Report of Royal Commission upon the Administration and Operation of the Contagious Diseases Acts.

  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on the Contagious Diseases Acts
Date:
1871
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of Royal Commission upon the Administration and Operation of the Contagious Diseases Acts. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    to refer the man who associated with her to the doctor who examined her, in the event of his contracting contagion from her; but with that exception the women universally hate the Acts, and try every means to evade them, 17.555. I wish you to define the word universally. Where have you been to, that you make use of the term universally ? —When I say universally, what I mean is, that the women in general 17.556. But the women in general is not uni- versally. Now will you correct your evidence, or wiU you stand by it ?—I say that the women, with few exceptions, hate the Acts, and if you gave them the opportunity to get from under the Acts, they would escape from their control. 17.557. Do you speak .with respect to Plymouth ? Have you any knowledge of Plymouth in this case ?— I have. 17.558. Do you assert that the common women of Plymouth, as a body, hate the Acts ?—I do. 17.559. And that is from your own examination of them ?—Not my own, but the communication of numerous friends with whom I have been associated, who have questioned these women under every circum- stance where the women have been fi-ee from control and influence. 17.560. Have you questioned the women yom-self at Plymouth ?—Numerous women. 17.561. What do you call numerous ?—Scores, or hundreds shall I say ? I think I may say hundreds. 17.562. You have examined hundreds of women yourself, and they have told you that they hate the Acts ?—It is true. They resort to all sorts of expe- dients to keep away, using stratagems to prevent the sur- geon examining them, and in every possible way they seek to evade the Acts ; and the very fact of its being found necessary to make an Act of Parliament with penal consequences attending the voluntary sub- mission is a convincing argument to me that they could not bring these women up for examination in any other way, that after they had signed the sub- mission paper the women were so averse to coming up that Parliament was obliged to make penal conse- quences attach to their absenting themselves. 17.563. Are you aware that this Commission have had in evidence before them a petition from the women in favour of the Acts ?—I am not aware that this Com- mission has had such evidence before it. 17.564. Would you be very much surprised to hear that that was the case ?—I should not; and I will state the circumstances. I believe a petition was sent from Portsmouth, and I had it on the testimony of nume- rous women who had been in hospital at the time, that the women were induced to sign that under these circumstances : it was said, If you do not sign that petition the hospital will be done away with and there will be no place for you to resort to. You will have to die in the streets, or something to that effect. The examination was kept quite separate and hidden. I had that from numerous young women, who were induced and persuaded there to sign this petition. 17.565. You think then that this petition was got up by the authorities of the hospital, and was not a voluntary petition by the women themselves ?—I am convinced of it. 17,576-7. I will also tell you, that we have had in evidence here quite the contrary to what you have now stated, that no influence whatsoever was used with these women to induce them to sign the petition, but that it is entu'ely voluntary ?—Not the evidence of these women themselves. I have the evidence of the women, that they were induced to do it; and I have, moreover, as further evidence of this fact, a knowledge that a petition was signed at Plymouth by a large num- ber of these women, I think I may say 200, if not more, in favour of the i-epeal of the Acts, who hated them with bitter hatred, and anything appertaining to tliem ; and the very circumstance that you are obliged to miake penal consequences attach to voluntary sub- missions, convinces me that the women are against the Acts, otherwise why not make it voluntary ? 17.568. {Bishop of Carlisle.) Do you regard it as an objection to the Acts that the women are them- selves, as you think, opposed to them ?—I do think that is one objection, but only one. 17.569. {Admiral Collinson.) You made use of an expression when Mr. Rylands was cross-examining you, that the police had used thi'eats to the brothel- keepers to induce them to let them know when a new girl came into their houses. I wish to know your authority for that statement ?—I am not aware that I said that they used threats. My conviction is that they used persuasions and conciliatory measures generally to the brothel-keepers to induce them to go up. One matron of a hospital had it from the inspector of the police. 17.570. I have taken your language down under threats to brothel-keepers. That is an expression that you made use of, that the poHce used threats to brothel-keepers to induce them. I wish to know whether you hold to that reply ?—I do hold to that reply. 17.571. That the police used threats to brothel- keepers ?—Quite so; numerously. 17.572. What authority have you for that ?—Nume- rous statements of the women themselves, and of the brothel-keepers themselves. 17.573. Brothel-keepers have told you that the police threatened them ?—Yes. 17.574. Threatened them with what ?—Threatened them with imprisonment ; threatened them with fines of 20/., 30/,, 40/., and 50/. imless they sent the women up regularly for an examination. 17.575. Under what Act of Parliament could they use those threats ?—If you will allow me, I will ask you the same question—under what Act of Parlia- ment ? I do not know of any Act of Parliament under which they could threaten them ; the only clause being that part of the Act which makes it obligatory on the part of the brothel-keeper to send a woman up for examination if he knows the woman to be affected with disease. 17.576. I have now come back to this case of Susan White. You said she was punished ?—She was. 17.577. How ?—She was sent to prison for 14 days. I believe it was with hard labour. 17.578. For what ?—I suppose and believe that she was imprisoned because she failed to come up for examination. 17.579. After being told ?—After being told four months before; previously to her reformation, that she must come up. Her neglecting to go up for ex- amination I believe, was the ground of her punish- ment ; and the very same would apply to those whom we have admitted into our homes, notwithstanding their entire reformation, as I gather, if they went down to those districts. That is the Contagious Diseases Act, as I understand it. 17.580. Have you read the Contagious Diseases Act ?—Yes, I have. 17.581. Here is clause 9. Any woman subjected, either on her own submission or under the order of a justice, to a periodical medical examination under the *' principal Act, who desires to be relieved therefrom and is not under detention in a certified hospital, may make application in writing in that behalf to the visiting surgeon. The visiting surgeon shall cause a copy of such application to be delivered to the superintendent of police, and if, after a report from such superintendent, he is satisfied by such report or other evidence that the applicant has ceased to be a common prostitute, may by order under liis hand direct that she be relieved, and she shall thereupon be relieved from periodical examination. Now I want to know whether that does not relieve you in your homes from all difficulty in respect of the women on their coming out and going into private life ?— That clause does not appear to relieve them at aU. 17.582. Any woman who desires to be relieved therefrom, and is not under detention in a certified 4K 4 THIRTY- NINTH DAY. Mr. D. Cooper.
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