WOMEN POLICE AND WOMEN COOKS.

White Ribbon, Volume 22, Issue 254, 18 August 1916, Page 4

WOMEN POLICE AND WOMEN COOKS.

(To the Kditor). Dear Madam, —It has been said that if we oppose the proposed legislation in regard to prostitution and venereal disease that we should have something to take its place. That we should be not simply destructive but constructive. Education and free treatment are the real and permanent remedies, but they do not fully meet the present crisis, and that is the point with which the authorities are at present concerned. Of course the most obvious remedy always seems to be to “get hold of the women who are spreading the diseases,” but all the latest authorities state that this is not possible as the most dangerous from a sanitary point are the clandestine prostitutes, the young girls who are just about to lead this 1 fe, the later stages of the disease not being so infectious. At the time of the Trentham s. andal, little more than a year ago, when the condition of the camp was so insanitary that men were being str’cken down by the hundred, and many died, it was said that if only a few capable women were in charge of the catering and sanitary arrangements such things need not occur.

Now the question is not only physical hut also moral, and we think that more than ever woman’s influence is needed. This is why we have suggested women police in connection with the camps, and in Wellington, now practically a garrison town. We feel sure that if the authorities could be persuaded to give the women police a trial the results would be, as they have been elsewhere, most satisfactory.

If the authorities will not move in the matter would it not be possible to do as was done in England, train a few voluntary women patrols for work w herever most needed ?

Another way of secur ng the influence of women would be ihe introduction of women cooks in the camps. We believe there are in the Dominion enough women of suitable character and standing, and patriotic enough 10 take charge of this work. We also believe that their presence in the camps would have a restraining influence on the men. We quite recognise that there are men of strong immoral tendencies up-

on whom the presence of women will have no restraining influence, but we hope that they are in the minority. The class we are most hopeful of helping are the young boys who go imo camp quite unprepared to meet the strong temptations that face them there; boys from respectable homes, well brought up, who under other circumstances would grow up inio clean, honest men, some of whom are now going under. Surely we women know how little* it often takes to turn the balance in favour of good or evil.

It is heart-breaking to think of the wounded and dying, but how much more so to see the young life wrecked by perhaps one false step: coming home, “not to receive the welcome and applause of their friends and admirers, but to be rushed off to a venereal compound—there to fret out their long days in a vain regret.” Just one instance—A returning transport, on the deck a doctor and a boy—“ And will I always be like this?” The doctor replies, “Always.” “Then it were better to die.” The doctor is silent. Before that transport reached port that boy had disappeared, and his fate is merciful compared with manv others.

What can we as women do? What is our part in the work, not of rescue, but of prevention? Are we quietly to fold our hands and say it is not our work, that it is in other hands? Because our own boys may be* strong enough to resi-t. shall we be content to let the others go? Surely if ever there was any work in which women should be interested it is this.

If there is any other practical way of helping our boys, we shall be glad to hear of it, but so far the only suggestions h tve been women police and women cooks. Both are working in England with most satisfactory result-', and we sec* no reason why they should noi be* as satisfactory in our Dominion. Yours in White Ribbon bonds.

J. FIELD

P.S. —Of course we do not in the least mean to suggest that the soldiers’ rooms in Wellington are not doing good work. We are very thankful for their existence, and are sure that they are a great help to many. But it is quite evident that something nearer home is needed.