The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-05-09 00:00:00

THE ALLEGED TRAFFIC IN ENGLISH
GIRLS.

HEALTH OF THE TROOPS.
A. Times correspondent dating from a " zarebs at
Ota,o, April 4th," says:
The health of the troops here and at Tambouk and
Hnndoub continues good. The temperature is 102
degrees in the shade. The railway to this point, with
a siding and an unloading platform, is now completed.
The contractors are anxious to go on, as they have
enough rails to reach Ariab. It is said that the line
will be. doubled from Souakim to this place.
The telegraph wires are often cut at night, but
last night they were unmolested. The camp was
not fired into last night, but at Tambouk the
enemy fired into the position for an hour. The
answering volleys of the troops failed to check the
fire, but some shrapnel from a 7-pounder eventually
proved effective. These desert warriors, so defiant
of rifle fire, have a holy horror of cannon shot, which
mutilates them and thus prevents their being recog-
nised when they enter the gates of Paradise—as all
do who war against and are decently killed by the
infidel. The position here is now fairly strong in a
military sense. All that can be done has been done
to make good the little two-gun battery, but more
detached hills require to be held than need be
held at Handoub. The latter position is a really
strong one for a small force unopposed by artillery.
Our zereba here is, of course, no protection against
rifle fir c: and at present r othing has been sttempted
in the way of field fortification. The enemy is doubt-
less despicable just now, but he may revive after the
crops have been sown. Tambouk is also a strong
position, but it is certain that detached hills must also
be held there.
The water supply here is fairly good, but the pre-
sence of 70 grains of salt per gallon is an unpleasant
fact. Thanks to the railway, however, we have
excellent and sufficient distilled water for our little
force of 600 of the Coldstream Guards and 80 of the
Mounted Infantry. There are here also half a field
hospital, 300 navvies, 600 railway coolies, and 500
camels and their attendants, On a height above the
camp are our two guns.

The following telegram has been 'received at the
War Office, dated Cairo, May 4, ]885:
"Officers arrived from Nile, sick :
" aptain J. F. Burn-Murdoch, Ist Royal Dra-
goons.
"Lieutenant C. Crutchley, Ist Scots Guards.
"Lieutenant Hon. J. G. R. U. Colborne, Ist
Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment.
"Lieutenant A. G. Duff, Ist Battalion Royal High-
landers (Black Watch).
"Lieutenant K. H. Eddis, Ist Battalion Royal
West Kent Regiment.
"Lieutenant C. F. H. Davidson, Ist Battalion
Cameron Highlanders.
"Major R. A. Nugent, C. 13., Commissariat and
Transport Staff.
"Captain A. B. Horsburgh, Ist Battalion South
Staffordshire Regiment.
"Surgeon-Major R. W. O'Donnell, Medical Staff.
"Surgeon W. S. Pratt, Medical Staff.
"Surgeon R. H. Clement, Medical Staff."

Telegraphing from Souakim on Tuesday the Special
Correspondent of the Standard said: The advance
in several columns in the direction of Tanaanieb,
which had been arranged to take place this evening,
has been postponed sine die, the reports of the spies
being that Osman's followers are so much dispersed
that there would be but little chance of any of the
columns falling in with them. Moreover, it would
be impossible to catch Osman himself, which was the
main object of the intended expedition, for, although
he is in the neighbourhood of Tamai, he always
retires to the mountaias at nightfall, and never
sleeps two nights in succession at the same place.
Twelve hundred of his followers, who deserted
him after their unsuccessful attack on M`Neill's
zerebas on the 22nd of March, have now returned
to his standard, raising the force at his disposal to
about 3000 fighting men. They are, however, re-
duced to great straits from want of food, existing
entirely on meat, their whole supply of grain being
exhausted. Numbers of Arabs have collected round
Tokar with their flocks and herds, and these have
sent in to implore the English to go out and save
them from Osman Digna. The officers of the
political section of the Intelligence Department at
the front are, indeed, continually receiving messages
from nearly all the fighting tribes in the neighbour-
hood, who are unanimous in declaring that they are
willing to submit if the English will guarantee to re-
main in the country. It need hardly be said that the
Department are in no position to give the xe-
quired assurance. Some five hundred of the Haden-
dowas, under the Chief Ali Adapt Saadoun, are
hovering within two miles of Otao. Consequently
officers and others are no longer permitted to go out,
as hitherto, singly or in small parties, to stalk the
deer which are to be found on the plains. Major
Grover, the head of the Intelligence Department,
with Captain Molyneux and a small escort of the 9th
Bengal Lancers, went out this morning to M‘Neill's
old zarebas, and reconnoitered the country a mile
beyond that post, but they saw no trace of the enemy.
The Jurana with twelve hundred coolies who were
landed and shipped off again, has again arrived,
the coolies are now being disembarked.
The Australian mining expert, who went out
to examine and report on _the gold veins jpnid to

