Mothers, what is the blind sentiment that makes you clap your hands in
admiration of the “great statesmen” or the “great government” that has
prostitutes examined for the sons you bore and carefully reared and
tenderly love?
“LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION,” SAID JESUS CHRIST. YET A “CIVILIZED”
CHRISTIAN GOVERNMENT RECENTLY NOT ONLY EXAMINED, BUT PROVIDED
PROSTITUTES FOR THE SOLDIER BOYS. THE GREAT BRITISH GOVERNMENT WITHIN
RECENT YEARS PROVIDED PROSTITUTES FOR HER SOLDIERS IN INDIA. Circular
memoranda were sent to all the cantonments of India by Quarter-Master
General Chapman, in the name of the commander-in-chief of the army of
India (Lord Roberts). Here are three excerpts from those documents and
from official reports:[259]
“In regimental bazaars it is _necessary_ to have a _sufficient
number_ of women; to take care that they are SUFFICIENTLY
ATTRACTIVE; to _provide_ them with proper houses, and above all to
insist upon means of ablution being always available [to prevent
venereal diseases].... If _young_ soldiers are _carefully advised_
in regard to the _advantages_ of ablution, and recognize that
_convenient arrangements exist in the regimental bazaar_ (that is,
in the chacla, or brothel), they may be expected to avoid the risks
involved in association with women who are not recognized [that is,
not examined and licensed] by the regimental authorities.”
Another commanding officer writes in his report:
“PLEASE SEND YOUNG AND ATTRACTIVE WOMEN AS LAID DOWN IN THE
QUARTER-MASTER GENERAL’S CIRCULAR, NO. 21A.... THERE ARE NOT WOMEN
ENOUGH; THEY ARE NOT ATTRACTIVE ENOUGH. MORE AND YOUNGER WOMEN ARE
REQUIRED.... I HAVE ORDERED THE NUMBER OF PROSTITUTES TO BE
INCREASED ... AND HAVE GIVEN SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS AS TO ADDITIONAL
WOMEN BEING YOUNG AND OF ATTRACTIVE APPEARANCE.”
And this: “The total number of admissions to hospital of cases of
venereal diseases amongst troops in India rose in 1895 to 522 per
1,000.”
And this from another authority:[260]
“In 1902, in India, the enormous number of 12,686 men were admitted
into hospitals suffering from sexual diseases alone; more than 1,000
military victims were always in the hospital—and the report from
which these figures are taken deals with the healthiest year for 20
years past. In the Home Army ... in a single period of twelve
months, of 154,000 troops, there were 24,176 sexual complaint
cases—or one in every six. In the author’s judgment, 80 per cent. of
the entire British Army in India, and a proportion slightly smaller
for the Home Army, have been at some time affected.”
“The worst of war and war service is that the soldier is a ruined
man.”[261]
General Sherman has spoken on the refining influences of war:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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