A NATIONAL PERIL.

White Ribbon, Volume 21, Issue 244, 18 October 1915, Page 1

A NATIONAL PERIL.

(A Paper read at the Canterbury Provincial Convention held at Timaru, September Bth, KJIS.)

In attempting to bring the subject of venereal diseases and the vice of immorality before you, one is bewildered as to where to begin, for both go back to furthest antiquity. State regulation and recognition of vice is a product of pagan depravity. It \va* established in Rome 180 8.C., and from thence the system spread through the different countries conquered by Rome. It was established by the Romans in Kngland, and continued there until 1545, when it was suppressed, and from thence forward, until the year of grace 1864, Kngland oqiy noticed prostitution when discouraging or repressing it. On June 20th, 1864, Lord Clarence Paget, the Secretary to the Admiralty, introduced into Parliament a “Bill for the Prevention of Contagious Diseases at certain Naval and Military Stations.” Just at that time the public was in a state of alarm at the ravages of disease among cattle, and Parliament had passed various Acts of a stringent character, under the title of “Contagious Diseases (Animal) Acts.” The short title of this Act, which came to be the famous, or rather infamous, C.D. Act, was “Contagious Diseases Prevention Act, 1864.“ There were very few people outside Parliament who did not suppose it had reference to animals, and in all probability the members gener-

ally were ignorant of its tendencies, or misled, as so many are, by the plausible sophistries of those promoting it. Be that as it may, the Bill met with practically no opposition, passed all its stages rapidly, and received the Royal Assent on July 29th. Like the medical proposals that have exercised our own minds lately, it was not designed to apply to the whole country, but to certain areas, and provided for the compulsory examination, upon suspicion, of prostitutes, and for their compulsory detention, if affected with venereal disease, until considered safe to minister again

to the lust of men. It was the military and naval authorities that were behind this Act. It was to operate for three years only, but vas followed in 1866 and iß(mj by further enactments, increasing the area of the operations of these Acts, and tightening their provisions. The passage of these later Bills met some faint opposition in the House of Commons. The Right Hon. J. YY. Henley said it was “an endeavour to give the opportunity of sin without its consequences,” a very good definition of what regulation tries to do, and tries in vain. Mr Ayrton said: “No useful or moral end was intended, the end in view being vice, unmitigated vice.” There is no need to go at length into the horrors created by these Acts, but there were many cases in which it was proved that the police, on the receipt of anonymous letters about respectable women and girls, attempted to compel them to submit to examination, and in some cases did, women of absolutely virtuous character, and they had no redress. Examination on suspicion made such cases possible, and would do so again The hardships and indignities indicted upon women under these Arts were unspeakable, while the annual reports to Government show that disease increased among the women subject to examination during the years these Acts were in operation, and clearly demonstrate that such Acts are worse than useless for safeguarding men from disease who consort with prostitutes. The first note of opposition came in jB6B, when the promoters of these

Acts, emboldened by their success, attempted to get up an agitation for their application to the whole country, and that note was sounded by l)r. Hooppell, Principal of the W interbottom Nautical College in South Shields. He wrote to the “Shiels Gaiette” explaining and denouncing the system as it existed in certain parts of England. Mr Daniel Cooper. Secretary of the Society for the Rescue of Voung Women and Children, was the next avowed opponent, and his published exposure of these Acts caused the extension party to try and force their Bill through Parliament at once. A Lords’ Committee was set up to report on the matter, and they reported, as was to be expected, in f; vour of extension. Mr Cooper then launched the countermovement. He, with other workers connected w ith Reformatory Assoc iations, sent a strongly worded protest to every member of both Houses of Parliament, and the Bill dropped, but opposition had begun in earnest. Mr Cooper made war in London; Dr Hooppell raised the North Country. Influential men rallied to their side, meetings were held, and public inte rest began to stir. Mrs J. Butler was in Switzerland, where she* became acquainted with the provisions of the Regulation Systems, and on her return to England, joined the crusade, not only ag linst their extension, but for the complete* overthrow of these disgraceful acts. She became the leading woman of the movement, and her husband. Canon Butler, was in fullest sympathy with her in all her labours. In the autumn of iß6q, the National Association was formed, its members being all men, and later, was followed by the Ladies’ National Association. In that year the famous Harriet Martineau published four letters in the “Daily News,” over the signature “An Englishwoman,” denouncing the regulation system, and immediately after, in tht same paper, appeared “The Women’s Protest,” signed by many honoured women, among them being Harriet Martineau, Mary Carpenter, Josephine Butler, Florence Nigthingale. It was afterwards signed by many thousands of women, and was regarded of such importance as to be telegraphed all over Europe. All the eight clauses of this Protest are worthy of reprodu< tion here, but attention can only be drawn to

