(7
)
to report that a great number of the women from whom the soldiers contract disease
have not yet been brought under surveillance, unregistered prostitution is very extensively
carried out by low caste women residing in squatter villages, and especially in the dhoby
lines in the vicinity of the barracks. Many of these, it appears, are married women who
prostitute themselves with the consent of their husbands, and who, if called on to register
themselves as prostitutes, would at once state and prove that. they are married women.
The native police are nearly powerless, as the European soldiers at once resent any
interference in matters of this sort. These women, then, and cooly women employed about
the barracks, or the women who are constantly passing along the lines of road, selling fruit,
cigars, fuel, &c., are believed to be most injurious to the British soldiers. They should be
prohibited from visiting the barrack lines after dark, and if, after this order had been
publicly proclaimed, any woman transgressed it, there would be nothing wrong in making
every woman so found subject to examination and detention in hospital if she were suffer-
ing from disease. There is not the slightest doubt that, if greater exertion were taken in
this way by the regimental police, there would be a very marked diminution in the number
admitted into hospital. Every man admitted into hospital should be compelled, or, if not
compelled, he should be induced or coaxed to give up the name of the woman from whom
he contracted the disease : during the last year, of the 127 admitted, only five soldiers
came forward to point out such prostitutes, and only one of those pointed out was found
diseased. There is, though, no doubt that, in Rangoon itself, clandestine prostitution
prevails to a very great extent. The mischief, however (as regards Burmese women), is
social, and does not depend on police supervision, which, as it is at present organized,
cannot reach and destroy it.
VI.—How far the registration ha
s b e e n e f f i c i e n t ; t o w h a t c l a s s e s i t
extends; and over what area.
The following table exhibits the progress of registration
during the year, as compared with that of the previous
three years :—
1872.
1873.
1874.
1875.
MONTHS.
E u r o p e a n s .
N a t i v e s.
T o t a l .
E u r o p e a n s . N a t i v e s .
T o t a l .
E u r o p e a n s .
N a t i v e s .
T o t a l
E u r o p e a n s .
N a t i v e s
'
T o t a l
January ...
...
...
4
9
13 3
7
10
3
14
17
1
25
26
February ...
...
... ...
14
14 3
3
6
1
8
9 4
22
26
March ...
. . .
... ...
16
16 4
25
29
1
22
23 ...
15
15
April
...
...
...
3
8
11 1
26
27 ...
25
25 .2.
11
13
May
...
...
... ...
15
15 2
17
19 . 2
11
13
1
20
21
June
...
. . .
... ...
16
16 4
12
16 ...
15
15
1
19
20
July
...
. . .
... ...
27
27
1
20
21 .1.
15
16
1
24
25
August ...
...
... ...
33
33 ...
18
18 ...
12
12 ...
27
27
September
...
... ...
21
21
.2.
...
24
24 .1.
21
22 . 2.
33
35
October ...
...
... ...
23
23
34
36 3
19
22 2
31
33
November
...
...
2
14
16 ...
11
11 4
6
10
2
22
24
December
...
... ...
20
20 .3.
12
15
1
26
27 ...
19
19
Total registered during year...
9
216 225 23
'209 232 17 194 211 16.
268
284
Remained from previous year, 10
343 353 7 315
322 13 332 345 14 342
356
Total
... 19
559 578 30
524 554 30 526 556 30 610
640
Struck off, absconded, &c. ... 12 244 256 17
192 209 16 184 200 13 235
248
Remaining at close of each.
year ...
...
... 7
315 322 13
332 345 14 342 356 17 375
392
From the above table it will be seen that the total number registered in each has been
Years.
Europeans.
Natives.
1872 . . .
...
...
9
...
... 216
1873
. . .
. . .
. . . 23
...
...
... 209
1874 ...
...
17
... '
...
... 194
Total 49
619
Average of these
. . .
. . .
16.30
. . .
. . .
206.33
1875
...
...
...
16
. . .
. . .
...
268
Decrease
. . .
. . .
...
Nil.
Increase
...
62
From the total for the year 1875, viz., 640, must be deducted 248 (removed from the
register, absconded, or lost sight of, and died out of hospital), leaving 392 as the number
remaining on the register on the 31st December 1875. The Act embraces an area of about
five miles round the station. In former reports, I brought to notice the main difficulties
to be encountered in making the registration efficient. To register all the women who are
not inacessible to the soldiers in a scattered town like Rangoon, is a work of much difficulty,