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Mr. Bascom Johnson discussed this with me before he
Naturally it was he, not I, that started the dis-
7 left Singapore.
cussion.
2. His confidential enquiry agent is employed by the
American Society for the Suppression of Prostitution, which is pay-
ing all the expenses of this League of Nations Commission, and has
been in the employ of this Society for over 10 years. He is by
race a Continental Jew (I think Polish), and is the cleverest and
most experienced man Mr. Johnson has ever met at getting into the
secrets of the traffickers in "white slaves", the trade in whom
is almost entirely in the hands of Jews. He has produced wonder-
ful results in Europe, North America and South America.
3. But he does not attempt to poke his noge into other
sorts of traffic, in which he knows he would be quite useless, and
there is not the slightest intention of using him to enquire into “
the ways of Chinese or other Asiatic traffickers. Sir.G. Grindle
fears in paragraph 3 * are therefore pundless.
4. The secret enquiry agent is still in New York and there
he will remain until Mr.Johnson cables for him. The reason for
this is interesting.
5. There are a large number of white prostitutes in ports
on the China Coast, many of whom today are Russians. Shanghai
especially has many white prostitutes and they are still per-
mitted in Hong Kong, and there are considerable numbers in some of,
the northern ports. This agent would have been invaluable for
unravelling the traffickers' system by which they are supplied
and controlled. But before starting from Geneva, Mr. Johnson gave
an undertaking (I think he said to the Secretary-General of the League) not to employ this agent without the consent of the
Government of the country in which he was to work. Every country
to whose Government Mr.Johnson has applied has given the necessary
permission except the Government of China, which after 8 or 9
months of correspondence still refuse permission although assured