How the Act Affects the Common Prostitute.

To show how considerately, and with what little hardship to the women subject to the existing Act, its regulations can be carried out, I may quote the evidence of Inspector Smith, the efficient officer of the Aldershot district, given before the committee of the House of Lords in 1869.

His examination, so far as material to this point, was as follows:—

976. Will you tell the Committee what your duties are with regard to the Contagious Diseases Act?—I will. The duties consist in watching for women who are supposed to be prostitutes, women who are not residing in brothels, and women who are practising clandestine prostitution; and warning them to attend for medical examination, and conveying them to and from the hospital, or to their homes; in fact, every duty connected with the carrying out of the Act.

977. You have spoken of clandestine prostitution, and do you believe that there is much clandestine prostitution within the camp at Aldershot?—I do.

978. Have you any power over clandestine prostitutes?—We have no power; but I satisfy myself always either by myself or from some good information that I obtain, and I always make it a point to see those people. I see them and tell them what I have seen or heard, and in most cases they do not deny it, and I warn them to attend for medical examination. That is my practice.

979. In what class of life arc those clandestine prostitutes?—Various classes. As a rule, they are of the lower order; I could not say that any person who is practising as a clandestine page 14 prostitute is moving in what I might call a respectable sphere of life. They arc as a rule labourers' daughters, and people of that class.

980. Shop girls?—I think not.

981. Servants?—Servants occasionally.

982. Under the present Act, what power would you have over a servant who you had reason to believe was practising clandestine prostitution?—First of all, I should warn her to attend for examination under the 17th section of the Act. If she did not attend for examination, and I had good reason to suppose that she was diseased, and was conducting herself as a common prostitute, I should then lay information before a magistrate in the usual way, and get her summoned before him; and if she did not appear by herself, or by some person on her part, then I should ask the magistrate to be good enough to make an order for her examination, which of course would depend upon the magistrate. If the evidence was sufficient to justify him in making the order, he would do so; and if he did, I should then serve a copy on her; and in the event of her not attending, I should then apply to a magistrate for a warrant to apprehend her; she would then be apprehended and brought before the magistrates in the usual way, and charged with the offence.

983. What nature of evidence could you offer with regard to a woman in service in a house?—For instance, if I went to the military hospital, and a man was in his bed and he told me that So-and-so had given him the disease, I should then make some inquiries; I should very likely ask the hospital serjeant or some person about, if the man's statement was to be relied upon, and if he was likely to tell me the truth or not; I should be very cautious not to interfere in any way with any person in service or living in any respectable place, or anything of that sort, without good foundation. If I found that the man's statement was to be relied upon, I should keep observation upon this party for some time, and if I found out that the woman went out to public-houses, and was seen in company with various men, and that kind of thing, then I should take upon myself to warn her; but if I saw nothing of the kind whatever beyond the man's mere assertion that such was the case, I should not take any notice of it.

Even if the police employed in carrying out this Act are occasionally guilty of tyrannical or vexatious interference with the liberty of the subject, little mischief can result so long as the medical officer retains the discretionary power, at present exercised by him, of refusing to examine any woman who can suggest to his mind a page 15 reasonable doubt as to the justice of her apprehension, until such time as the doubt shall be removed. It must also be remembered that no woman can be brought to the surgeon for examination, except by her own submission, until a magistrate has been satisfied that such a proceeding is justifiable.