LAW'S AID NEEDED.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18362, 21 April 1925, Page 11

LAW'S AID NEEDED.

'UNSCRUPULOUS WOMEN." DOCTOR'S TRENCHANT COMMENT. A suggestion that the law a.iould enforce attendance of ven>vr<-.al -liseafe cases was made by the Modhal Supc • intondent,(l>r. W. Fox) in rojise of his report to the North Canterbury Hospital Board yesterday, on the progress of the Genito Urinary Department at the Hospital. "The Department still fulfils a useful purpose," ho said, "but will not attain to its maximum hygienic fullness until the law 'enforces attendance. It is > true notification has been instituted, but without a degree of segregation it is difficult to see how compulsion can be forced on. to those who knowingly are spreading disease. We-have no difficulty with the men; they are. the victims- of unscrupulous women, and they faithfully attend to thei r treatment with every desire to get well; they are not degenerates, nor morally depraved. -The woman, on the other hand are totally different. They are morally the cause of all the venereal troubles, and have little or no sense of moral responsibility. As a rule they are casual workers never staying any length of time anywhere. The hygienic patrol spends all her day hunting these girls, trying to - persuade them to attend, evaded and lied to at all turns. Only a small fraction of these -girls ever arrive at the Clinic. Whether the new notification order will.. bring about better ■ results remains to be seen. Outside o£ lock and key, my impression is that all our effort and money expenditure is more I or less wasted on the ordinary flapper prostitute who constitute 99 per ■ cent. I of the venereal carriers.