( 25 )
The ratio per 1,000 of gonorrhœa cases amongst the women was 834.8 ; amongst
the soldiers 184.4. Of syphilis cases, 417.4 amongst the women, 118.4 amongst the
soldiers. Until disease amongst the registered women is diminished, little can be
done to diminish disease amongst the soldiers.
6. The Lieutenant-General Commanding Oudh Division states that the report
was delayed in submission because it had to be returned to the medical officer twice,
to be re-written—first, because the margins had been left inside instead of outside;
and a second time because of its disgraceful state, from shocking writing and many
clerical errors, making it utterly unpresentable to Government. The report was
forwarded to the Officer Commanding Her Majesty's 92nd. The General does not
believe the soldiers used violence to the police, and thinks that no value attaches to
the medical officer's statement that the soldiers were out of barracks at night-time
without proper punishment. The medical officer does not appear to have prominent-
ly reported his action and recommendations to the Officer Commanding the Station
as he should have done.
7. The Officer Commanding the Station, at Sitapur, reports that from the
records of the Station Staff Office it appears that the Officer Commanding Her Ma-
jesty's 92nd Regiment reported on the 31st of August, 1878, that he believed the in-
crease of disease amongst his men was due to their intercourse with unlicensed women,
and thought the failure to check this evil was due, first, to the discontinuance of a
system of payment of rewards for detection, formerly in existence ; and second, to the
lightness of the punishment awarded by the Civil authorities to parties when detect-
ed. Preventive measures were put in force to stay the prevalence of disease in the
regiment. Men diseased, and unable to point out the women who had caused the dis-
ease, were punished by having to make up guards after their cure ; and men found
breaking out of barracks were severely punished.
The medical officer having reported by Memo. No. 43 of 30th August, 1878,
to the Station Staff Officer that some European soldiers were seen at midnight on the
28th August, 1878, in the house of a prostitute in Thompsonganj, stricter supervi-
sion by a large provost establishment and very severe punishment on any absentee
were ordered, as preventive measures.
The Officer Commanding the Station is of opinion that the Officer Commanding
the regiment adopted all advisable means to check the spread of disease amongst
his men, and that the medical officer's remarks were uncalled for.
The Officer Commanding the Station explains that the lock-hospital report, ori-
ginally written in the medical officer's own handwriting, was returned to that officer
because no clear margin had been left to the document, and was not again received
until the evening of the medical officer's departure for England on medical certificate.
This may account for its ill-written and incorrect state.
8. The Officer Commanding Her Majesty's 92nd Regiment denies entirely the
statements made by the medical officer, which are most malicious. Once or twice sol-
diers were apprehended before tattoo for cohabiting with women in a bagh. But
this was at once stopped, and the Superintendent of Police was asked to prevent
these women from roaming about these baghs. It is untrue that the men beat any
constable who tried to apprehend these women, for in such case the matter would have
been brought to the notice of the commanding officer, who heard nothing of it. On
one occasion the medical officer reported in writing to the commanding officer of the
92nd that three soldiers of his regiment had been seen in the house of a prostitute
at Thompsonganj, but the medical officer was unable to produce evidence that might
convict the men. Only on one or two occasions men were found absent from the bar-
racks at night, and they were discovered in the sudder bazaar.
The commanding officer thinks if soldiers were constantly in Khairabad;
he would have known of it.
7