WHITE SLAVE EVIL.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2018, 27 March 1914, Page 8

WHITE SLAVE EVIL.

FURTHER ADDRESS

TO GATHERINC IN WELLINGTON

At tho request of the Women's Moral and Physical Health Society, Mrs. Field, of Nelson, road the paper dealing with tho .whito slavo traffic which she had given at tho New Zealand conference of tho Women's Christian Temperance Union held at Gisborne two or three weeks ago. Dr. Platts-Mills presided, and introduced Mrs. Field.

Before reading her paper, which had been widely telegraphed throughout New Zealand, Mrs. Field explained that she had been for years keenly interested in tho women's suffrage movement on Ao other sido of tho world, and as s'ho studied the question she found that at tho back of it all tho root and cause of the earnestness and self-sacrifico With which women were fighting for tho franchise was tho existence of three great evils—tho liquor traffic, tho sweated industries, and the tthite slavo traffic. Those wero the things against which the suffragists were contending. They had to fight against a double standard of morality, and sho did not think that there was one person, present who believed that the scheme of creation demanded' the degradation of women. Tho paper, of which tho greater part has already been published, gave carefullycompiled information of the extent to which the traffic is 'carried on in the countries and cities of the older world, and suggested ways and means by which public opinion might be influenced to right agriinst it,'and to keep New Zealand free from it. People had to be made to realise that it", really existed, and existed so that money was made out of it, and that its consequences were appalling. Touching upon the commotion that had been caused by her statement that, there was fairly good authority for thinking tho traffic had already touched our shores, and by the letter which.sho had read' at the conference bearing out that, statement, Mrs. Field said that she had never stated, nor did tho letter, that there was any organisation for that purpose, but that there was'evidence of procuration. That was one phase of-thc traffic. There was no proof-of any girls being sent out of the Dominion, but some of the cases that 'had come under her notice were certainly like procuration. After Sergeant Kiely's denial that there was any evidence of the, traffic, the "Herald" had sont out a reporter to pursue investigations. Auckland women, whoso work had brought them into coritact with a great many girls, were questioned, and/ the consensus of opinion was that,-although there appeared to be no organised trafficking in girls, there were isolated 'instances of .attempts ™ lure them away, enough to make every' girl wary in her dealings with strangers. One woman who met and helped girls coming to Auckland as strangers had said she had met with two cases that had looked suspiciously likq .white slavery, but, although ' she had made'inquiries, the evidence was too slender to institute proceedings. If they ■were to keep this traffic from New Zealand it was for women-to keep their eyes and ears open, to bo alert, and to investigate everything,that looked at,all suspicious. '''.'.•

. Miss Pullen-Burry, F.R.A.S., FiR.G.S., who-.had accompanied Lady Stout to the'meeting, was asked to speak upon the results of her observations both in England and abroad v She dwelt upon tho:spirit 'of comradeship that.bad como so, strongly.into,existence. amoiig','wome'il,"a'nd of how!necessary,it was to warn girls, in these days '. when they went about the world so much, and. earned their own livings away from their homes.

Lady.Stout in the course of her address said that women had got the voto in New Zealand largely through the fact that the men had recognised that women had done as much as they had to colonise the country, and she hoped they would all do everything to keep the white slave traffic from the country. ■ As the result of investigations it had been found that .there were cases of girls disappearing from theif*homes ; but no evidences of the traffic as it existed in England. In rescue homes in New Zealand the girls were always asked if their people knew where they were, but thoy will never have them told of what had befallen them. That was one way in which they disappeared from the knowledge'of their relatives. She suggested that a deputation' be formed 1 , to wait upon the Hon. H. D. Bell to ask that better means bo provided.for the safety of immigrant girls arriving in this country, and that a record of their whereabouts be kept; also that further measures for the* safety of girls bo taken. She thought that, If all the women's societies throughout Now Zealand banded together and met in conference so that each knew what the other was doing and thinking, much might bo done to prevent even the likelihood' of this traffic ever gaining foothold in New Zealand.

Before .the meeting dispersed \i was decided that'a deputation wait upon the Hon. H. D. Bell to urgo . more complete measures for the protection of girls and-women. <