with their full consent, after the 31st of May, 1894, and shortly afterwards the registration of brothels was abolished, the Lock Hospital was closed, and a Female Venereal Ward was started at the Government Civil Hospital.
In view of the fact that the above increase of disease and in the prevalence of a certain type of disease occurred during a period when a number of the women submitted themselves voluntarily for examination, there seems only too much reason to apprehend that the total prohibition of any examination whatever will be followed in the course of a few years by the most deplorable consequences.
I am,
(Signed) Henry E. Pollock, Hon. Secretary.
The Secretary,
Navy League,
London.