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ed to attend for a hospital examination; if found to be diseased her card was taken from her and her record was removed from the house book until she had received hospital treatment and was considered to be cured. There was never any difficulty in compelling the girl to receive treatment since the mistress of the brothel knew that her house would be liable to closure if she was found to be employing a girl without a card and she was also herself liable to be fined if she allowed a diseased prostitute to work in the premises under her control.
Stricter controls were enforced by the police on prostitutes catering for Europeans. Their brothels were confined to a particular area in the east end of the city and the girls were expected to attend for a weekly examination by a firm of private medical practitioners in the area. In addition to the sanctions imposed by the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs, brothels could be put out of bounds to servicemen by the naval and military authorities if a soldier or sailor suffering from venereal disease identified the girl he had patronised; each girl was required to keep a book in which every client was supposed to enter his name and address and the time of his visit, and these books were open to inspection by the police and military authorities whenever a complaint was made.
This system was generally approved by the Chinese and European unofficial members, and also by the military authorities. The government claimed that as a result the streets of Hong Kong were kept free of streetwalkers who might pester passers-by, and the navy and army garrison were kept free of disease. In 1922 only 7 per cent of the soldiers were under treatment for venereal disease, which was only slightly higher than the proportion infected in Britain. The system was much less effective in controlling the spread of venereal disease in the Chinese population. On the basis of examinations of patients admitted to the government hospital for other complaints it was estimated that at least 27 per cent of the Chinese male population were infected with syphilis, and possibly, if doubtful cases were included, the rate of infection could be as high as 40 per cent. It was believed that the registered brothels used by Chinese in the West Point area were often the source of infection since their inmates were not subjected to periodic examination as were those catering for the European population. The
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150
R.J. MINERS
ed to attend for a hospital examination; if found to be diseased her card was taken from her and her record was removed from the house book until she had received hospital treatment and was considered to be cured. There was never any difficulty in compel- ling the girl to receive treatment since the mistress of the brothel knew that her house would be liable to closure if she was found to be employing a girl without a card and she was also herself liable to be fined if she allowed a diseased prostitute to work in the premises under her control.
Stricter controls were enforced by the police on prostitutes ca- tering for Europeans. Their brothels were confined to a particular area in the east end of the city and the girls were expected to attend for a weekly examination by a firm of private medical practitio- ners in the area. In addition to the sanctions imposed by the Secre- tariat for Chinese Affairs, brothels could be put out of bounds to servicemen by the naval and military authorities if a soldier or sailor suffering from venereal disease identified the girl he had patronised; each girl was required to keep a book in which every client was supposed to enter his name and address and the time of his visit, and these books were open to inspection by the police and military authorities whenever a complaint was made.
This system was generally approved by the Chinese and Euro- pean unofficial members, and also by the military authorities. The government claimed that as a result the streets of Hong Kong were kept free of streetwalkers who might pester passers-by, and the navy and army garrison were kept free of disease. In 1922 only 7 per cent of the soldiers were under treatment for venereal disease, which was only slightly higher than the proportion infected in Britain. The system was much less effective in controlling the spread of venereal disease in the Chinese population. On the basis of examinations of patients admitted to the government hospital for other complaints it was estimated that at least 27 per cent of the Chinese male population were infected with syphilis, and possi- bly, if doubtful case were included, the rate of infection could be as high as 40 per cent. It was believed that the registered brothels used by Chinese in the West Point area were often the source of infection since their inmates were not subjected to periodic exami- nation as were those catering for the European population. The
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