VENEREAL DISEASE CAMPAIGN FUND-

Otago Witness, Issue 3330, 9 January 1918, Page 7

VENEREAL DISEASE CAMPAIGN FUND-

APPEAL TO NEW ZEALAND WOMEN.

Miss E. A. Rout, hon. secretary New Zealand Soldiers' Medical Club, Hornchurch, writes under date November 21: I havo already written various articles showing the necessity for strenuous efforts to supplement the official _ work already being done. These efforts it is desired to. m»ke privately, and supported by public subscription. My connection with them will be that of reporter and eecretarv, and there is nothing we shall do which will not bo faithfully told to the women of New Zealand. And we want them to realise that, however painful the truth may be, it will be placed before them with the sure conviction that they will be brave and helpful to us. We have none of us ever been faced with so fearful a problem as confronts us now. If we are to save our men, and later save our women, we must act quickly and effectively. I am not decrying what has been and is being done officially, only I say it has proved entirely ineffective. Venereal disease among the members of the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces has igone from bad to worse, until How it is higher than in any other force, and at Hornchurch it is highest of all. Therefore, I hare abandoned establishing a medical dispensary in London, which could be made profitable by sales to other troops, and come to Hornchurch where it will be intensely difficult, with the money I have available, to stand fast. But with the heln of New Zealand people I am sure it can be done, and it should be done. The first subscription has come from a New Zealand woman —Mrs Crowther. of Auckland—who has sent us by cable £lO. I am placing this to the credit of the club funds at once, and from time to time will send an account of our expenditure for publication in the New Zealand newspapers. All subscriptions Bhould be sent to me, care of the High Commissioner for New Zealand, 413 Strand, ILondon. or care of the Bank of New Zealand. The announcement of the establishment of this club (which has a sales depot for prophylactic outfits) has been sent through N.Z.E.F. Orders by the Commandant of the N.Z.E.F., and everything will be done to make our work completely effective in all parts of the Neiv Zealand army. Many of our men will fall in battle, many will be maimed and wounded, but let us all try our very best to see that those who do return to New Zealand go back clean in blood, and fit to etart the nation anew. Government action is necessary as well as private effort. I would appeal no the women of New Zealand to offer no obstruction to euch legislative action as is really necessary. I havo not the slightest doubt myself that compulsory notification and compulsory treatment of venereal disease for soldiers and civilians are now necessary; the medical control of loose women is absolutely necessary; and the issue, by sale or otherwise, of prophylactic outfits is also necessary. A knowledge of prophylaxis should be spread broadcast among soldiers and civilians. The possession of such medical knowledge will hot in any way " promote immorality " the responsibility will still rest on the individual. We are all agreed as to the desirability of self-control, but we ere frail mortals, the best of us. To err is human, to forgive divine. Do not let us women fill our hearfcj with anger and recrimination. Our men have been away from us for years; maybe they will be absent for years more. On the battlefields of Europu they are being tried almost beyond endurance. In the streets of London it is practically impossible for them to escape temptation. In the transports they are cooped up, orammed tight like so many herrings in "a barrel. Tho mental and physical relief of consortitiß with wojr.on is something beyond pur understanding. It docs—and must—take place. Then it is tho duty of good women, in those times, as guardians of the torch of life, to seo that no harm cornea

to their men far away. This wo can do partly by keeping in constant affectionate correspondence with our menfolk, _ partly by aiding tho work of such organisations ■as the Y.M.C.A., but partly also by accepting tho practical medical measures which are necessary simply as a matter of sexual sanitation. Cleanliness may bo only next to Godliness, but it is much easier of attainment for the majority of men. And it means the very existence of our nation. Therefore, when I am asking tho women of Nov/ Zealand to support us in this work undertaken mainly for their sakes, we should all of us remember that it is for tho homes of New Zealand—now and in tho future—that wo are striving, and we should not be influenced by any consideration except those definitely aiming at the maintenance of healthy fatherhood and motherhood for the nation of the future. This, at least, is a debt which wo must pay to posterity, for it is indeed but tho refund of advances made to us from the Life-Forces of the past.