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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

PERC.O. 882/11

TTT

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

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Sections XI and XII.-The Committee concurred in these recommendations. (A copy of the notes, as amended by the Committee, is attached as Appendix C.)

IV. It was decided that the Secretary should prepare a draft report for con- sideration at the next Meeting of the Committee.

V. It was decided that the Fourth Meeting of the Committee should be held at the Colonial Office on Thursday, the 2nd April, at 3.30 p.m.

12th March, 1925.

Appendix A.

NOTES PREPARED FOR THE CONSIDERATION OF THE SOCIAL HYGIENE ADVISORY COM- MITTEE AT THE COLONIAL OFFICE BY DR. BOSTOCK HILL, MR. BEATTY, MR. CHAPMAN AND MRS. NEVILLE ROLFE.

I. T is desirable, in order to protect minors, to extend the sphere of influence of the Chinese Protectorate as at present exercised to include the non- Cantonese Chinese and the Malays.

II. It is not recommended that any brothels should be tolerated for the use of the European population.

III. The problem of venereal disease is one that affects the whole population and should be dealt with by medical regulations affecting all sections and both sexes equally.

IV. Free facilities for diagnoses and treatment should be provided for the whole population.

V. That to meet the present situation in Singapore the Quarantine and Pre- vention of Diseases Ordinance, 1918, should be amended so that venereal diseases should be included in its provisions, but regulations should be added prohibiting the compulsory examination of women and girls for venereal disease on arrival in Singa- pore or of male immigrants unless the usual medical examination by the port officer shows evidence of venereal disease.

VI. It is recognized that the compulsory continuous treatment of infective men and women will necessitate the provision of additional accommodation and maintenance for indigent men and women while in a virulently infective condition.

VII. That teaching on the biology of reproduction, the physiological and social value of monogamy and the racial effects of venereal disease should be given full weight in the curriculum of the Singapore Medical College.

VIII. That teaching on the biology of reproduction and the scientific basis of monogamy should be encouraged in all schools including the vernacular.

IX. That the possibilities of using films made with a Chinese back-ground should be explored.

X. That the Public Health Department should encourage the voluntary organization in every way to disseminate information by means of pamphlets. lectures and all forms of suitable propaganda in order to enlighten all sections of the community.

XI. That provision of increased housing accommodation at reasonable rates is very desirable.

XII. That the encouragement of recreational facilities among all sections of the community will tend to improve conditions.

It is recognized that there is also urgent need for improving the facilities for ordinary social intercourse for young British employees with the resident British community and of increasing provision for their leisure, but this is a matter that can hardly be dealt with through official channels.

3rd March, 1925.

Appendix B.

SOCIAL OUTLINE DRAFT PREPARED FOR CONSIDERATION BY THE COLONIAL OFFICE

HYGIENE" ADVISORY COMMITTEE BY LADY ASTOR, DR. DOUGLAS WHITE, Mr. JOHN H. HARRIS.

Note. The Signatories desire to submit a detailed report going fully into the medical and social reasons upon which this brief statement is based, but put in this paper meantime only as a skeleton draft.)

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1. Concerning the Venereal Diseases Ordinances submitted by the Governor of the

Straits Settlements.

While appreciating the special difficulties of the situation in Singapore we cannot assent to the proposals in the Ordinance for the following reasons:-

(1) From a public health point of view the principle of State control of Prostitution is essentially prostitution is fundamentally unsound. unhygienic and no form of control can make it hygienic.

(2) The periodic medical examination of prostitutes by Government order furnishes, in effect, a Government guarantee of the non-infectivity of the women in recognized brothels. This guarantee is a farce and constitutes a fraud on the people.

(3) The registration of brothels by Government and the licensing of prostitutes is contrary to all modern accepted principles of public health, public order and public decency.

(4) It is impossible to bring all or even a majority of the "sly" brothels and "sly" prostitutes under control, and to keep them under control. It has never been accomplished anywhere in the world and is peculiarly hopeless with a native police system.

(5) The definition of "prostitute" given in the Ordinance is unprece- dented and intolerable. It is contrary to every idea of justice.

(6) The Ordinance proposes to continue and possibly even to extend the present scandalous spectacle of streets of brightly illuminated officially recog nized brothels in the centres of the town.

(7) The Singapore V.D. Committee states that practically all prostitutes in the Colony, both "sly" and "known," are diseased. This means that the Government must acquiesce in the procuration and importation of uninfected women as prostitutes. The Government becomes an agent of procuration and to insure non-infectivity the procuration of child prostitutes would be

necessary.

(8) The suggestion is made more than once in the Singapore V.D. Com- mittee's Report and its Appendices that infected prostitutes should be partially desyphilized and put back in the brothels. The assumption is they could neither infect others nor be themselves re-infected.

This we regard as medically impracticable and morally indefensible. Even if it were possible to know how long such a woman will remain non- effective it ignores the danger of mediate contagion.

1. Disparity of the Sexes.

RECOMMENDATIONS.

This sex

As long as the great excess of males over females continues in the Colony the problem of prostitution and venereal disease appears to us to be insoluble, and unlikely to be diminished by the measures in the proposed Ordinance. disparity has mainly been brought about by the immigration of males without females; it seems to us not impossible to remedy this artificial evil. It is, therefore, the urgent duty of the Administration to reduce it by all legitimate means.

(Is there no demand for female labour? Is there no means of increasing the immigration of women for other purposes than prostitution?)

Abolition of Recognized Brothels.

2.

In our view there can be no continuous medical improvement unless the whole system of Government recognized or tolerated brothels is swept away. There are no means known to modern medical science or to administrative experts whereby brothel prostitution can be made medically safe. We are convinced that, so long as two great brothel areas are allowed to remain, brightly illuminated, in the centres of the town and safeguarded by official recognition, no efforts whatever will materially reduce the venereal problem.

2A. The result of abolition of the recognized brothels would be that whereas now some 50 per cent. of the brothels are "sly" all brothels would become "sly" and prostitution would be carried on privately. That is the position in London to-day. Brothels exist but they exist quietly and unostentatiously and are liable at any time. at the discretion of the police, to be prosecuted.

Since 1899 a law has been operating in Singapore whereby any brothel-keeper harbouring a diseased woman is liable to prosecution. Yet the Singapore Report