three, they being especially applic able to the position now in New Zealand The protest begins: We, the undersigned, enter our solemn protest against these acts. sth, because, by such a system, the path of evil is made more easy to our son.>, and to the whole of the youth of England; in as much as a moral restraint is withdrawn the moment the State recognises and provides convenience for, the practice of a vice which it thereby declares to be necessary and venial. 7th, Because the disease which these Acts seek to remove has never been removed by any such legislation. The advocates of the system have* utterly failed to show, by statistics or otherwise, th.it these regulations have in any case, after several years’ trial, and when applied to one sex only, diminished disease, reclaimed the fallen, or improved the* general morality of the country. We have on the contrary the strongest evidence to show that in Paris and other continental cities, where women have long been outraged by this forced inspection, the public health and morals are worse than at home.

Bth, Because the conditions of this disease, in the first instance, arc moral, not physical. The moral evil, through which the disease makes its way, separates the case entirely from that of the plague or other scourges, which have been placed under police control or sanitary care. We hold that we are bound before rushing into the experiment of legalising a revolting vice, to try to deal with the causes of the evil, and we dare to believe that with wiser teaching and more capable legislation, these causes would not be beyond control. Early in 1870 Mrs Butler was induced to speak at her first meeting of working men at Crewe. Her appeals were always to the highest moral and Christian sentiments. One would like to linger over the details of this splendid 17 years’ conflict, where so many valiant men and noble women fought against a State* iniquity, to tell of the meetings, the addresses, the protests, the deputations, the fine literature, the enthusiasm, the duration, the tremendous political contests, where the Radical Party worke d might and main, irrespective or party, against candidates supporting these disgraceful Acts, of the shrieks of the party news*

papers when strong and influential candidates went down, defeated by the rising moral sentiment of the electors, all men. We Would to tell how Government again and again hud to abandon its efforts to strengthen this evil, of the insults and misrepresentation the reform party w’ere subjected to, of the cowardly attacks of the press, and its silence on the moral aspects of the' question, but only a very few outstanding f.n ts tan be mentioned. In 1871, a petition was presented to Parliament, bearing the names of 250,283 women. A special paper in the interests of puriiy was issued called the “The Shield,” which continues to this day. In 1873, the Triides Union Congress was addressed by Mrs Butler, when several of the leading men expressed great sympathy with the movement, and in the same year the Working Men’s National League was formed wiih 50,000 members, and its own journal.

In March, 1875, appeared “The Medical Enquirer. ’ it was the argan of the National Medical Association, for the repeal of the C.D. Acts. It was issued in consequence of the refusal of the weekly “Medical Press” to admit articles against the Ac ts, and contained valuable investigations into the working of the Acts by Dr Birk bv*c k of Liverpool, and masterly c ritic isms of the figures and statements, in favour of the Acts. There existe dat least a dozen different societies, all working for the repeal of these Acts, having committee's. correspondents, etc., in over six hundred towns. Over 2,exx) c lergy of tht Kst iblished Church, including the* Bishops of Exeter, Lichfield, and Salisbury, formally expressed the r disapproval of these Acts. From iß6q to 1873 the Wesleyan Methodist Conference annually expressed strongest disapprobation. In 1872, seven hundred ministers, at a conference in the City Road Chapel signed a memorial for immediate repeal. In 1875 A Friends’ Repeal Assoc ia--tion was formed, with the* resolve to raise ,£IO,OOO to secure tFit*ir object. The United Methodist Free Churches sent a deputation to the Home Secretary with a memorial against these Acts. Eight hundred and eighty-five ministers of the Congregational denomination memorialised the Prime Min*

