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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

TILUC.O. 882

6 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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Not so much as the Chinese. We have Malays in hospital of course, but the Malay prostitutes are sly prostitutes, and always were so. Even in the days of the C.D.Ó. we had very few Malay public prostitutes.

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Not many of them came under the provisions of the C.D.O.? No, not many.

I never understood why that was so; it ought to have been pos- sible to have routed them out. There are a good many around Tanglin now, and always have been. Soldiers go there a good deal. Some of them speak a little English, enough for the soldiers at any rate.

In concluding, Dr. Mugliston said that if a medical man gave evidence in favour of the C.D.O., it was often insinuated that he was interested, but this was not so in his case, because if the C.D.O. were reintroduced he would probably have to work it, and the enormous amount of extra work would not be welcome.

The Committee then adjourned until Monday, May 9th, at 11 a.m.

E.

THIRD DAY.

THURSDAY, May 12th, 1898.

Present:-Mr. A. Gentle (in the chair), Dr. Simon, Dr. Middleton, Colonel Penne- father, and Mr. Evans.

The Rev. W. G. Shellabear was the next witness called.

The Chairman explained the objects of the Committee and referred to the de- spatch of the Secretary of State, in which it was suggested that some modification of the regulations in India should be adopted in the Straits Settlements. They were met at once, he said, by the difficulty that there was nothing corresponding to the canton- ment here, whilst it was reported by all the medical men who had been called before the Committee that venereal disease was very prevalent, and the case for the re-enact- ment of the C.D.O. was extremely strong. But then there was this passage in the Secretary of State's despatch: "I have given most careful consideration to this question, and I do not consider it to be proved that the system of contagious diseases acts was really effectual for its purpose. Moreover, it was undoubtedly capable of great abuses, and it was, and continues to be, objected to by a large body of public opinion in this country." That was the particular phase of the matter which they would like him (Mr. Shellabear) to enlighten them upon, because all the people who had come before the Committee did not share these objections. They would like to know upon what grounds these objections rested. There might be strong objections in European coun- tries, where the women were well informed, had ample means of being cured, and in every sense were free agents; but if any one point had been brought out more forcibly before them than another it was that the great bulk of prostitutes in Singapore were not free agents, that many of them were brought here against their will, or sold by their friends, that they were in fact chattels, and received no share in the earnings of their prostitution. They were practically slaves, and there seemed to them to be no alter- native between compulsory examination and segregation, or allowing things simply to take their course. They wanted him (Mr. Shellabear) to tell them if he knew what the objections were to that.

Mr. Shellabear-I presume the objections are much the same here as they are at home, that the regulations are liable to abuse.

Colonel Pennefather-In what way?

Perhaps I may read to you the objections which have been raised at home, and then from that you will be able to compare them with the conditions out here These are the seven reasons. (Reads the following extract from a memorandum issued by the British Committee of the Federation for the abolition of the State Regulation of Vice).

1. That impurity in men is as reprehensible as it is in women.

2. That the regulation of prostitution tends to destroy the idea of the unity of the moral law for the two sexes, and to lower the tone of public opinion in this respect.

3. That every system of organised prostitution encourages profligacy, increases the number of illegitimate births, develops clandestine prostitution, and lowers the standard of public and private morality.

4. That the compulsory medical examination of women, the basis of every system of regulation, is an outrage on women, and tends to destroy, even in the most degraded, the last remnant of modesty which she may retain. -

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5. That the registration of prostitutes is contrary to common law, and to the prin- ciple of liberty.

8. That in regulating vice the State forgets its duty of affording equal protection to both sexes, and in reality degrades the female sex and corrupts both.

7. That the State, whose duty it is to protect minors and to assist them in every good effort, on the contrary incites them to debauchery, in so far as it facilitates it by regulation.

Continuing, witness went on to say-Now the abuses which have been the result of regulation at home have been chiefly in the direction of driving women into prosti- tution, that is to say, it gives a certain power to the police, or to those who have the regulations in hand, over these women.

Colonel Pennefather-In what way?

Sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly.

Colonel Pennefather-Do you mean to say that cases have been known in which a person having authority under the Contagious Diseases Act has induced a woman to submit herself to his wishes on the threat that if she does not he will denounce her as being a prostitute?

Not necessarily to his own wishes, but to become a prostitute.

Colonel Pennefather-He induces her to become a registered prostitute by what means?

By threats.

By threats that he will denounce her as a common prostitute if she does not? Yes.

The Chairman-Even if that were the case at home that would not apply here. Mere unchastity on the part of a woman would not render her liable to the Act.

Mr. Evans-But you know, Mr. Shellabear, that a very large majority of the pro- stitutes here are not free agents?

Yes.

Mr. Evans-Do you think the registration of those prostitutes would be in any way contrary to the principle of liberty, knowing, as you do, that they are not free agents?

Yes, in binding them absolutely; they are only bound now in their own thought. Any registered prostitute can at any time say to me or to any of the officers in charge of the Ordinance, I do not propose to be a prostitute any longer. That is the theory; it never works. Under the Ordinance that was the complaint that the women never did make such complaints.

Colonel Pennefather-It was shown that many of these girls actually left brothels. The Chairman-In a great many cases the women were married. Mr. Evans-Of course.

Witness I have not got the reports of the Protectorate here, but there have been complaints to that effect in the reports of the Protectorate, that the women are very slow to come forward.

Mr. Evans-They are slower now because they have no opportunity of doing so.. In the old days every prostitute used to appear personally before the Protectorate once a quarter and was given an opportunity of saying anything she wished to the Protector of Chinese in her own language to a person who understood her own language. You say that the registration of a prostitute is contrary to the principle of liberty, I ask you

if it was not that registration which gave her the opportunity of claiming her liberty!

You say that it did.

Mr. Evans I ask you if it did not?

It brought them before the Protector.

They have not that opportunity now?

They are given the opportunity when they are already under the tie, the tie being their license.

The Chairman-The license is not an order to prostitute.

Colonel Pennefather-In the same way the registration of criminals is not an order to commit further crime.

Dr. Simon-These women are already bound to carry on prostitution on account

of their relations with the women whose chattels they are.

Do more women elect to lead a moral life and leave the brothels now than before the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Ordinance?

I know of no recent cases at all. The only people I know who have made any

effort to work amongst these people were Mr. and Mrs. Snuggs.

And what was their experience do you know? People do not leave these brothels any more on account of the repeal of the C.D. Act than they did before?