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How regulation has worked in the East may be gatherod from the following extracts from the Report made by the Committee held to report on prostitution in Bombay in 1921.
regulation was until recently in closely confined cantonment areas enforced in India.
We see no reason to expect that medical examination which has in no regulated country been effective as a security against disease could be made efficient in Bombay.
The failure of regulation under the Contagious Diseases Acts all over India points bo the unsuitability of the soil to such a system.
...
"
The Committee went on to recommend that the keeping of brothels the procuring of women and the letting of houses for purposes of prostitution be made illegal.
In 1923 a Bill was passed through the Bombay Legislature embodying many of the recommendations of the Committee, inclu- ding clauses it is hoped will eliminate procuration. A Vigil once Committee supports the Authorities in enforcing the new law and propaganda for the suppression of brothels is proceed- ing and is expected to follow as soon as public opinion is sufficiently enlightened.
ITALY.
Regulation still exists, though as elsewhere, it is admittedly powerless to check or control eithor prostitution or venereal disease. Italy has recently fallen into line with the rest of Europe and initiated a strong campaign against venereal disease, on the modern lines of universal free treat- ment, clinics and education. At Rome in 1912, 225 women were registered whilst the police were endeavouring to keep 5,000 women under observation. (12)
A new Act was passed in 1923 which, although it does not abolish the regulation of prostitution, does away with all police control and places the matter entirely in the hands of the Local Sanitary Authorities. This in several other cases, notably in Finland and Germany, was the prelude to total abolition.
That regulation in Italy up-to-date has not succeeded in preventing the spread of disease is indicated by the figures for deaths from General Paralysis of the Insane, a consequenco of syphilis (untreated or inadequately treated) that develops in a know proportion of cases.
JAPAN.
When tho National Council Commission visited Japan in 1920 the Chairman of the Sanitary Board and the Veneral Disease Director of the Sanitary Department, both expressed themselves as opposed to the Yoshivara on public health grounds, but stated that it would need time to educate the Japanese population in order to persuade them to give up such an old established custom. An attempt, however, was being made by the Authorities to reduce the evil by strictly limiting the number of licences given to fresh inmates of the brothels and by reducing the linances
The Sani- issued permitting ne Yoshivara to be established. tary Committee had come to this conclusion largely owing to the results of an analysis of the figures taken from the different provinces.
(12) "Prostitution in Europe" by Flexner.