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THE SLAVE MARKET NEWS.
APRIL, 1933.
THE BISHOP OF LONDON'S APPEAL FOR ARMENIAN RESCUE AND
REFUGEE WORK IN SYRIA.
To: The Editor, "THE SLAVE MARKET NEWS."
Sir,
With deep gratitude to all our generous subscribers, I am now able to announce that the fund is now completed for the educa- tion of the Armenian girls rescued through the Bishop of London's Appeal.
Since our last Quarterly Report in "The Slave Market News," we have received between December 21 and March 16 £7 8s. 6d.. made up by various donations, besides a cheque for £50, sent by one of our most generous subscribers for the Armenian Refugees in the Aleppo Camp, through the Armenian (Lord Mayor's) Fund, 40, Gordon Square, London, W.C.1.
I can only repeat that the destitution and misery is so acute in the Refugee Camps of Syria that any subscriptions or donations, large or small, will be received and acknowledged with intense gratitude, either by the Armenian (Lord Mayor's) Fund, if sent to the above address, or by myself, if any kind donor prefers to send a gift through me.
I shall also be most thankful to forward any donations that may be sent through me for the purpose of fighting against the horrors of the White Slave Traffic. and assisting those who are striving for its abolition in all parts of the world.
FIGHTING THE WHITE SLAVE TRAFFIC.
The Far East Report of the League of Nations Commission has just been published. It is a terrible report, detailed and veri- fied, of the traffic in women and children in the Near and Far East. It indicates the work that has still to be done before this ghast- ly, but profitable, commerce in the bodies of women and young girls can be suppressed.
We use the word commerce "deliberately; it is this "trade in women, this deliberate exploitation by third parties, for their own profit, of the vices and frailties of men which is the only aspect with which the law can deal effectively.
In this country, thanks to the work of Josephine Butler and her co-workers, the traffic in women and young girls has practi- cally been crushed by making it a serious punishable offence for any third party to make money out of the prostitution of any girl or woman. But it is not so in many countries abroad. Many Governments still allow the licensed or officially tolerated houses where women and young girls are offered for hire at fixed prices, each hiring usually bringing the proprietor of the house fifty per cent. of the fee paid. The newly issued League of Nations Report says again now, as it said emphatically in 1927:-
These licensed houses must be suppressed; they form the surest market for the international traffickers and their suppression would make it possible to attack the evil at its root.
This is the work on which the Association for Moral and Social Hygiene has concentrated; we have always acted upon the belief that the first and most urgent action necessary to destroy the traffic in women and young girls is to destroy the licensed houses and the officially recognised vice area, thus making it possible drastically to suppress all those who exploit for profit the prostitution of others.
These facts must surely awaken all who read to determined prayer and action against this most hideous of all forms of slavery.
Thrigby Hall.
Yours faithfully,
Great Yarmouth, Norfolk.
April 2nd, 1933.
SUDDEN EXPANSION
still hesitate to go in, millions of yen are
somehow invested in setting up "palaces of
OF SLAVE MARKETS joy" in different cities of Manchuria. To
FOR JAPANESE WOMEN- MOBILIZATION OF PROSTITUTES FOR NATION'S INDISPENSABLE REC- REATION QUARTERS IN MANCHURIA -MILLIONS OF YEN BEING INVESTED
IN NEW VICE DENS. "It is reported from different provinces where the farmers are hardest hit by the depression, that the custom of selling their daughters to brothels has become widely in vogue. Some of the maidens sold are bought to perpetuate and enliven the nation's indispensable recreation quar- ters, which are almost ubiquitous. But those are regarded as relatively fortunate who are offered as objects for sale in car- nal markets at home, pitiable as the lot of slaves, of course, is. Japan's costly efforts at preserving her national rights and in- terests in Manchuria have born at least one fruit; it brought about a sudden ex- pansion of the slave markets for Japanese women. While shrewd investors and others
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these fields of new enterprise are dis patched from Japan proper, forlorn arm- ies of country musume, to conquer the moral wilderness with their "bombs of flesh." Our farmers send their sons as soldiers, their daughters as "joro (pros- titutes).
Whoever suspected that the con- quest of Manchuria was the distinct ser- vice of our poverty stricken farmers? If the League of Nations feels itself bound to make protests against the action of Japanese troops in Manchuria, why does it not feel equally bound to oppose the mobilisation of the Japanese slaves there? The Manchurian issue is a passing prob lem that will settle itself in time; the question of white slavery is much more serious it is a question of humanity. However, as Premier Saito emphasised a short while ago, the Japanese must learn to take care of their own affairs by them- selves and not depend upon outside help. The shortest cut to the abolition of slay. ery is for the State to enforce it with one stroke by an ordinance, but that would mean the loss of millions in national in- come-impossible!
LAURA HELEN SAWBRIDGE.
A short while ago the Japan Patriotic Women's Society started a campaign in the farming communities to dissuade the farmers from selling their daughters. But farmers do not sell their daughters for pleasure: they sell them because they can't help doing so. And so long as they can't help doing so, they will sell them despite the Society's opposition. Of course. if some of the dollar speculators dedicate a few million yen as a fund with which to save the girls, that will accomplish the purpose. But in the absence of such ben- evolent rich people, we must again follow the teaching of Premier Saito and declare that the girls must learn to help them- selves. That is to say, there is no other sure way of helping the girls to keep from being sacrificed than to encourage them to disobey their parents. Japanese morals teach obedience to parents as the supreme duty of children. That is false: rather, it is wrong to obey some commands.
IT IS THE PERFECT RIGHT OF DAUGHTERS UNDER ANY CIRCUM- STANCE TO REFUSE TO BE SOLD AS SLAVES IT IS A MORAL DUTY TO REFUSE.-Amanojaku in The Osaka
Mainichi.
* The Friend of Japan, Oct.-Dec.. 1932.
Printed and Published for the Proprietor, Alfred Lancaster Smith, Arcot Orchards, Sidmouth. Printed by C. H. Mills, George St., Bridgwater, Somt.
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