We have now shown that the compulsory examination of women brings into existence, of necessity, every feature of what is commonly called the C. D. Acts; and that, as that compulsory examination is of itself a sin, so every feature of the enactments necessary to carry out that law is at each step liable to fearful abuse, and the system as a whole is ruinous to the morals of any community.
[6] A term applied to British residents in India.
[7] When Lieut-General Lord Sandhurst was questioned before the Royal Commission of 1871 as to the advisability of soldiers being periodically examined by male physicians, he replied that he preferred to treat his soldiers "as reasonable men, not as brutes." Let women show at least equal consideration for women.
[8] Perhaps they had in mind such a case as the woman we interviewed at Cantonment Bareilly. Her father was Scotch, she said--her mother, Portuguese; she had been trained by Dr. C----. She went every day to the brothels and examined the women. _She owned the brothels_, and resided with an official to whom she was not married. (See page 133, Departmental Committee Report, 1893.)
MANY times in the course of our conversations with the little women of India we had promised before leaving them to do what we could to secure relief and help for them. In the simplicity of their faith and lack of practical knowledge, several of them had ventured to intimate that we might go to England and see the Queen, and tell her their troubles. "For," they said, "the Queen does not countenance it; for she has daughters of her own, and she cares for her daughters in India." "The Queen is a woman, and we also are women, and our shame is the Queen's shame; and for us to be exposed is as though the Queen were exposed; it is a shame for women to be so treated when a woman is Queen."
At Peshawar, at Lucknow, and at Meerut, the girls had held us at parting until they had solemnly lifted their eyes to heaven and asked God's blessing on us, and asked Him to help us to help them to get deliverance from their oppression. God heard the prayer, although their knowledge of Him was probably very obscure. The sacred promises we gave them and gave Him to help them, can never be set aside without bringing guilt on our own souls. They depend upon us to voice their sorrows and plead their cause, by solemn compact with them and God. May He keep us faithful to the trust!