281
. PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
EPLIC.O. 882/11
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- | COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
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(3) The argument is frequently used that at any rate it must be a good thing for the sake of health to remove diseased prostitutes. I would grant that the immediate effect is good but figures show that the ultimate result of Government trying to make vice safe is to undermine morality and increase disease. History shows that it is a case of "penny wise and pound foolish. It must be acknowledged that the immediate effect of stopping regulation (and the same could apply partly to stopping segregation), is a small increase of disease, but that when the community pulls itself round to a stronger moral tone then the disease is checked and steadily diminishes.
(4) There is the question of yellow slavery. To get information on this subject such as could be presented in the Law Court is probably almost impossible unless a man has a large amount of time at his disposal, but the methods described as being carried out for keeping brothels up to their full strength are so persistent and come from so many sources that one cannot According to these reports, the but believe that there is truth in them. brothel keepers periodically go up to China and buy fresh girls. The girls are brought down here and have to appear before the Chinese Protector and inake a declaration that they wish to adopt this life. The intention of the Government is excellent, but it is so commonly said that these girls are forced to make this declaration under fear, that one cannot but believe that there is some truth in the report.
I have notes of a conversation with a past Colonial Secretary some years ago, in which he said, "there is no white slavery in Singapore, I own I do not know how a but there is undoubtedly yellow slavery.' thorough investigation of this kind could take place. The evidence would obviously be most difficult to obtain, but at least the possibility of the existence of yellow slavery should be taken into account when considering the whole subject of Registration of Prostitutes.
(5) Although in the Report there is reference to the poor China-born Chinese, that is the Chinese coolie, as being very much diseased, educated Chinese men born in China, or in some cases born and brought up here, tell me that the chief difficulty does not come amongst those who come from I have China, but comes in the case of those who are brought up here. already indicated how the state of having big brothel areas in the central part of the town would give a very good reason why this should be natural. There would I feel be little use in pointing out the defects in the main suggestions of the local Venereal Diseases Committee if one did not also call attention to the fact that they have completely ignored three very important ways of dealing with the disease, all of which have at various times and places been tried with considerable effect and none of which is open to the moral objections which can be raised against the system of regulation. These are briefly :-
(1) Compulsory notification of all cases, male and female. with compul- and women who sory treatment of all, and penalties both for men communicate the disease to others.
(2) The inauguration of a large number of free clinics helped by Government grants but not confined in their management to Government doctors.
(3) The removal as far as possible of the bad houses from the population and at the same time the providing of other sources of occupation and amusement.
I will point out how these have worked and their applicability here.
(1) The compulsory notification and compulsory treatment of all cases, male and female, is especially connected with Sweden, where after three years' working the incidence of disease is said to have diminished by sixty per cent. in Stockholm and by 40 per cent. in the whole country. This was at least the theory of the "Cantonment Act of 1898" in India under which no registration of prostitutes or licensing them was allowed. One does not see any insuperable difficulty to this in the Straits Settlements, though of course it would not be altogether easy in such a fluctuating population.
(2) The inauguration of a large number of free Venereal Disease Clinics. An article in the Lancet published in December, 1923, implies that this had been used with great success in Vienna recently. In England it has also had considerable effect in diminishing venereal disease.
This
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would have to be accompanied by warnings as to the dangers of venereal The disease and advice to get treatment at the earliest opportunity. Government have already got at least two such clinics in Singapore. They have not, I am informed, met with all the success which was expected, partly on account of the difficulty of persuading patients to continue the treatment for a sufficiently long period.
I cannot but think that there is considerable chance of real effect following the extension of this system, which should not be confined to Government doctors. It is of course a prejudiced view of matters (and to anyone who knows the excellent work done by many Government doctors it is a most unfair idea) hut there does undoubtedly exist in the mind of some In a country which is so rich Asiatics a dread of Government Institutions.
as this, it would be easy to devote part of the annual surplus to assisting such clinics if properly officered and if used for supplying treatment to the poor who could not afford the fees which are necessarily charged by private practitioners. I know that this scheme of helping private practitioners to take their part in this battle does not always meet with Government approval. When in 1921, a doctor holding the highest medical qualifications given in England, who had in the previous 12 months studied the latest methods in London, asked for a grant towards giving such free treatment to the poor. the request was refused by the Principal Civil Medical Officer. surely it is reasonable to use the help of all who are qualified to give it, providing them, at Government expense for free treatment of the poor, with necessary drugs and apparatus.
But
(3) The removal of the bad houses from the population, or the population from the vicinity of the bad houses, and the providing of other sources of amusement for the population is more fitted for Military forces than for civil life. As such, it has been successful with the Army in India in the last 25 years, and particularly with the American Army in Panama at the end of the war. (See the article on "The Anti-venereal Disease Campaign in Panama" by Herbert Goodman in the Journal of Social Hygiene of New York, March, 1923.)
Although this cannot be followed out in the same way with a civilian popula- tion as with a military force, there are some points in which it could be followed in Singapore.
(a) The brothel areas could at least be driven out from their central positions (see Map*).
(b) More could be provided in the nature of public recreation. No band plays in public except in the Botanical Gardens, three miles from the town- too far for poor people to go. Also although there are three big spaces open to the public-the Reclamation area, the sea front, and the People's Park- in no one of them is there a single seat of any kind. There is no counter attraction to vice provided by public authority. Side by side with any means of this kind there might well be the encouragement of any moral teaching which can be given, and of such societies as aim at giving healthy recreation and amusement. It is perfectly true that the great mass of the Chinese is not Christian. But there are in their classics, especially in the writings of Confucius, passages which denounce harlotry without scruple.
I plead, therefore, that it would be more profitable to employ means which have proved their effectiveness elsewhere rather than go back to a system like regulation, which apart from its immoral tendencies has proved such a failure both in time past and in recent years-as is proved by the figures of the British Army hoth in the last half of the 19th century, and in the Rhine area since the war.
May I in conclusion with all due deference suggest that, as the recent Venereal Diseases Committee here entered on its task with the mind of the majority of its medical members made up and did not take the usual steps to ascertain the full facts on the subject, a new Committee should be appointed with a Chairman from England who would be free from all local prejudices, and with at least two medical members of experience from outside this country, but including also some local persons who are known to hold different views on this subject, so that all facts may bo ascertained, and that such a Committee shall be requested to take evidence from such doctors, schoolmasters, and other social workers, as wish to give evidence,
* Not reproduced.