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From Colonel W. MUNRO, M.S.C., Deputy Commissioner, Bassein, to the Commissioner of the Irrawaddy
Division,—No. 38, dated the 31st January 1882.
I HAVE the honour to submit the Civil Surgeon's report on the lock-hospital
at Bassein for the year 1881.
2. In his reply to question V the Civil Surgeon remarks that the police have
kept an eye on the registered prostitutes only, and he appears to think that a good
deal of, unregistered prostitution is carried on in the town. I have enquired on
this subject from the police, and from what I hear I believe the Civil Surgeon is
incorrect in this statement. Only three or four unregistered women attempted
at different times to carry on prostitution in the town ; they were observed by the
police, who at once tried to obtain evidence against them ; on which they left
the place, and as far as is at present known none other than the registered prosti-
tutes carry on prostitution as a trade. Were they to do so it would be reported
and the women required to register and live in the prostitutes' lines. There
are very probably in the town many women who carry on illicit intercourse, but
they are not open to the general public, nor live by prostitution or in a way which
would admit of police interference.
3. The lines of the registered prostitutes were moved to their present position
by order of the Municipal Committee more than a year ago, as their former site was
objected to by the respectable portion of the community. The new site given
them was approved of by Dr. Baker, who was then Civil Surgeon. No complaints
by the women on the subject of the present site have been brought to notice,
and it is not desirable that they should be placed in any central part of the town,
as the people generally would object to it. A better road might be made to their
present lines ; but the Inspector of Police, from whom enquiries have been made,
states the position of the lines is well known and that they are crowded nightly ;
those therefore who wish to frequent the lines easily find their way there.
4. Although the Civil Surgeon reported 14 women for being absent from
inspection only one was tried and punished. On each occasion of the Civil Surgeon
reporting the police were directed to send up the women reported for trial, but when
searched for it was found that they had left the place, or were women to whom
leave had been granted, and who did not return at the expiration of their leave.
5. The Port Officer under the Chief Commissioner's Resolution No. 4002-63
was requested to obtain information from the masters of vessels bearing on the
desirability or otherwise of retaining the lock-hospital. He has been unable as yet
to obtain any information. One of the principal reasons, in my opinion, for
maintaining the lock-hospital is the protection of the sailors visiting this port.
They invariably go to the women residing in these lines, and it is certainly of
some importance that the crews of ships proceeding to sea should do so in a
healthy instead of a diseased condition ; also as public women cannot be suppressed,
it is an advantage to the general health that when diseased they should be com-
pelled to refrain from the exercise of their profession, and thus be prevented
from spreading disease through the country. The cost of maintaining the lock-
hospital is not great, and as the Civil Surgeon is reducing it to within as narrow
limits as possible, it appears to me that the money expended on its maintenance
is well laid out.
BASSEIN.
I,—The nature and extent of the hospital accommodation, whether it is suitable, and whether there has been
any change in it during the year.
The lock-hospital building is situated in the same big compound as the civil
dispensary, but it is separated from the general dispensary by a high wooden
wall, which, besides the lock-hospital building, encloses the hospital latrine and
matron's quarters.
It is a wooden building raised some seven feet from off the ground, and is big
enough to give accommodation to nine patients.