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This report was sent to Hong Kong for comment; a committee was appointed by the Governor which naturally refuted the more extreme of Mrs. Neville-Rolfe's strictures, and disagreed with her recommendations. Correspondence between the Governor and the Colonial Office on the matter continued for several years. Stubbs strongly supported the established system of regulation and the only suggestion that he was prepared to implement was the provision of free outpatient treatment for venereal diseases at the government hospital. Meanwhile in London the National Council for Combating Venereal Disease and other women's organizations continued to badger the Colonial Office to put pressure on Hong Kong, and the report by Mrs. Neville-Rolfe and Dr. Hallam provided a fine source of material for questions in the House of Commons, particularly from a small group of newly elected women M.P.s, led by Viscountess Astor.
The main focus of parliamentary attention, however, was not on Hong Kong but Singapore. The government of the Straits Settlements had repealed its contagious diseases legislation in 1894 at the same time as Hong Kong and had set up a similar extra-legal system of tolerated houses. As in Hong Kong, newly arrived prostitutes were interviewed by the staff of the Chinese Protectorate, lists of known brothels and their inmates were maintained and brothel mistresses arranged for their girls to be inspected by private doctors under the implicit threat of the closure of their premises. But this system of control had become less effective and comprehensive by the 1920s. All European prostitutes had been deported in 1916 as a wartime measure, and the Japanese brothels had been closed and their inmates repatriated to Japan at the instance of the Japanese consul-general in 1919. Their clientele then turned to the growing number of sly brothels staffed by Chinese and Malay women who were not subject to any form of control and who were, it was alleged, normally infected with disease. This led to a rapid increase in venereal disease among both the European and Chinese population. Exact figures were not available but various doctors estimated the incidence at between 50 and 75 per cent among the local Chinese and possibly at as high a ratio among the Europeans. In 1923 the Governor appointed a small expert committee of medical men to investigate the problem. After painting a grim picture of the situation the committee
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This report was sent to Hong Kong for comment; a committee was appointed by the Governor which naturally refuted the more ex- treme of Mrs. Neville-Rolfe's strictures, and disagreed with her recommendations. Correspondence between the Governor and the Colonial Office on the matter continued for several years. Stubbs strongly supported the established system of regulation and the only suggestion that he was prepared to implement was the provision of free outpatient treatment for venereal diseases at the government hospital. Meanwhile in London the National Council for Combating Venereal Disease and other women's orga- nizations continued to badger the Colonial Office to put pressure on Hong Kong, and the report by Mrs. Neville-Roife and Dr. Hallam provided a fine source of material for questions in the House of Commons, particularly from a small group of newly elected women M.P.s, led by Viscountess Astor.
The main focus of parliamentary attention, however, was not on Hong Kong but Singapore. The government of the Straits Set- tlements had repealed its contagious diseases legislation in 1894 at the same time as Hong Kong and had set up a similar extra-legal system of tolerated houses. As in Hong Kong, newly arrived pros- titutes were interviewed by the staff of the Chinese Protectorate, lists of known brothels and their inmates were maintained and brothel mistresses arranged for their girls to be inspected by pri- vate doctors under the implicit threat of the closure of their premises. But this system of control had become less effective and comprehensive by the 1920s. All European prostitutes had been deported in 1916 as a wartime measure, and the Japanese brothels had been closed and their inmates repatriated to Japan at the instance of the Japanese consul-general in 1919. Their clientele then turned to the growing number of sly brothels staffed by Chi- nese and Malay women who were not subject to any form of control and who were, it was alleged, normally infected with dis- ease. This led to a rapid increase in venereal disease among both the European and Chinese population. Exact figures were not available but various doctors estimated the incidence at between 50 and 75 per cent among the local Chinese and possibly at as high a ratio among the Europeans. In 1923 the Governor appointed a small expert committee of medical men to investigate the prob- lem. After painting a grim picture of the situation the committee
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