VIRTUAL SLAVES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23223, 22 June 1937, Page 15

VIRTUAL SLAVES

WHITE WOMEN HAREMS OF DUSKY PRINCES One hundred and fifty-eight European and American women have, for varying periods, been virtual slaves in the harems of dusky princes and notabilities in Syria, Algeria, and other parts of North Africa, are now free. Of those, 67 are stated to be of British origin and 12 American. This has been revealed by the “ comb-out ” ordered by the French Government some time ago as the result of complaints that white women and girls had been lured to harems in the belief that they were accepting ordinary dancing engagements. Practically every harem in the region was visited, and all white women were questioned with a view to determining

whether they were there of their own free will or by force or fraud. It was found that a number of the white occupants of the harems—British, American, and French —admitted that they had been tricked into entering, but .hey preferred to make the best of things rather than go back to their people to avow the truth. The 67 British and 12 American women who accepted the offer of freedom form a little over a third of the women of their nationality found in the arems. The majority were professional dancers, but quite a number were young women, with no previous stage or kinema experience, who had fallen for the blandishments of agents approaching them during periods of unemployment with tales of easy money and brilliant stage careers. FREEDOM DECLINED

A surprising number, however, were young women who had left comfortable homes without being under the obligation to earn their own living merely because they were “ sheik-struck.” It is this class that has provided the largest proportion of the British and American women who have declined the freedom offered them by the French authorities.

Freed women will be repatriated as quickly as possible at the expense of the French Government, and in each case the payment of all sums due to them under the contracts they signed in error will be paid. Drastic measures are being taken to put an end to the traffic, l d all European women and girls landing at the different ports are now interviewed by experienced men and women who warn them of what they have to expect.

In the past three weeks alone the French authorities have turned back more than 200 European recruits for the harems introduced by the traffickers.