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From the Deputy Commissioner, Prome, to the Commissioner of the Pegu Division,—No. 15-25, dated the
24th January 1879.
IN forwarding the Lock-hospital Report for 1878, I have the following remarks to
offer :
—
1.—The report of the Civil Surgeon is necessarily confined to bare facts and figures,
as he is new not only to Prome, but to the province.
2.—The improvement upon last year has been small. In my letter No. 341-25,
dated 22nd November 1878, I had the honour to express an opinion that the benefits of a
lock-hospital to Prome were not commensurate with the expense of keeping it up. Prome
is not a town in which there is a large floating unmarried male population like Rangoon,
nor is it a military station ; the number therefore of women who publicly adopt a life of pros--
titution is small. There is, as there is in most towns in Burma, a class of women, who have
a husband and an ostensible means of livelihood of their own, who are more or less pros-
-titutes ; but it is next to impossible to obtain evidence on which such women could be justly
brought on the register, and to press the police in this direction may lead to great abuse.
My impression, from a short experience here, is that nearly all public prostitutes have been
detected and registered.
3.—The proportion of names taken off the roll to those registered is abnormal. The
fact is, that nearly every application of this kind must be granted. A woman asks leave
for two months to go to Rangoon or elsewhere, and if she is refused she takes French leave.
There was a general migration on the somewhat ill-advised action of the municipality in
relegating all the brothels to a remote and unpopular quarter of the town.
4.—The present building will shortly be made over to the railway, and a new one
erected on a site north-east of the new hospital. Plans are being prepared for submission.
5.—The number of prosecutions under Act XIV. during the year has been 13, resulting
in 11 convictions.
ANNUAL REPORT ON THE PROME LOCK-HOSPITAL FOR THE YEAR 1878.
A GUTTER was made during this year around the building for drainage, which carries
the water without the compound, and empties it in a deeper one close to the high wooden
battened railing which encloses the building. A passage was likewise made within the
enclosure, by means of raising up the ground a little higher, commencing from the gate.
The work was satisfactorily done. No additions or changes have been made besides the
above to the building, which will in a short time be taken up by the Railway Department.
The new one for its stead is about to be erected. There was no overcrowding during this
year, as the building has been sufficient to receive the patients who were admitted.
2.—Having no Committee, the Deputy Commissioner exercises the supervision in
carrying out the rules.
3.—The venereal diseases caused the admission of 60 into the hospital, which exceeds
the admission of the last year by 23,—the number being 37 in 1877 ; and the average num--
ber of the prostitutes on the register during the year was 30.4, while there were 23.4 in the
previous year.
4.—Formerly, the registered prostitutes were permitted to stop either in the town or in
a place called Nawai ; but now their residences have been ordered to be quite apart.
.5.—Several cases of unregistered prostitutes were reported during the year, and some
of them were found to be diseased on examination. They were sent up to the Magistrate
for punishment, and most of them entered their names in the register, obtaining a license
from the Deputy Commissioner.
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