CO882-6 — Page 63

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

TPIPC.O. 882

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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reach and hearing of officials or responsible persons, who would voice their complaints and hardships, would be strenuously resisted by the brothel keepers in some way. This is quite understandable; and it is for this reason that I view compulsion of some kind as essential.

4. The foregoing being the position, it is in my view the bounden duty of Govern- ment to find some effectual means of checking and remedying the evil.

5. If I am called upon to suggest a plan or channel by which this check or remedy could most effectually be introduced, I would suggest (seeing it has been asserted that the Home Government will never permit re-enactment of the Contagious Diseases Ordinance) that our local Government should seek for and introduce a means of check- ing the disease and reducing the evil under our Municipal Ordinance and Regulations, somewhat in the same way as that corporation deals now with zymotic diseases. I make this suggestion in a general way, viewing that it will be for Government to formulate the plan and the details of its working.

Singapore, February 20, 1899.

Enclosure 4 in No. 30.

MEMORANDUM.

GAN ENG SENG.

On the Proposal to Check the Spread of Venereal Disease.

My views having been asked by His Excellency the Governor as to the best means of checking the spread of venereal diseases in the Colony, I have, after careful con- sideration, and after consulting men whose opinions I have faith in, the honour to submit the following:—

The Contagious Diseases Ordinance should be re-enacted, and brothels brought under the control of the authorities.

Nothing else in my opinion will check the spread of venereal diseases.

Singapore, February 21, 1899.

SIR,

Enclosure 5 in No. 30.

L. CHENG YAN.

Singapore, April 5, 1899.

In compliance with the request of His Excellency the Governor, I beg now to submit the following suggestions, which may be of service to the Government in its attempt to abate the increase of venereal diseases.

In the first instance, I do not see how, without legally instituted authority, we can ever hope to compel the brothel keepers to act in accordance with any rules to be drafted for the purpose.

Whatever we do, there must be occasions when compulsion becomes necessary, and it is a serious question whether it is advisable to connive at private coercion, whether by police officers or by interested medical men. It seems altogether much more desirable to pass in the Legislative Council a short enactment to enable the police to control all brothels, with full power to close any house of ill-fame if deemed expedient for the public welfare, without the necessity of waiting for the complaints of neighbours. These latter in certain districts will never be forthcoming. The Governor in Council will be empowered to pass rules for the guidance of the police, and in con- junction with the police Mr. Hare's scheme may be worked.

Let the police notify all brothel occupants that unless the latter will, after due notice, furnish from time to time proper certificates that their respective houses are free from contagious diseases, the police authorities will proceed to close such houses as fail to do so. The officer entrusted with this work should be provided with a list of all duly qualified medical men, whose certificates the police will recognise. All medical men undertaking the work of certification must abide by the regulations issued by the proper authorities, and non-observance on their part of such rules may justify the Governor in Council in removing the name of such transgressors from the list of those whose certificates are approved. This is absolutely necessary, otherwise all our efforts will end in a farce. It is very common now for prostitutes to be voluntarily examined weekly, and to receive certificates of "soundness" while they are actually suffering from contagious diseases. The examining medical attendant must have power to stop an infected woman from continuing in her business.

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It is difficult to say whether private quarantine should be allowed. I am of opinion that it will be popular, but on the whole a single hospital under Government supervision is best. This is certain to be unpopular, but we must do the best we can. ~ Private quarantine is liable to abuses, for we cannot trust subordinates in these matters.

Considering that these measures are to a great extent entirely preventive-to be taken in hand before the presence or existence of contagious diseases-it will be ap- parent that the sections of the Municipal Ordinance relating to infectious diseases cannot be appropriately applied. Nor does it seem to me advisable to work this under the Municipal Ordinance. Logically, the Municipal Health Officer ought also to look after this business, but on the whole it is better for the police to work this scheme in conjunction with qualified medical men.

The Government may appoint a medical board to help the police. A medical board will naturally consist of Government officers. These are to advise the police in all medical matters that may arise in connection with their work.

According to this scheme, the medical practitioners will act as medical attendants to the women, who will be responsible for their fees. The examinations are to be con- ducted privately, and in the women's own houses. In time very few women will object to examination. At first a good many will certainly refuse to be examined, but any medical man will soon gain the confidence of these women when they are duly informed of the objects of the examination. A sine quâ non of the conditions essential to the success of the scheme is that the women should be as little as possible exposed to the public as diseased persons carrying infective material with them. The removal to the quarantine station should be done by the women themselves going there. medical man finds that his orders are not obeyed, he refuses to furnish certificates, and the house must be closed by the police.

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All women and men who defy the police should be banished from the Colony for ten years. Otherwise they will give a lot of trouble by opening houses elsewhere after having been ejected. I don't think that any one will complain if the Govrnment will do it. We banish people for gambling-why not for demoralising the inhabitants and for disseminating disease.

These are briefly my views, and, short of re-enacting the fundamental clauses of Contagious Diseases Ordinance, I think the measures outlined above are quite practical, and at least they can easily be put to a practical test without great cost or trouble.

I have, &c.,

LIM BOON KENG.

Hon. Sir Alex. Swettenham, K.C.M.G.,

Colonial Secretary, Straits Settlements.

(Confidential.)

Enclosure 6 in No. 30.

Municipal Commissioners' Office, Singapore, April 4, 1899. We, the undersigned Municipal Commissioners, have carefully considered the sub- ject brought to our notice verbally by His Excellency the Governor at a conference at Government House on the 2nd February.

2. We were then asked to consider how far it might be possible, without re-enact- ing the Contagious Diseases Ordinances (to which the Imperial Parliament is still opposed) to exercise medical inspection and control over brothels and their inmates, and check or diminish the spread of the worst forms of venereal disease which are in- creasingly prevalent in the Colony.

3. Two suggestions were made to us:—

(1) That by an Order in Council to be made in pursuance of Section 3 of the Muni- cipal Ordinance (No. XV. of 1896) the Governor should declare venereal diseases to bo included within the expression "dangerous infectious disease" used in the Ordinance, and so brought directly under the cognizance of the Municipal Health Officer, and made liable to be dealt with under the sections of the Ordinance which relate to "the prevention of infectious diseases" (Sections 22 to 231 both inclusive).

(2) That pressure should be brought to bear on the managers of brothels to submit prostitutes to a system of regular medical visitation and inspection conducted under proper safeguards by competent and responsible medical officers, implying, of course, the segregation for medical treatment of any prostitute found to be suffering from venereal disease.

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