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these categories may have acquired their diseases elsewhere, and information, to have any
useful reference to the working of the Contagious Diseases Act in Bassein, must be solely
based on what has taken place locally.
These remarks of course have an equal application to preceding years as to the past
year, and I am not making any attempt to disguise the increase in venereal disease which
is now being registered at the dispensary. I wish to be understood, however, in that I think
the causes just noted may have affected the returns in a large degree ; and also that on
other grounds, connected with recent methods of registration, the dispensary returns, as
data for comparison, are misleading.
In the case of the criminal population however, the figures given are deserving of more
attention. They have not been subject, in the first place, to any changed form of record,
and are absolutely free from errors ; and in the next, as they relate only to criminals in-
carcerated without distinction in one common jail, who, when diseased, have not the choice
of concealment, it is manifest that in the consideration of the prevalence of venereal
maladies, they furnish a very reliable field for observation and deduction. It is indeed a
very remarkable circumstance that such a decided diminution of venereal disease should
have taken place among the criminal classes without a commensurate reduction elsewhere,
and one for which I fail to find any satisfactory or plausible explanation. It has been
often asserted, and seems now to be generally recognized, that the natives of Burma do not
largely support a public system of open prostitution ; that such of them as patronize com-
mon whores are more likely to belong to the discreditable than to the respectable por-
-tion of their race is a reflection not likely to meet with opposition ; and here we see that
among the entire criminal population of this district, only four cases of venereal disease
have occurred this year. Three of the four affected were natives of India ; the remaining
one, Burmese.
V.—Whether a Cantonment Sub-Committee for exercising special supervision over the rules has existed during the
year, and what officers comprise it.
In Bassein there is no cantonment. The Deputy Commissioner and Civil Surgeon,
for the time being, are the officers in whom the administration of the Act is vested.
VI.—What special measure has been taken for the control of prostitution, especially for preventing the dangers
arising from unlicensed prostitution.
No special measures have been introduced during the year of report, and, at the same
time, the roll of registered prostitutes is larger than it has ever been before. Prostitute
women appear to have made voluntary applications for licenses without waiting, as they
were formerly in the habit of doing, for detection, punishment, and compulsory registration.
Only two prosecutions for breaches of the Contagious Diseases Act, both under section 4,
" practising without a license," have resulted in convictions during the year ; while 15
women have made applications for permits.
Statement shewing the convictions and punishments for breaches of the Contagious Diseases
Act in Bassein during the year 1878.
No.
Names.
Section of Act.
Sentence or order.
Remarks.
1
Mah See ..
.. Section 4 : practising
without a license.
Warned and discharged.
2
Mah Too .
..
Do.
do.
.. One month's rigorous impri-
sonment.
VII.—How far the registration has been efficient ; to what it extends, and over what area ; any increase
or decrease as compared with the previous year.
There were 22 names added to the register in 1877, against 17 in the year of report ;
but as so few convictions for practising illicit intercourse have taken place during the latter
period, while the licensed women are now more numerous than ever, it is reasonable to
infer that registration has been quite as actively carried on as formerly. For the last six
consecutive years the numbers of prostitutes on the register were respectively 19, 25, 21,
25, 37, and 39.
As to whether the enrolment has been efficient or not, is a far less simple matter to form
judgment on. Looking at the increase of venereal disease in the dispensary books, it would
appear, in the absence of a corresponding prevalence of disease among licensed prostitutes,
that registration had been imperfectly performed ; while, on the other hand, if the freedom
of the criminal classes be accepted as a basis on which an opinion might be formed, it
would be safe to conclude that the means employed for minimizing the existence of venereal
disease could not be improved.