WHITE SLAVE TRADE ROUTES CHARTED.

Shannon News, 31 December 1925, Page 4

WHITE SLAVE TRADE ROUTES CHARTED.

NO EFFORT SPARED TO tvll'E OUT EVIL ■■ . '. ' "I • •* ' ■Reports are dry; reading and ar,omore -often consigned to, the paper' basket unread than any other •form of literature. Yet often, if they are read "line upon lirie," they Will be found to contain the germs 'of -new *life for the peoples^oif ,the' earth,.] Writes Lady Balfour in the "New York' ] ' Times."',. Such"a report js that of the League 'of Nations on the traffic in; women "and children. It is no,t among, ■the least h,dpef til "signs of pur* times , that the nations federated together within the League should ha*ve this matter' before them. v This 1 fsvork? of the , League ,is not one' of r tliose striking- coups by which • people are always expecting the League4o declarV its pqwer, ' Quietly, ■butf without remission, the work is . under the review of the assembled ' nations. As the report shows, the evil is almost universal, a shame, that every nation had to bear; a state of slavery—not of brutal overlordship, but 4 an enslavement which carries t within itself .the*, disintegration of al; the forces of evil. It is the most difficult to root out and bears within its shameful secrets the downfall ' disgrace of every race that harbours or ignores its existence. It is, indeed, well that the League should have included it among the subjects that need the daylight of international justice let in upon them. It needs the attention of international laws, and j it demands that women and children \ shairhave all the rights belonging to ! free citizens, and that they shall be 1 protected from being treated as goods | and chattels at the pleasure of any I man.

Traffic in slaves has been Jfcnown ever since history shed its light on mankind. That there is a slavery to which women and children are liable owing to their sex has been known and ignored almost equally as long. The traffic in women and children, or the white slave traffic, as its unofficial but true title named it, was once carried

on in secret. No law touched it. Lust and lucre were the only commandments to* which it bowed. It was acknowledged as a fact and put into the category of things that cannot be helped. Where there is demand there . must be supply. The traffic dealt ever with the light and thoughtless in our social* order, exploited the youth and j ignorance 'of its victims, bartered the [children of every nation while they were still too young to know their right hand' from their left. Spreading demoralisation,, physical and moral, along its broad track, heartily condemned by all true men and deplored by the uhemancipated women | o'f the world, it was attacked here and there by true patriots of every country, but without co-ordination. So through the ages existed this evil of civilisation. ' . ' j Then the League of Nations came into being. Before it many barriers. of ignorance and prejudice have fall-1 en. M,en and women of good will, are enlisted under the banner. Co- i operation and understanding are its'; ruling features. This subject was [ among the many included in its char- I ter. The report of 1922 contains the] reports from nineteen countries and j their colonies, and of those colonies the British .Empire has the most Germany also sends in hers, though not yet a member of the League. The subject is one on which there can be no difference, and on which in greater or less degree there must be unanimity. The report has much painful' reading in it, but it is not secret or hidden knowledge. Some . countries are more backward, than others in protecting women. None hold back in protecting the child, Everywhere i an/advance has been made in recognising the evil and eliminating the sources of secret and unnamed ageni cies.

The great trade routes, once so secret, are being charted, and lighthouses, to serve as cities of refuge and of knowledge, are being kindled the world over. The traffic roads are being noted; the worth of each individual woman is being estimated not, in the money paid to the agent but in her rights to the protection of the

laws which govern the State. Many, I probably, only to be let alone, to follow their own course in their own way, but knowledge and responsibility are at work,' and the. conscience of the world is being reinforced by the science which teaches that the moral law cannot be broken with impunity to the individual and, more important still, to the well-being of the State. As we read this report we are lifted out of its squalid details, and we get a glimpse of that brotherhood of mankind which must bind us closer in every work that makes for poaee and goodwill.