CO129-265 - Public Offices & Others - 1894 — Page 50

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The following petition to the President of the Rangoon Municipality.

To Major R. G. TEMPLE, C.I.E., President, Rangoon Municipality, the memorial of the undersigned inhabi tants of Rangoon.

RESPECTFULLY SHEWETH—That whereas prostitution of the most flagrant character and the most shameless solicitation thereto are being openly practised in nearly every quarter of the town by persons both of European and of Asiatic nationality, to the serious detriment of the public health and morals, and whereas they have reason to believe that numbers of the unfortunate women are living in a condition little better than that of slavery, and that young girls may be and actually are being bought and sold for immoral purposes:

Your memorialists would respectfully call your attention to these crying evils in the hope that steps may be speedily taken for their suppression, or at the very least that the said evils may be confined within the narrowest possible limits, and that solicitation in the streets may be summarily suppressed, or that such other steps may be taken in the direction indicated as the nature of the case may demand.

And your memorialists shall ever pray.

THE PRESIDENT said: I have had the names of the memorialists counted and I find they number 1,104. I have also carefully examined the signatures, and I find they are of persous easily traceable and may be assumed to have been appended to the petition boná fide, and to be those of poople who quite understood what it was about. Many of the names are household words in Rangoon; many more are quite familiar to me; several more are those of persons universally held in high esteem in the town; some are those of the present Municipal Commissioners themselves. The addresses given are mostly in the heart of the town itself, the very place where the evils mentioned in the petition are most grievously felt. Every nationality is represented. The Englishman, American, German, the European generally, the Eurasian, the Jew, the Armenian, the Parsi, the Native of Southern and Northern India, Hindn and Mahomedan, the Chinese, have all signed. Many of the signatures are in the various vernaculars current in Rangoon. Every class of the people has signed: merchants and heads of offices, traders, clerks and subordinates of every kind, advocates, engineers, ministers of religion and missionaries, representatives of the sea-faring population. Almost every important office and firm is represented either by its superior or subordinate members, Followers of every shade and kind of religious belief are represented :-Christians, Hudus, Mahomedans and Bud- dhists, of all sorts alike. Such a memorial we cannot possibly ignore or set aside, and how- ever distasteful the discussion of such an unsavoury subject may be to us individually, we must take up and inquire into and try to remedy the grievance so universally and strong- ly felt.

Now, the first thing for us to do is to keep clearly before ourselves what it is we are asked to do. We are told, first, that prostitution and solicitation are openly and flagrantly practised in every quarter of Rungoon; secondly, that numbers of the prostitutes are living in a condition little better than that of slavery," which means, I take it, that they are so bound by circumstances to persons who supply them with necessities that no other livelihood is open to them; thirdly, that girls are bought and sold for immoral purposes. We are then asked first to summarily suppress solicitation in the streets, socondly, to sup- press or confine to the narrowest possible limits the three evils complained of; thirdly, at any rate to take steps in this direction. Now as to the possibilities: in the nature of things it is possible to suppreas open and public solicitation, slavery of any kind, and buying and selling for prostitution; in the nature of things it is not possible to suppress prostitution, and it is not possible to prevent the foolish and heedless from so involving themselves as to be obliged to lead lives akin to slavery, but it is possible to coufine prosti- tution to the narrowest possible limits and to make it easy for persons involved in the manner above mentioned to obtain release. What can be done then is to suppress pub. lie solicitation and traffic in girls for prostitution; to relieve the prostitute hopelessly in- volved under existing law or custom; to confine prostitution to the narrowest possible limits.

As to the first three points, it may be taken for granted that the public and the Legislature, both in England and India, would be with us in any reasonable alteration of or addition to the existing law that we might prove to be necessary, but as to the last point I would warn you seriously that it will be exceedingly difficult to devise any step that cannot be stigmatised as "State regulation of vice.' As to public feeling in England regarding this subject we had a clear indication about five years ago when the special laws in India relating to the control of prostitution had to be abrogated in deference to English opinion, and we again had a further unmistakeable indication during the present year in the agitation raised as to the carrying out in Cantonments of the orders of Government issued upon that abrogation.

