VENEREAL DISEASE

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 35, 5 November 1942, Page 6

VENEREAL DISEASE

Remedial Measures Suggested LETTER TO MINISTER A letter suggesting the adoption of comprehensive measures to remedy the incidence of venereal disease in the Dominion has been addressed to the Minister of Health, Mr. Nordmeyer, by the president of the Women’s Service Guild, Mrs. J. Henderson, on behalf of the guild executive. After regretting that Parliament had not been given an opportunity for discussion of regulations brought into effect in December, 194.1, and remarking that a most valuable opportunity for constructive criticism and discussion in a democratic way was thereby lost, the hope is expressed that the regulations will not be considered by 'the Minister to be a panacea for the eradication of a great social evil. The lette" urges that emphas'ls should rather be placed on the removal of the root causes of the diseases, and proceeds to suggest remedial measures as follows':

Careful education of both children and adults in sex hygiene, with insistence on chastity as the only real remedy, with equal moral standard for men and women; the selling to boys and girls under 16 of tickets of admission to picture theatres showing “suitable for adult” pictures to be made a penal offence; extension of school supervision to cover the hours in which parents are away from home in a wage-earning capacity; an appeal for better control of children to keep them from city streets after dusk; motherhood endowment, to ensure adequate care of children in their formative years; a quarterly statement from the Justice Department on the number and nature of offences dealt with in the Juvenile Courts, so that parents are informed of the true position; production of health certificates by both parties to marriages; routine check-up of standard of health of holders of social security cards; rationing of alcoholic beverages; the State encouragement of early marriage (as an influence on this the illegalization of time-payment purchase of cars, other than for commercial use); the institution of women military patrols and an increase of the present number of women police, so that orderly conduct in public places may be assisted, the women police, as in Great Britain, to be provided with suitable uniform; the use of travelling clinics to overcome the difficulties of protracted treatment in country districts, and the provision of clinic facilities in the suburbs of large towns. ' The letter emphasizes the danger that harsh, compulsory measures may drive the diseases underground in their early stages, thus making individual cases more difficult to cure and creating a false sense of security.