TOTAL WAR ON V.D.

Grey River Argus, 19 May 1943, Page 4

TOTAL WAR ON V.D.

AUSTRALIAN CAMPAIGN.

SYDNEY, May 18,

“This is not a matter on which sensitive feelings should be allowed to stand before an evil which, if unchecked, will cause- in Australia misery and anguish even S(J years from to-day.” The above comment was made 'in the “Sydney Sun” editorial headed “Let us have total war on venereal disease.” The churches, press, politicians, and women’s organisations are co-operating with Australian military and civilian health authorities in an all-out drive to quell war-time immorality, and the disease attendant upon it. This week the Commonwealth health authorities will meet at Canberra to inaugurate a national campaign. The Federal Government allocated f2s,(Jt)l) to initiate a light, but. the amount is generally regarded as totally inadequate- for the task. “It is rather like taking a teaspoon Io fight a lire," says the “Sun.” “Millions have been spent in cancer research.” The paper urges that the tight against destructive social diseases is not alone a matter for publicity, education and clinical research but for stern legislation to ensure that infected persons may be detained and given no chance to transmit the infection.

The Church of England has Issued an outspoken pamphlet, on this subject, addressed mainly to men and women of the fighting forces. An intensified Army drive against venereal disease has been ordered by Australia’s Army Minister, Mr. Ford. Newspapers publish day to day articles emphasising its cumulative evils. In all Australian cities, police vice squads are active. They daily arrest infected girls, many of them aged 15 to 18. Some have been even younger. Health and police authorities are urging wider powers ensiling the detention of older women who, like younger girls, have been found in the company of servicemen, but who cannot now be arrested.

Newspapers also emphasise the dangers' of Australia’s mounting juvenile crime figures, which the Melbourne “Herald” calls “a war problem of maior proportions, demanding immediate study and prompt handling.” The naner sa'vs that, many girls aged 11 to 15, taken into custody as “neglected children,” Wave been found suffering from venereal disease.