MRS LEE-COWIE'S VISIT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume L, Issue 175, 8 October 1917, Page 4

MRS LEE-COWIE'S VISIT

•■ THE PLAGUE

On Saturday night. Mrs■, gave an", addressi,in favour' of orohibition: -o| the Kqiipr traffic.';;,!./Mr Ihos. Pettit .pmrided.", '.: „ . ; ,. ''•'/■,•',';: ■' ;■'• - '■■ 'j.'Mrk Lee-?Cpwie aUdtczß- ■ ed a large audience" at ths Theatre Royal,' the (Mr W. W. Snod-,-grass) presiding. ....',' "' The speaker spoke on the tyords, "Through lack of knowledge. ple are being destroyed," anil went on. to say that much \of the evil of the Red Plague was due, to lack, ofkhmvledge. Before the war; she said, it' would have been impossible .for Her to have addressed a mixed audiehcii on th e subject of the Red. Plague'; Then those who were fighting the white-slave traffic were jregarm&d n as . fanatics—were laughed at and mb<fßßa. -When the war came our boys, jwent. out unfitted to Fithcra had" hot told" their'- \M s : of '.flhe temptations that wQuld ;bMall them ai^d,,c,'f the terri'b)e consec|onfces., of ;wrong-do-ing. Since the '^woirieh-, nad heard many words i,hey KSd neyei; .heard before. They had of (Segregation > gamps and barbyfliSvire jenclbsufep ift Britain. What weW'thesei for? It"«'«? where soldiers suffering frohiua terrible disease were that theyy could <~ not spread the disease 1 further. Mothers . to realise tn'af? the* underlying, cause great tragedy. They began ,to TeaHs* that-..drink waft what Mr Lloyd Gborge..cabled it--the greatest foe Britain'hud tpface. Leprosy was not to be dreaded as was the red plague. Childr.en : Born of lepers were not lepers y but the ,wbr«t *art;of th# Red Plague was that it; ;waa nptonly the men who suffered for their sins, but the little, helpless children. The speaker pathetically referrbd to the return of men from Egypt to Now • Zealand—men who never fired a shot at. the enimy Many preferred to steal away and die in the desert than come home in disgrace—as a soldier put it "they could uofe face the music." One boy on board asked, the doctor if there ; was no chance for him to. get bptter—wouldJhe never recover? The doctor held out no-hope,, and the boy said,'"lt would be* better to slip overboard:" That night he disappeared. Reference was made to v ;tho great work Dr. Pettit was doing ~:Jn showing the men at the wraps tlie ravages of this terrible Bocial disease. It had been stated that i,n,ordcr_to • evade military service some men hatt deliberately contracted venereal disease —an appalling act that could only bo due to lack of knowledge of th* consequences. Evidence before » select committee in Australia had disclosed that drink, was the principal cause of the young men goinc astTay. it. was drink aod disease, drink and disease, drink and disease—all along the line. Five young men wore passed as fit, and a week or two later came up for further examination, when the, doctor declared that in the meantime something had happened. The reason, so often cave wa a "I did it when under the influence "of liquor." Lord Derby had said that there were 98,000 soldiers in the segregation campß in Britain—men done for at the beginning of their lives. Not one of those men, the, speaker declared, should be allowed to marry.. It was \irged that everything possible should be done to teach men the frightful consequences of drink and impurity. A collection -was taken up in aid of the Strength of the Nation Movement.