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do hold, I believe, though of course I cannot speak for
them, that that system is a safeguard against trafficking
offences.
9. There is one section in Ordinance No.4 of
1897 which deals with disease. Section 12 makes it an
offence for the keeper of a brothel to permit any woman
suffering from any contagious disease to be in the brothel
for the purpose of prostitution. The maximum penalty is
a fine of $500 and imprisonment for one year.
The knowledge
Cases under
of the keeper is to be presumed until disproved, and proof
that any woman in a brothel is or was suffering from venereal
disease is to be sufficient prima facie proof that she is
or was there for the purpose of prostitution.
this section were fairly frequent at one time, chiefly on
information given by men in the naval and military services.
The man would report sick, he would be taken to the brothel
indicated by him, the inmates would be paraded, and he would
be asked if he could identify the girl. If he identified
the girl, the mistress would be advised to have the girl
medically examined. The services of a government medi cal
officer would be offered, and would, I gather, always be
accepted unless the brothel had its own private medi cal
attendant. Sometimes the mistress would be advised to
send the girl to the Government Hospital, and again I gather
that this advice would always be accepted. Sometimes she
might be advised to have the other inmates also examined,
and again she would agree. Since 1889 there has been no
power to compel medical examination, or transference to a
hospital, but the advice referred to above would naturally
have very great weight in view (1) of the power possessed