The Queen's Daughters in IndiaBushnell, Katharine C. (Katharine Caroline)
History
The Queen's Daughters in India
Bushnell, Katharine C. (Katharine Caroline)
Prostitution -- India; Women -- India -- Conduct of life; Women -- India -- Social conditions
O mothers! can you conceive of what would be your feeling to discover
that your eighteen-year-old boy, as is the son of many an English
mother, was under such "gospel" instruction as this! "We shall never
forget what we owe to Lord Roberts," says the report; and we might
have anticipated that the author of the "Infamous Memorandum" would
likewise be the supporter of such measures for the instruction of young
soldiers. Sir George White, who succeeded Lord Roberts as Commander of
the Indian forces, said, in the Viceregal Council held in India, July
8, 1897, that "Every effort should also be made to warn young soldiers
of the consequences of immorality in this country, to point out to them
the terrible risks which they run, and to appeal to their higher moral
instincts and to their pride in their manhood to avoid connections
that carry with them grave danger that they will return home shattered
wrecks, unfit alike for military duty or civil life."
There is not one word here as though evil connections were likewise to
be avoided, even if they were not supposed to carry danger of physical
disease as a result. The "moral" teaching seems to have been all of
that immoral sort that points toward the Government house of shame
rather than to the seventh commandment. How many young soldiers may
not have met their first temptation by having a superior officer point
them to the Government-regulated chakla! Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell says
truly: "The first indispensable condition in the prevention of disease
is the steady discouragement of promiscuous intercourse. Now I assert
positively that such discouragement has never been seriously tried in
the army, by Government, but only by unofficial efforts--efforts which
are most valuable, but entirely lacking in the force of organization,
and in the important recognition and help which Government alone can
afford."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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