( 2 )
than among the professional class, the result was only what was to be
expected. In short, the class which mainly benefited by the large expen
diture of 1878 was that of the registered prostitutes. To such of them as
were diseased, the lock-hospitals were at once a home, a refuge, and a place
of cure.
4. The Lieutenant-Governor and Chief Commissioner is of opinion
that there are two powerful causes operating to neutralise the measures
for the repression of venereal disease in these provinces, and that until
these can be removed, no real improvement can be looked for.
These are—(1) the liberal license usually accorded to the soldier to
wander about at his will through fields, villages, and cities : (2) the diffi
culty of exercising a proper check over unregistered women in or around
cantonments, and the insufficiency of the penalty consequent on detection.
The remedies would seem to be, respectively—(1) restriction of license ;
(2) increased vigilance and increased severity of penalty. The first rests
entirely with the Military authorities. His Honor knows they have no
easy task to perform, especially when they cannot carry the soldier with
them; but still it is obvious that with existing agency little can be done to
watch and control men wandering at liberty over a large area, and finding
so many women ready to solicit them or to listen to their solicitations.
The second remedy is twofold : vigilance in detection and adequate punish
ment after detection. The first of these must mainly rest with the can
tonment and regimental police. Of course it is impossible to prevent
women from entering the lines, when female labor is so cheap and easily
procurable; but surely a case, like that alluded to in para. 99, of an unre
gistered woman practising prostitution and living in the lines in a rum
barrel, ought to have been detected. In regard to the punishment of
unlicensed women, the Lieutenant-Governor and Chief Commissioner
understands that registration is the only penalty that can at present be
legally awarded, though the report speaks of eight days' imprisonment as
being the maximum sentence in such cases. In my letter No. 700A., dated
9th August, 1878, to the Government of India, Home Department, it was
suggested that punishment for breaches of the rules should be increased
from Rs. 50 fine or one week's imprisonment, to Rs. 100 fine or one
month's imprisonment, respectively. If then intercourse on the part of
an unregistered woman with a soldier were brought within the category of
" breach of rules," and the new scale of punishment were sanctioned, more
might be done to check such unlicensed intercourse than is at present
practicable. But His Honor has no doubt that by far the most important
remedies are restriction of license (to soldiers) and increased vigilance
over unregistered women on the part of the police. This Government
has several times urged the importance of both these measures ; and
it is needless to say more in regard to them. The whole question of the
amendment of lock-hospital rules has lately been exhaustively discussed,
and a repetition of the suggestions already made would be unprofitable.
5. Apart from the great question of results, i.e., prevention of dis
ease among the soldiers,—the hospitals seem (para. 101) to have been
carefully managed during the year. It is not in the management of these
useful institutions that the weakness lies. If care and attention to regis-