WHITE SLAVE TRAFFIC.

Grey River Argus, 23 June 1927, Page 6

WHITE SLAVE TRAFFIC.

AN INTERNATIONAL EVIL. LONDON, June 3. When the first part of the White Slave Traffic Commission’s report, prepared by the League of Nations, was issued last month, the second part was withheld from publication owing to the nature of its contents. Certain newspapers have now been supplied with a copy of this document. Though much of it makes terrible reading, nevertheness it is a 'locument of the highest importance for an understanding of the present position in regard to the whole problem and statistics of white slavery. The report covers 28 countries in North, South and Central America, in Europe, certain countries of North Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, and Turkey. The investigation over this wide area has taken more than two years, and was completed in December, 1926. FUTILE LAWS. The countries are dealt with in alphabetical order, and to each survey is added an appendix giving the laws of the particular country touching on the question of the white slave traffic. Unfortunately the laws, admirable as they usually are, appear to be frequently evaded with ease. As to the Argentine, for example, the report says: “It is clear that the traffickers manage to evade every restriction. and the evidences discloses an ! elaborate organisation for running the business and securing girls therefor to the great profit of the third parties. It is further significant to note the number of different towns which have been linked. Buenos Aires, Cairo, Paris, Warsaw, Antwerp are places which, though so widely separated, have yielded encounters with either the same traffickers or with friends of these same characters.” The white slave traffic is indeed an international evil. An investigator in Brazil reports the following conversation in Rio de Janiero, with the keeper of a house of ill-fame:— “ —D.H. usually does business with a fellow —T in Paris. Perhaps you know him?” She replied: “Do I know him? I’ll say I do! Many a girl he sent to me. Here and in Bahia. I know him very well. In those\days I got half, so it paid me; but now it would not.” THE MARRIAGE METHOD. In France, as in other countries, “the underworld succeeds by various methods in outwitting the law and administrative measures.” The method generally used in cases where the girl is under 21 is the marriage method, since marriage emancipates the woman from control . . . Another method of leaving the country is the of false birth , certificates for minors and the issuing of passports showing them to be over age. For example, a trafficker, 4—T, met in Paris, said, “I can fix up your papers, passports, any kind you want, visas, and marriage, birth, and identity certificates.” He showed English, Brazilian, and Polish passports. Tn Germany girls are promised theatrical jobs if they will go abroad. One trafficker said: “All these kids are wild about the stage, the movies, cabarets, anything that makes them think they are artists. They are the kind (hat fall easy.” The commission itself stated that evidence of traffic on an organised scale was not found in Great Britain. Poland was generally admitted by everyone interviewed at the time of this investigation to be a country of supply of women and girls who were taken to other countries, particularly to South America, for immoral purposes. According to information obtained from various sources, it would appear that Jewish women are particularly exposed to exploitation. Rumania also is unsatisfactory. The position as regards international traffic in Rumania requires careful watching on the part of the authorities. Traffic through and out of the country

is occurring, a large number of young girls are being procured. The white shire traffic appears to be small in the United States, save for the Chinese girls smugged on to the West Coast. “These very young girls are being smuggled into the United States, and are held in wffiat amounts to abject slavery; they are bought and sold like chattels.”