Now. gentlemen, when we propose as a Manicipality to take action on a point like the one under discussion,.we must take auch exhibitions of public feeling into consideration;

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it is folly not to do so. In such a case what we have to consider is-not what you and I and the people of this town, want-not what you and I and they think wise and right, but really what we can induce those who control and guide public opinion at large to allow us to do.

I do not say this in order to shelve a disagreeable question, but merely to warn you of the necessity of an exceedingly cautious line of action. Believe me, the people of Rangoon will gain nothing by rushing at such a matter. They can only hope to succeed by walking warily.

The memorial before us does not give any proof of its assertions, and does not indi- cate any particular method by which the wishes of those who framed it may be compassed. It is clearly intended by the memorialists for us to take any action necessary, and to as- certain definitely the facts on which our action should be based. I am not prepared today to propuse any line of action or of inquiry, or to state how far existing laws cover the de- sires of the memorialists, or oven how far their statement of facts will bear investigation; but I think we all know that in one respect at any rate, namely, as to solicitation and the open practice of prostitution everywhere, they are not overstating their case. The blind- est of us cannot help knowing the condition by day or night, of two of our most frequent- ed thoroughfares, Canal Street and Godwin Road, and I hope that should we find it neces- sary to appeal to the Legislature to mend that condition, even the most thorough-going opponents of the regulation of vice will see that it is wrong to permit prostitutes to publicly carry on their profession unabashed and as they choose, that it is wrong to bring prominently before the rising generation the fact that the law of the land is unable to check the open practice of the most shameless form of vice. I suppose that most members of the Committee are aware that side by side in Canal Street are situated our Municipal Girls' School and an obvious brothel; they are actually within thirty feet of each other. In the same street also is St. Mary's School for girls. I think I am justified in saying that it is scandalously wrong that we should be unable by law-as apparently we are unable to prevent the existence opposite the necessarily open windows, of our school for girls of all ages and kinds, within thirty feet of it, of as flagraut, unmistakable, ostenta- tiously offensive a brothel as can well be imagined.

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DR. PEDLEY, interposing: There are two other schools in the same street. THE PRESIDENT, continuing: Take again the case of the Convent in Fraser Street. Girls walking to their daily lessons there have before them the spectacle of women openly living in a way they should not. The Sisters there, if they leave their doors, have thrust No anti (D. upon them sights that cannot but be shocking to them. Surely the vexiest fanatic mustaal thank see that such things cannot possibly be right.

"Ever heard

Gentlemen, in my remarks I have endeavoured to impress upon you that the me- morial we are considering deals with a real and flagrant evil, that the memorialists are serious in their desire to mitigate it, that it is incumbent upon us to take such action as we may find desirable upon enquiry to that end. But it is necessary to proceed with the greatest caution and only after the fullest inquiry. It will be necessary to ascertain the actual extent of the evil complained of; how far the existing law can meet it; and, fually, what steps we should take to correct any defect which we may discover in the law. order then to carry out the procedure I have indicated, I propose as a first measure on the memorial ;-

"That the Committee requests the President to enquire fully into the memorial and report for the consideration of the Committee the facts be may ascertain how far the existing law meets those facts, and what action, if any, he considers desirable for the Committee to take on the memorial."

MR. MADURAY PILLAY said: The President has not gone far enough in his statement. In the immediate neighbourhood of this hall, where this meeting is now being held, there are openly practised the evils he has set forth in main streets and close to Mahommedan, Madrasi and Bengali Schools for boys and girls.

The VICE-PRESIDENT said: I second the President's proposition.

The President's proposition was then put to the meeting and carried unanimously.

From B. O, WALES, Esq., Officiating Secretary, Rangoon Municipality, to the Members of the Municipal Committee, Rangoon,-Circular No. 1699-745, dated the 20th January 1894.

I AM directed to circulate a memorandum by the President, conveying his report to

the Committee in consequence of its resolution of the 19th December 1893.

It will be seen that, in the President's opinion, the matter of prostitution in Rangoon can be adequately dealt with by the introduction of two sections amending the Lower Burma Municipal Act.

These two sections are stated respectively in paragraphs 11 and 15 of the memo- randum.

MEMORANDUM,

Os the 19th December 1893, the Committee passed the following resolution, after reading a very largely signed petition to the President, Rangoon Municipality, regarding prostitution and solicitation in Rangoon :-

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