istcr against the Acts, and at their annual unions carried unanimously resolutions condemning them. The Methodist New Connexion, the Primitive Methodists, the English Presbyterians, and the Baptises repeatedly memorialist 1 and petitioned ‘or complete repeal. The Free Church Generd Assembly in Scotland petition* d for the same thing year after >enr. i he l nited Presbyterian Synod did the same, and pissed resolutions re omim dug office-bearers and members throughout the Church to use all constitutional means to secure repeal. The other churches and religious bodies in Scotland acted in a similar manner; while in Ireland the Presbyterians, \\e*> leyans, Society of Friends, th ■ Primitive Methodists, and other religious bodies passed similar resolutions, and adopted similar modes of action in support of repeal. Vet with all that volume of public opinion on th ir side, the party of repeal were not su< cessful till the year 1885, when at general election 257 members definitely pledged to vote for repeal, were elected. On April 2nd, 1886, the Repeal Bill passed the House of Commons, was read a third time in the House of Lords on April 13th, and received the Royal Assent on April 15th. The victory was complete after 17 years of incessant and self-sacrificing work, and it was on the side of virtue. Thu fell in Great Britain the giant iniquity of State recognition, regulation and unsuccessfully attempted sanitation c.f a great vice. Now let us give a few moments to the consideration of what has been done in other countr es. Legislators and social reformers confront few more perplexing j roblems than that of prostitution. It is so universal that many regard it as a necessary adjunct of civilisation, though they also re gard it as an evil and a danger to public order and to public health. The regulation of this vice by the State, always involving compulsory examination and detention, has been the measure most favoured for minimising its dangers. In past years this view was almost universally held and acted on throughout Kurt ; o. The medical profession believed that by systematic medical control of all know n prostitutes an effective t heck could be given to the spread of those diseases which accompany prostitu-

tion, and which by their after effects cause wide-spread disease and degeneration. International Medical Congresses in 1807, 1873, and 1875 were engaged in drawing up schemes of international co-operation, for the purpose of perfecting the protection which was then believed to be conferred by the organisation and control of prostitution. Attention is specially drawn to the medical views at this time, because of the touching faith some people have in the medical men of to-day who advocate similar measures, the only excuse for the followers of such blind leaders being that the nature of the subject has prevented its free discussion in the press, and consequently the public at large do not realise the change that has taken place in the opinions of medical experts and scientists, and the correlative change that is taking place in law and administration. Forty years ago the* regulation system prevailed throughout the whole of Europe. To-day Europe presents a very different picture. The Northcon nations, England, Denmark, Holland, and Norway, have all definitely abandoned the regulat on system. In Sweden a Royal Commission has just reported against it. thus following the example of France, where the ExtraParliamrntarv Commission, appointed by the Government, has, after exhaustive enquiry, condemned the existing system, and recommended fundamentally different methods. In Switzerland. where each canton enacts its own laws, Geneva is the only place where regulation persists. Italy has swept away the whole machinery of regulat on, and has substituted a system of gratuitous treatment for all venereal patients, to the great benefit of the public health. Among the leading syphilogists in Europe there is a remarkable consensus of opinion that the regulation of prostitution by the State has been unsuccessful from the standpoint of public health. In the Medical Conference at Brussels on this subject, held in 1902. the following resolutions w**re carried unanimously:— “That all persons suffering from venereal maladies should have easy access to gratuitous treatment, with no unnecessary publicity.” “The most important and the most effectual means for combating the diffusion of venereal maladies consists

in widespread information as to the importance of these diseases, and the very grave dangers attending them. It is especially necessary to teach young men not only that chastity and continence are not injurious, but that these virtues are highly recommended from the medical point of view.” On one point reformers in all nations are agreed, that venereal disease must not be punished, but healed. The result of doing so has been to increase the number of cases under treatment. In Denmark and Norway, where statistics are most carefully kept, this was especially so, and this is the veiy point aimed at, to try and induce all sufferers to come for healing. We turn now to our own country. The C D. Acts were introduced into New Zealand on the lines of the English Act, and were in operation in Auckland in 1883, and in Christchurch before that date. There was continuous agitation against them in both cities, and the law became a dead letter. The continued demands for their tepeal from the women’s societies secured their removal from the Statute Book in 1910. Now we are faced by their re-intro-duction under a subtle name and an alluring aspect. The medical proposals, already referred to, entitled “The Public Health Amendment Bill,” contain the most objectionable features of the C.D. Acts, and their embodiment in legislation would mean the re-introdut lion of those Acts again. The three compulsory provisions art* — (1) Compulsorv notification. (2) Compulsory examination on suspicion only. (3) Compulsory detention. (4! Partial application of the law. The point of difference lies in the fact that in these proposals, men as well as women are apparently included, but this inclusion of men is merely a device, and a very clever and subtle one, to hoodw nk the public cr.d disarm criticism and opposition. The compulsory provisions can not, and will not, be enfert ed against men. Venereal disease differs from all o'her contagious disease, in that it is not apparent. It is easily concealed; the persons affected can pursue their da ly occupations without any suspicion being created. It is not acutely infectious like smallpox or diphtheria. It is felt to be a disgrace to be af-

