with great care, and every effort was made to administer them with success. Every year a report of each lock hospital was submitted to the Sanitary Department, and year after year suggestions were made and acted on for rendering the system more efficient. In every cantonment a special sub-committee was formed, whose duty it was to look to the working of the rules, to propose improvements, and generally to see that both the civil and military authorities who were alike concerned, should pull together with that energy and co-operation which were essential. "When the rules were first promulgated, the Sanitary Department was sanguine that venereal diseases, which always occupied such a prominent place as a cause of sickness and invaliding among European soldiers in India, would be reduced to a mere fraction of what they had been, and even after years of unsuccessful result it was still hoped that with increased care and greater stringency the desired end might yet be attained. But there can be no question that the outcome was a failure."
We say that it was a failure, and that it was bound to be a failure, because vice was promoted and provided for by the Government and military authorities of India in the most shameless way. This is a very serious accusation, and I hesitate in any assembly, public or private, to detail the outrageous facts. But I cannot make a charge like this without indicating on what it is based. It is enough to say that Government officials ordered so many women for "the use of the troops" much in the same way as they might have ordered so many sheep or other animals for food. The circular memorandum of Major-General Chapman is notorious. It has been published as a Parliamentary Paper, No. 197, 1888. It urges the necessity of having "a sufficient number of women, and to take care that they are sufficiently attractive, and to provide them with proper houses."
It also advises that young soldiers should be instructed how to avoid the physical results of vice, by personal ablution, and so forth. It is sometimes represented that this circular was quite exceptional in its character. But this is a misrepresentation. There are many other documents of a similar character; for instance, in 1888, the commanding officer of the Connaught Rangers in an official document advised that--- "Cantonment magistrates should be desired to give all possible aid to commanding officers in procuring a sufficient number of young, attractive and healthy women."
I have seen a copy of a form of requisition for the 2nd Cheshire regiment, detailing the number of men in the force, the number of prostitutes already at their disposal, and desiring that an additional number should be supplied, carriage paid, without delay.
Public funds, raised by taxation, were used in promoting vice. Prostitutes were allowed free quarters in cantonments; assistance was officially promised them from "cantonment funds to make their houses convenient to themselves and their visitors"; a woman, called a matron or mahaldarni, really a procuress, was placed over the prostitutes, and was a salaried Government official. These women sometimes received wages three times as high as those earned by their fathers in return for seven days' honest work per week in the fields. In an official document one of these regimental matrons is complained of that she lacks energy and does not take the trouble to attract good-looking women."
It is worth remembering that almost at the same time that the Criminal Law Amendment Act was being passed in England with a view to checking the trade in vice, Government officials in India in their official capacity were committing the very actions that were being made penal here. One of the most striking things connected with the horrible documents I have quoted is that their authors saw, and I believe continue to see, no harm in them. Major General Chapman wrote to the Government of India a year after the date of his notorious circular that
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with great care, and every effort was made to administer them with success. Every year a report of each lock hospital was submitted to the Sanitary Department, and year after year sug gestions were made and acted on for rendering the system more efficient. In every cantonment a special sub-committee was formed, whose duty it was to look to the working of the rules, to propose improvements, and generally to see that both the civil and military authorities who were alike concerned, should pull together with that energy and co-operation which were essential. "When the rules were first promulgated, the Sanitary Depart- ment was sanguine that venereal diseases, which always occu- pied such a prominent place as a cause of sickness and invalid- ing among European soldiers in India, would be reduced to a mere fraction of what they had been, and even after years of unsuccessful result it was still hoped that with increased care and greater stringency the desired end might yet be attained. But there can be no question that the outcome was a failure."
We say that it was a failure, and that it was bound to be a failure, because vice was promoted and provided for by the Government and military authorities of India in the most shameless way. This is a very serious accusation, and I hesitate in any assembly, public or private, to detail the outrageous facts. But I cannot make a charge like this without indicating on what it is based. It is enough
to say that Government officials ordered so many women for "the use of the troops" much in the same way as they might have ordered so many sheep or other animals for food. The circular memorandum of Major-General Chapman is notorious. It has been published as a Parliamentary Paper, No. 197, 1888. It urges the necessity of having "a sufficient number of women, and to take care that they are sufficiently attractive, and to provide them with proper houses."
It also advises that young soldiers should be instructed how to avoid the physical results of vice, by personal ablution, and so forth. It is sometimes represented that this circular was quite exceptional in its character. But
9
this is a misrepresentation. There are many other docu- ments of a similar character; for instance, in 1888, the commanding officer of the Connaught Rangers in an official document advised that---
"Cantonment magistrates should be desired to give all possible aid to commanding officers in procuring a sufficient number of young, attractive and healthy women."
I have seen a copy of a form of requisition for the 2nd Cheshire regiment, detailing the number of men in the force, the number of prostitutes already at their disposal, and desiring that an additional number should be supplied, carriage paid, without delay.
Public funds, raised by taxation, were used in promoting vice. Prostitutes were allowed free quarters in canton- ments; assistance was officially promised them from "can- tonment funds to make their houses convenient to them- selves and their visitors"; a woman, called a matron or mahaldarni, really a procuress, was placed over the pros- titutes, and was a salaried Government official. These women sometimes received wages three times as high as those earned by their fathers in return for seven days' honest work per week in the fields. In an official docu- ment one of these regimental matrons is complained of that she lacks energy and does not take the trouble to attract good-looking women."
It is worth remembering that almost at the same time that the Criminal Law Amendment Act was being passed in England with a view to checking the trade in vice, Government officials in India in their official capacity were committing the very actions that were being made peval here. One of the most striking things connected with the horrible documents I have quoted is that their authors saw, and I believe continue to see, no harm in them. Major General Chapman wrote to the Government of India a year after the date of his notorious circular that
133
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