The Middlesex Ccurt of Sessions sat officially on
Tuesday to take the case of Mary Jeffries, who was
indicted for keeping disorderly houses in the neigh-
bourhood of Chelsea. Mixed up witb the case there
were rumours that there would be preferred a far
graver charge of a traffic of a most infamous nature,
in which persons of high rank are said to have
availed themselves of her services. Whether such
charges are well or ill-founded, this case has been the
common talk of the whole season, ard it was only
after a long argument by the counsel engaged on each
side that a day was finally fixed upon which the trial
should take place. Mr. Besley, Mr. Porter, and Mr.
Purcell, instructed by Messrs. Shaen, Roscoe, and Co.
appeared for the prosecution ; and Mr. Montagu
Williams, Mr. Forrest Fulton, and Mr. Bodkin,
instructed by Mr. T. D. Dutton, for the defence. -
Mary Jeffries, on being placed at the bar and sur-
rendering to her bail, was charged with koeping
dis-
orderly houses at 125, 127, 129, and 155, Church-
street, Chelsea, and with having kept ill-governed and
disorderly houses at the above addresses.
On these charges being read over to the defendant
by Mr. Threlfall, the deputy clerk of the peace, she
pleaded guilty.
Mr. Besley, addressing the Court, said: My lord,
in this case my desire is, in anythinc, I say, to keep
in the background any irrelevant matter; but at the
same time I should explain to the Court that it was a
London committee who had interested itself in getting
the law amended, and also enforcing the law, as far
as possible, to prevent the deportation of English
girls from this country; it was that committee, in
consequence of the statements made to them, that
was induced to enter upon this DroFecution. Though
it is rather outside their line, after the statements

which had been made to them, they felt bound to in-
stitute these proceedings. The learned counsel then
! proceeded to say that the object of the society had been
attained, inasmuch as the prisoner had pleaded
' guilty • but they had a further object with which
that Court was not concerned. He was bound to
say that in the houses belonging to the prisoner there
was not the slightest proof of anything like disorder,
robbery or theft, but that the nuisance was one
known in common law as allowing persons to
assemble there for unchaste purposes, and he had no
doubt that the mode in which the matter had escaped
observation was that there were facilities for enter-
ing at the front doors of the houses, and going out at
the back. Of course in a legal sense the houses were
disorderly, but as he understood that Mr. Montagu
Williams would, on behalf of the prisoner, be able to
give assurances that the nuisar ce would actually
cease and be extinguished, he should leave the matter
in the hands of the Court.
Mr. Montagu Williams, on behalf of the prisoner,
said that the prosecution was not an ordinary one. It
had been instituted against the woman by the society
without the smallest notice being given her, but as
she technically was within the law, she, under his
advice, had pleaded guilty to the indictment. At the
same time he must submit that there never was a
case brought before the Bench of, if he could use the
absurd word, so unobjectionable a character—of course
every house of the kind was objectionable, but the
prisoner had lived in the parish of Chelsea for twenty
years, and up to the time of the institution of the pro-
secution no complaint had ever been made against
her by a single inhabitant. The defendant was a
woman of ill-health, 66 years of age, and hardly able
to walk about; and with regard to the importation or
exportation of young women, he (the learned counsel)
felt bound to say there was not a particle of evidence,
had the case been gone into, of any sort or shape.
Save and except idle rumour, which was always busy,
and generally in the wrong, there was not the slightest
reason for saying that the woman had been guilty of
anything of that description.
At the conclusion of Mr. Williams's remarks, the
bench retired for consultation, and returned after an
absence of a quarter of an hour.
The Assistant Judge: We have to deal with this
case on the facts before us. We have nothing to do
with the reports or rumours which may have been
circulated outside this court, and which, for aught we
know, may be entirely untrue. We find that you
have been for nearly three years past in the occupa-
tion of three houses, each of which has been used as a
brothel, and there is another house which you have
also maintained for the like unlawful purpose. We
are, however, assured that you have made arrang merits
for a cessation of the nuisance thus arising; but we
shall require security from you for your adhering to
this resolution. For your conduct in the past as the
keeper of these houses, we impose a fine upon you of
£2OO, and you will be subject to be imprisoned until
that fine be paid. We must further have security for
your good behaviour for the future, and we require
you therefore to enter into your own recognisances in
the sum of £4OO to keep the peace and be of good
behaviour for two years; and we require you also
to find one surety in the sum of £4OO, or two sureties
each in the sum of £2OO, and be of good behaviour
for that period. We understand from your learned
counsel that you are prepared at once to give up the
house No. 155, which is called St. James's-villa, and
that you are also prepared to give up the house No.
125; but it seems that the prosecutors, who have
satisfied themselves of your good intentions with
regard to the future, are willing that you should
continue in the occupation of the houses numbered
127 and 129, practically one house, inasmuch as
doorways have been opened between the houses so
numbered. But it is right to caution you with
regard to your future occupation of those two houses,
because if you should keen: them for the unlawful
purposes for which you have up to this time used
them, you will be subject to another indictment, and
be more severely punished.
Upon the understanding that the fine would be at
once paid, and on the assurance of Mr. Williams t 1.4
his client would attend on Monday with her sureties,
she wag discharged.