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In Paris in May, 1923, the Resolution passed at the Congres Internationale de Propagande d'Hygiene Sociale et d'Education Prophylactique Sanitaire et Norale, attended by many French venereal specialists and heads of the Paris and Provincial Municipal clinics is interesting
"THAT in the opinion of the Congress regulation of prostitution of women is useless in effect, iniquitous in law, and ought to be abolished and should be replaced by a regime based on common justice of forbidding the knowing transmission of disease and, if necessary, by the isolation of infected persons of either sex in curative institutions."
As this Memorandum only purports to deal with the public health aspect of the question it is proposed to give but little space to the difficulties arising from the regulation system in relationship to police corruption. It must, however, be noted that its effect on the police system is never beneficial, the temptations to which theyare put when attempting to carry out their duties in this con- nection generally prove too strong to resist and gradually they tend to become more or less completely corrupted by the clandestine members of the profession: they are told that it is better to let a dozen women go free than to accuse one decent woman of being a prostitute,with the result that many women purchase immunity from police control in fact experience goes to show it is only the feebler and less energetic prostitutes that get on to the police registers or into the controlled brothels. Those with energy and a little intelligence have never found much difficulty in carrying on their trade unmolested.
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In a district with a miscellaneous population and a native police force the risks of police corruption would be manifestly increased, and it is safe to assume that large numbers of prostitutes would contrive to exist with complete freedom even if their presence were known to the police by the payment of tribute.
Among many who have not had the opportunity of studying the question it is often suggested that the abolition of the regulation tends to increase clandestine prostitution. Evidence, however, does not bear this out. In all countries where prostitution is regulated the number of women registered vary from 1/5 to 1/20 of the known clandestine prostitutes.
To take two examples In Japan, in the provinces where the Yoshiwara were abolished some 37 years ago there are proportion- ately fewer geishas and waitresses practising prostitution, while the numbers of such clandestine prostitutes is higher in those Japanese provinces having the largest provision of Yoshiwara in proportion to the population.
In the United States of America it was also found, contrary' to expectation, that the abolition and the enforcement of the law prohibiting brothels resulted in a reduction of the number of clandestine prostitutes. This point is important as many police officials only support the regulation system because they are of opinion that its suppression would lead to scattering the centres of infection.
The brothels in To take an example from our own Empire. Colombo were abolished in 1913. A special Committee of enquiry consisting of the Chief of Police, the Attorney General, and
Though others,
was appointed to examine the position in 1918. the Report of this Commission has not yet been published we are