The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-02-10
LADY SOMERSET'S LETTER.
Her Reasons for Withdrawing In
dorsement of Vice Regulation.


dorsement of Vice Regulation.
New York, Feb. 1O-Miss Frances Will
lard, president of the w. c. T. u, has
received from Lady Henry Somerset, the
English temperance leader and social re-
former, a copy of the letter which Lady
Henry sent to Lord George Hamilton,
secretary of state for India, Withdrawing
any Endorsement that she ever gave to
the state regulation of immortality among
the British troops in India. The letter
was given out by Miss Willard, with the
accompanying note:
1.-The following letter brings rejoicing
to the hearts of our own people every
where. It is what we had the right to
expect from a great-hearted comrade who
has from the first been devoted to US in
our purity work. Please give the letter as
wide publication as possible
Lady SOmerset's letter follows:
''Eastnor Castle, Ledbury, England,
January 2S-Lord George Hamilton:
Your lordship invited me ten months ago
to give you my view of the subject that
has been addressed to the government of
India on the health of the army, and in
the letter in which I did so I ventured to
suggest some methods, moral and disci-
plinary, which seemed to me the only
ones likely to succeed, because they at
least had the merit of being logical l
was led to do so by the consideration,
first, that the dispatch in question seemed
to imply that the government would give
encoura cement to any form of alleviat-
ing agency, and so emphasized the altered
spirit in which the subject was approach
ed, and that suggested supervision would
only affect the incOrrigible minimum; and,
second, that the system I had in mind
would be so drastic and penal in it's ma
ture as to make state interference odious
and finally impossible. That was ten
months ago. and in that time nothing has
been done, of which the public has heard,
to strengthen the forces that make for
moral Improvement.
What has been done was the repeal OF
the Indian act of 1895. 1t seems to have
been the object of the government to OBJ
tain the maximum of impunity with
minimum of protest from those who de-
sire to see the state shape its actions &C
cording to the Christian view of ethics.
1 need not tell your lordship I not
writing to say how strongly am still
opposed to the course which the govern
ment has taken, but I find that my let
ter to your lordship of last year has been
taken by many to mean that am on the
side of the accepted view of the state reg
uIatfons and am from time to time be-
ing quoted as a sympathizer with such
view. I am, therefore, writing to With
draw any proposals mace IN lhal 4elteI'
for the reason that the events of the last
year had convinced me of the inadvisa>
bility and extreme danger of the system
that I thought in April last might be in>
stituted. The absence of any serious eff
fort of the government to bring about a
higher standard in the army is a final
proof to me that as long as regulations
of any kind can be resorted to as a rem
edy, it will always be regarded as the one
and only panacea-
my view was that it would be institut-
ed as a basis to a possible effective aux
iliary to moral efforts. I find it will al
ways be accepted as a convenient substi-
tute. take the liberty of addressing an
explicit withdrawal of any Endorsement,
of whatever form, of the principle of regu-
lation, because it was in letter to your
Iordship that I originally incurred the re-
sponsibility. I trust, therefore, on your
Iordship's indulgence to forgive me trou~
bling you further with the matter.
ISABEL SOMERSET"