However much legislation may be desired to check the spread of disease, it is necessary to abandon a sense of false modesty in dealing with the matter in question, and to recognise that, as in the case of all other diseases, its open treatment, and the widespread knowledge of its disastrous effects, are the surest means of effacing it in each locality.

(By order)

E. F. Chapman, Major General,

Quartermaster General in India.

[Transcriber’s Note: The following text is the transcription of a page of a multi-part document. An image of that page can be seen [here].]

[Transcriber’s Note: The following text is the transcription of a page of a multi-part document.]

RELATING TO CONTAGIOUS DISEASES (EAST INDIA)

Précis of Circulars issued in the Quartermaster General’s Department regarding the adoption of stringent Measures to reduce the chances of Venereal Disease spreading more widely amongst the Soldiers of the Army.

Number and Date of
Circular.

PURPORT.

No. 43, dated
20th July 1870.

I. Officers commanding troops on the line of march to ensure the effective inspection of prostitutes attached to their regimental bazars.

II. When any woman is found to be diseased, measures are to be adopted for her isolation on the march, and her transfer to the first or nearest Lock Hospital for treatment.

No. 87, dated
20th November 1871.

Forwards a copy of a report by the Sanitary Commissioner with the Government of India, reviewing the working of the rules for the prevention of venereal disease amongst British troops for the year 1870, and calls special attention to the necessity of officers commanding stations affording more efficient and energetic means for preventing the admission of casuals to the vicinity of the barracks.

Any increase of disease should at once be met by increased energy on the part of Station and Regimental authorities, and especially of Regimental Police.

No. 51, dated
23rd August 1872.

Forwards copy of a communication from the Government of India to that of Bombay, regarding the disposal of incurable women attending Lock Hospitals, in which the former approves of a proposal to employ an incurable woman on small wages in the duties of the hospital at Mhow.

No. 80, dated
30th September 1873.

Directs that the practice of levying registration fees from prostitutes be discontinued.

No. 90, dated
8th July 1875.

Calls attention to Circular No. 87 of 1871, and strongly impresses upon Officers Commanding Divisions, Districts, and Stations, the necessity for strengthening the regimental police of corps when venereal is on the increase at a station, it being the general impression that the disease is not, as a rule, contracted from the registered women, but from unlicensed prostitutes who wander about the lines as hawkers, or are employed as coolies by the Public Works Department.

2. Requests that it may be pointed out to regimental Commanders, and the Lock Hospital Sub-Committees, whose special duty it is to supervise the working of the Lock Hospital rules, how important it is that they should more actively exert themselves to check the prevalence of this disease.

No. 35, dated
8th May 1876.

The Commander in Chief in India having had under review the annual reports on the working of the Lock Hospitals at certain stations, His Excellency regrets to find that the results are not satisfactory when compared with those of previous years.

2. The Lock Hospital rules, as they stand, appear to meet all requirements, but it is considered that much greater vigilance and interest on the part of the local authorities is required for their efficient working.

3. The authorities most concerned in working out these rules are Commanding Officers of Regiments and Batteries, their Medical Officers, and the Sub-Committees, and their attention is called to the following points:—

I. The number of women on the register is not in proportion to the number of men who visit them.