fected by it, and sufferers from it are most anxoius to conceal the fact that they are so affected. Keeping these points in view, and supposing such a law being enforced, you can easily understand that infected persons will not s n ek medical aid. knowing that by so doing they subject themselves to compulsory notification and compulsory detention for an indefinite period. It is most important that medical treatment S should be given in the* earliest, which are also the most infectious, stages of the disease, but these compulsory measures would have the effect of preventing affected persons from seeking medical aid as long as possible. Compulsory notification cannot be enforced, for existence of the disease is known only to the doctor and the patient. How can any pressure be brought to induce the doctor to notify. If he fails to do so, how is the evidence to be obtained that will convict him? The patient is not likely to give it, and save him and the doctor you have no one else to look to for information or evidence. Can you imagine the law being put in force against rich and influential men, or m'*n in a public position, and if not in their case, why in any other? It is quite evident compulsory notification would not be universally and impartially applied, and there is no means to insure its being done*; and laws which cannot and will not be enforced impartially against al 1 sections of the community >hould not be placed on the* Statute Book, otherwise justice and liberty will be lost to us as a nation. Any one giving the clause a few moments careful and thoughtful consideration, and knowing anything of the nature of the disease, can see that its inclusion is merely to serve as a blind to the real intention of the proposal, which is contained in the next provision of compulsory examination on suspicion. Now, who are the persons who would or could be suspected of being affected with venereal disease? Can you imagine any man being compelled to submit to compulsory examination on suspicion? Can you think of a married woman being subject to such a prevision? Compulsion implies police enforcement, and you know no Government would dare to put such a provision into force against any man in any class of society, or against any class of women, save one. And it is

against that class, and that class alone, that these proposals are directed, and the moment compulsory examination of prostitutes becomes legal, you have the C.I). Acts in operation, and the recognition and regulation of vice by the State. In this connection let us remember the words of that famous Protest of Women, “That State control of vice means the removal of a moral restraint,” and all the experience of past ages, of every country where regulation has existed, testifies to their truth. In the fight against the C.I). Acts in England, a petition in their favour was secured from prostitutes, but with that exception l know of no instance where a woman’s voice was lifted in their behalf, and it is most amazing that in this country women can be found who approve of a proposal leading directly to State regulation of vice. But can we do nothing? Are we to sit with folded hands while these diseases work physical degeneration among us? By no means. When reliance on a false system is destroyed, the way is cleared for true reforms. These diseases will be most effectually dealt with by inducing all sufferers, guilty or innocent, to present themselves for treatment, rather than by compulsory measures, which can reach only a section of those infected, and that section not the one that spreads disease among wives and children.

A most important point strongly emphasised by experts is the education of the public, and young people especially, in sex hygiene by means of lectures, literature, and private talks. It was insisted upon again and again by the men who gave evidence before the Royal Commission on Venereal Disease, which sat last year in England, that young men should be informed in time of the nature of these diseases and their results. The instruction of children in sex hygiene by special teachers, carefully selected and trained, was advocated. Another point stressed was the better education of the medical student on these matters, and when that is an accomplished fact advocacy of compulsory measures by the medical profession will be a thing of the past. The need for timely warning to young men was mentioned in the Report on Venereal Disease presented to the Medical Congress held in Auckland last year.

