Frequent medical inspections should be ordered, and every endeavour should be made to make the men realize their own responsibility in assisting their officers, by indicating the women from whom disease has been acquired.
Much may be done to encourage a feeling amongst the men that it should be a point of honour to save each other where possible from risk in this matter.
The medical inspection of all detachments before leaving or entering a cantonment should be enforced by General Officers.
In conclusion, His Excellency desires me to impress upon all concerned the necessity for meeting the present difficulty by increased individual effort.
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.
[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 | PURPORT. of Circular. | -----------------+------------------------------------------------------ No. 43, dated | I. Officers commanding troops on the line of march to 20th July 1870. | 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 | Forwards a copy of a report by the Sanitary 20th November | Commissioner with the Government of India, reviewing 1871. | 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 | Forwards copy of a communication from the Government 23rd August | of India to that of Bombay, regarding the disposal 1872. | 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 | Directs that the practice of levying registration 30th September | fees from prostitutes be discontinued. 1873. | | No. 90, dated | Calls attention to Circular No. 87 of 1871, and 8th July 1875. | 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 | The Commander in Chief in India having had under 8th May 1876. | 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. |