A PAINFUL SUBJECT.

White Ribbon, Volume 21, Issue 243, 18 September 1915, Page 10

A PAINFUL SUBJECT.

Some of our soldiers during their stay in Egypt succumbed to the temptations of vicious personal propensities, with the result that they contracted venereal disease, which rendered them unfit for the purpose for which they enlisted. They have, therefore, been returned in a diseased state to New Zealand. The horrible dangers of these diseases make these men a menace to the community. A number of our Unions have therefore protested against these men being let loose to spread such disease, and have urged that the authorities should detain them until at least the most contagious of these apparently ineradicable diseases has passed. A few of our members have hesitated in supporting such a protest because it seemed inconsistent w ith our protest against inflicting anything like a Contagious Diseases Act on our people. We have held that the two protests are not inconsistent. The evils and injustices "hich the C.D. Acts would impose on innocent people, while the ease with which the truly guilty would escape, are wellknown to our readers. Rut the case of these soldiers is quite different. The military authorities have given liberty to these men to indulge in vice, and have brought them back while under detention. The military and health author* tics have ample power to detain them still further without any new legislation. As Mr Herdman, the Atto r ney-General, recently stated to a representative of the “Dominion,” “the Defence Aauthorities and the Public Health Department arc the custodians of the returned soldier until he gets his formal official release from the army. We have every right, to ask that these men shall not be released while they are a danger to the community.