It stated that it was the common experience of medical practitioners to find that the newly infected have been greatly ignorant of syphilis and its prevalence. In that same Report reference was made to the fact that children born of women affected by syphilis are illnourished, immature, weakly, showsigns of inherited disease, and they frequently die within the year of birth. Reference was also made to the tendency of women so affected to have untimely births, and one particular case was quoted, from many, from Dr. F. \V. Mott. The mother married at 20, the father being 22. There were 12 children- the first, premature at 5 months; 2nd, the same; the 3rd at 6 months; the 4th, at 7 months, lived 8 hours; sth, born alive, very frail, ulcers on legs, eyes affected; 6th, a girl, at the age of 14 suffering from juvenile general paralysis, with well marked signs of congenital syphilis; 7th, a girl, living-, well; Bth, a boy, living, well; qth. a boy, living, well; 10th, a boy, died at n months of convulsions; 11th, a girl, died at 8 months, brain disease and club foot; 12th, a boy, living, well. Now, in view of such facts as these, can it be right for medical practitioners never to tell a married woman when she is suffering from venereal d’sease, the reason being the danger cf disturbing domestic harmony; but is it not a dreadful thing, a great wrong, to let a woman go on ignorantly bearing children to a diseased man? Has she not a right to a voice in the matter, and should not a woman be protected by law if, under such circumstances, she absolutely refuses motherhood, by making venereal disease a cause for legal separation? And should not doctors be legally bound to inform married women of the nature of their complaint when they are affected by venereal disease? In the discussion which followed the Report just referred to, it was mentioned by Dr. Harvey Sutton, from Melbourne, that he had given definite information in sex hygiene and on venereal disease to the students at a training college, their ages ranging from 16 to iq. The women teachers under the Education Department of Victoria also requested the Department to arrange for them such a course of instruction, and it would include the junior teachers of |6 and

17. I)r. Sutton strongly supported the giving of such instruction to young people. A most interesting contribution to the debate came from Dr. A. H. Wallen. Though surrounded by nations where profligacy was an adjunct of religion, and prostitution received State sanction, the Jews, though they fell often into dissolute habits, never gave prostitution State recognition, and Dr. Hallen stated that when he was a young man, practising in London, he attended at a dispensary where he came into contact with great numbers of pauper Jewish emigrants, who had fled from persecutions in Russia, Poland, Germanv, and other States. He was struck by the fact that venereal disease was most uncommon among them, and that the standard of sexual morals was much higher than in the classes among which they lived. He says: “My enquiries drew information that the absolute moral sexual superiority of these people was due directly to the fact that at puberty it is the custom for the parents, assisted by the Rabbi, to put their children through a prescribed form of instruction, or catechism elaborated on an ancient basis, which antidates by hundreds of years the foundation of ( hristianity. I cannot doubt that Christian peoples could adopt this system with material advantage in the reduction of venereal diseases, prostitution, and their complex, social, and racial injuries. I have but touched the fringe of this subject, and in conclusion I wish to draw your attention to a memorandum issued by the British Medical Association, and printed in full in the supplement of the “British Medical Journal” of May Bth, 1915. The Association has taken a lively interest in the work of the Royal Commission on Venereal Disease, nominating witnesses who were, in the opinion of the Association, able to give special assistance to the Commission on the prevalence, and most recent methods of diagnosis and treatment of venereal diseases. The memorandum deals with the subject from the point of view of the private practitioners and touches many points. The concluding paragraph contains these words:— “Finally, the Association has little faith in the methods of direct attack on these diseases which have been proposed in various quarters, namely, compulsory notification, compul-

sory detention of patients, and prevention of the marriage of persons who have once suffered from venereal diseases until they can obtain a certificate of cure. Such suggestions appear to the Association to be impracticable in view of the moral stigma they would impose. The Association has muc h more hope of the indirect methods which resolve themselves into the better education of the public as to the serious nature and wide spread inc idenc e of these diseases, and the grant of easy access to the best treatment.”

At the conclusion of the paper the following resolution was carried unanimously:— “In view of the fact that the expert medical evidence given before the Royal Commission on venereal diseases in England, unanimously recommended free voluntary treatment for all persons affected by these diseases, and seeing that this recommendation is strongly endorsed by the* British Medic al Association, and as it is most necessary that medical aid should be given in the earliest stages of these diseases when they are most infective and yield most readily to curative treatment, this convention earnestly urges the Government, in the interests of public health, to open immediately evening clinics in the four centres at least, where all sufferers affected by venereal disease, whether guilty or innocent, can secure the best advice free of cost, without unnecessary publicity, and that provision be made for a certain number of beds in general hospitals for the use of such persons when necessary.”