PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference:-
T།། ། TC.O. 88?
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
| ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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4. He has suggested the outlines of a scheme of action which he advocates, and that scheme is free from the most striking faults which impaired the experiments hitherto made by Government in legislating on this subject; I mean the attendance of women at public offices for compulsory examination.
Mr. Hare is perfectly correct when he writes: "Chinese women loathe the system, and, whenever they can, avoid emigrating to countries where the Contagious Disease Ordinance is enforced."
5. Considering the great risk of infectious disease which is inseparable from the infamous life led by inmates of brothels, it would not be unreasonable to compel by law the keepers of such places to provide proper medical advice and assistance (that is to say, the constant attendance of a medical man or woman having a European qualifica- tion), and separate accommodation in a proper sanatorium for the sick.
If necessary or desirable, the medical fee per head per year might be fixed by law so that the arrangement need not break down on this point.
I believe every large public school in Great Britain, whether for boys or girls, makes similar arrangements, so that Mr. Hare is only advocating a measure which in itself is not repugnant to English ideas.
6.
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The scheme is, of course, open to the reproach of "regulating" prostitution, but that is a reproach from which no Government can escape. An authority, for instance, which closes a brothel in Portland Place while freely allowing others in other streets not far off, may be open to the same reproach.
7. The defence of the measures advocated by Mr. Hare (including the regular inspection by a superior European officer of brothels and registration of their inmates to prevent kidnapping and oppression) is, that they are based on pure philanthropy, and are calculated to relieve suffering of oppressed humanity, and that it is right to interfere with prostitution in the degree necessary for attaining their object.
8. Persons who carry to an unreasonable point their objection to all action of this kind, may object that the measures now advocated, if successful, will render harlots more healthy, and therefore make vice more attractive.
This objection seems to involve the proposition that no immoral person of either sex The should receive medical care at all for any disease, or at least for disease due to vice. proposition seems an unsound one.
9. It may, however, be pointed out to such objectors, that the measures now advo- cated will cost vicious people some money, and will therefore render immorality more expensive and less easy. Also that, as these measures are calculated to prolong the health and lives of existing harlots, they will delay and diminish the demand for fresh vietinis from the untainted and innocent female population of China, so that on the whole virtue will be the gainer.
I have, &c.,
SIR,
Enclosure in No. 25.
J. A. SWETTENHAM.
RESIDENT GENERAL to the HIGH COMMISSIONER.
(Confidential. No. 506/97.)
Resident General's Office, Selangor, Malay Peninsula,
August 23, 1898.
IN September, 1891, I forwarded to the Governor of the Straits Settlements a memorandum on the registration of prostitutes, of which I now enclose a copy. I also enclose copies of an extract from the report of the Acting Protector of Chinese, Perak, for the year 1894, and copy of a letter, dated 1st August, 1895, from Dr. Haviland, a distinguished Perak surgeon.
2. I cannot speak with any exact knowledge of what was done in the other States to protect prostitutes, especially Chinese prostitutes, but I can say with confidence that in Perak the Government, by means of the rules framed from time to time, had been able to extend efficient protection to a class which required it more than any other in the State.
3. Without consulting the Sultan or Chiefs, and against their most strongly ex- pressed opinions, Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State sent out instructions which put a stop to all the measures in force here for the protection of the unfortunate wonen
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whose health and liberty we had hitherto done something to safeguard. The condition of prostitutes in the Malay States now is probably worse than it has ever been; for the Government, having made rules for their protection and insisted on the observance of them, has withdrawn its protection and left the women, especially those of Chinese nationality, to be dealt with by their owners (masters and mistresses) as those people, the most infamous of their kind, think best for their own interests, without the smallest reference to the health, comfort, or wishes of the women whom they hold in the vilest form of slavery.
4. I do not understand how the views of a section of the British electorate can, with any show of justice or even tolerance, be forced upon the people of a Malay State, where the conditions of society bear hardly any resemblance to those which obtain in England, but where the ruler of the State, his chiefs and advisers, who know what they have to deal with, are unanimously in favour of a course of action. I very respectfully submit that their judgment should [not] be set aside except for the strongest reasons— reasons which can be shown to have such weight in this country (not in a foreign land 8,000 miles away) that their force and value will convince an unprejudiced mind that they are valid and should be accepted.
5. The British people have every right to decide how their own social questions shall be settled, but I cannot see how they can fairly impose their will upon the Govern- ment and people of a Malay State, and when that course means the indescribable misery of a large number of helpless women, who have never heard the name of England, it is not surprising that the compulsory ruling of a powerful Government should be regarded as an act of oppression which is bitterly resented by those responsible for the welfare of all who are subject to Malay administration in the Protected States.
6. I wish to say as little as possible on this subject myself, but it is my duty to represent the facts, and I now enclose for Your Honour's perusal a paper on the condi- tion of the brothels and prostitutes in the Protected Malay States from the pen of Mr. Hare, Secretary for Chinese Affairs, together with reports by some of the Government Surgeons dealing with the same subject.
7. As Resident of Perak I did what I could to protect these unfortunate women, and I would have gone further, and insisted upon a greater regard for their health and that of the people who patronise them, and for whom we have to find, at some time or other, employment, medical attendance, hospital accommodation, and in many cases a pauper's burial; but, at the moment when the Perak State Council wished to insist upon some form of medical inspection, I was ordered to cancel the regulations we had built up to protect the prostitutes against their unnatural masters and mistresses.
९. When I saw by the newspaper reports (some of which are enclosed*) that a strong effort was being made to do something in India, I called for the reports I now enclose, and I confess that, to read what Mr. Hare has written, makes me feel that it is very difficult to hold my position in the Federated Malay States with the responsibility for such a horrible state of affairs as he describes.
9. I imagine that we have almost as little right to try to suppress prostitution in the Malay States, as the Sultan of Turkey would have to forbid the consumption of in- toxicants in England; and when Chinese prostitution means the supply of two thousand women to a population of at least 200,000 men, the Government is hardly likely to wish to accentuate such an enormous difference in the sexes. But I would rather shut up all the Chinese brothels than appear to countenance the horrible evils of brothel slavery as practised in Chinese brothels. As the matter stands, the Government either counten- ances what is going on every day, or weakly declines to extend its protection to Chinese women, while we have laws to protect Chinese men, as well as strangers of other nationalities.
10. I appeal, therefore, to Your Honour to obtain, and that without delay, per- mission to allow me to reintroduce regulations for registering prostitutes, for inspecting brothels, for insisting upon their proper construction and sanitation, and for doing all that we used to do to alleviate the condition of these unfortunate women, who, exiled from their country, are the absolute slaves of vile procuresses and brothel keepers, who carry on their trade, under our protection, with our full knowledge, and employing methods which we not only tacitly approve, but from which we have been compelled, against our conviction, to withdraw almost every form of restraint.
11. Your Honour will understand that this letter is not the result of any repre- sentation made to me, either by those whose cause I plead, or by any other section of
• Not printed.
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