“WHITE SLAVE” TRAFFIC.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14235, 7 March 1914, Page 8

“WHITE SLAVE” TRAFFIC.

ADDRESS AT THE W.C.T.U. CONGRESS. (Per United Press Association.) GISBORNE. March 6. The outstanding feature of to-day's W.C.T.U. session was an address to-night bv Mrs Pield, of Nelson, on the white slave traffic. “I wonder,” said Mrs Fiekl, “does the history of the world hold anything worse in all.we read of its savagery and cannibalism, its brutalities and uuhumanities? Can anything equal the white slave traffic of this 20th century c After two thousand years of Christianity in the most Christian country of the world, thousands and thousands of young girls are stolen aud bought and sold into the most awful slavery —of which the world has ever heard—young, and often refined, delicately-nurtured girls, are entrapped and held in bondage so horrible afad so degrading that they can never again hold up their heads. Think what it must mean to be compelled to receive auv aud every visitor, to suffer nameless indignities: * And we Christian women have never lost a night’s sleep as we thought of them. We read and hear and we fear that it may happen to those we know and love, but of the others—those we do not know-how much do we care? If we women of the Dominion truly cared, these things need not be. They exist because of our indifference. How many of us have raised our voice against even the double standard of morality? I hope there is not one person present who believes that man’s necessity demands the degradation of woman. Every year, in every large, city of the civilised world, thousands of girls are forced unwillingly into this life —a life so awful that in some cases they onlv live a year; in others two years or more, but seldom as much as seven years. And yet the price of an English girl is from ,£3O to JE2OO. D you wonder how it pays? Read the page from an account' book kept by a woman and used to give credit to the inmates of her den. The page bears the name of eight girls, and a stroke is placed against their names for every man who visited them each day. On five successive days, 491 men visited this place. In five successive days, 130 men subjected one particular girl to indescribable brutalities.” After forcefully describing the horrible conditions alleged to be present in Paris. New York, French colonies. South America, and the Continent, Mrs Field proceeded —“The question is how to create the necesary public opinion? I think the first step is to make known as widely as possible the character and extent of the traffic. Unless the men and women of our Dominion know of the existence of this traffic, very little can be done. They must first be made to realise that it is a fact that girls and young women are being entrapped, drugged, stolen, and forced into this trade: that the men and women who do this are not doing it for their own gratification, but to make money out of it. It is simply a case of procuring their goods in the cheapest market and selliiinr them in the dearest. Enough women will not take up this life of their own free will, so they are procured by guile. One of the latest methods is the hypodermic syringe. A girl in a crowd who appears to be alone mav feel a prick in her arm. In a little while she may faint or stagger. A man will come forward and claim her as his wife or sister, who is subject to these attacks or given to drink. She disappears and her friends search in vaiu. It does not cost much—a cab—and she is lauded in some don of infamy, and from there is sold in the best market. Her purchaser’s one aim is to make money out of her. Nothing else matters. She is simply a bundle of merchandise, out of which he or she will make as much as possible while she lasts, and when worn out to be thrown on the streets a physical and moral wreck, to die in the river or lock hospital, a mass of loathesorae disease. This is a plain statement. This tiling is not a nightmare, but an awful, hideous reality. A suggestion will come before us in the form of a resolution from the Nelson Union asking us to consider the advisability of appointing a superintendent for this subject, to gather information, and also to suggest preventive measures. Whatever is decided on, I hope no woman will tro from this Convention feeling that this is a thing that does not concern her. It concerns us all, and we have it on fairly good authority that already this traffic has reached our shores; that over 20 girls have recently disappeared. 1 wrote for information. May I here give you an extract from the letter I received. The writer says: Yes, girls are being stolen from New Zealand. In connection with this infamous traffic; one of their agents, purporting to be with a “company,” maried a girl recently in the Bay of Islands, and that is the last that has been seen or heard of her. Frankton Junction seems to be the hot place. A man and his wife in that district are on the track of girls. One girl working for a lady I met in Te Arolm narrowly escaped their clutches. They were in correspondence with her, offering her better work, better wages, etc., and the girl was ready to accept, but her mistress saw oue of the letters and suspected evil. She immediately sent the girl back to her parents, aud when the man and his wife called to see “their little friend," her daughter, who was at home, to put them off the scent said that the trial had gone to work for another family in the town, but she had forgotten the address. If r they would call the next morning, when ! her mother was in, perhaps she might be able to get it. Her mother is a very ; firm woman, and she wanted to meet them, but they never returned. The girl is . still safely at home, but as her home is i near Frankton Junction there is no telling ? how long she may remain so. There s have been cases in Auckland that leave scarcelv a shadow of doubt, but it is ex--1 tremely diffieut to trace the ‘cadets,’ and - so one can do but little publicly. The s writer of this letter is doing what she can to warn parents and girls, but is not - able to give as much time to it as she would wish. I believe that we arc the largest and moat influential women’s ory ganisation in the Dominion, as we are in the world. IV hat are we going to do as an organisation, and what as individu--1 als? I do hope you will each do some--1 thing, not from selfish motives, not to - save those you love, not to add a star to your crown, but that you may have the inestimable privilege of having helped to raise a brother a little higher, of having helped to save a sister from falling.” POLICE OFFICER’S VIEW. ••UNKNOWN IN NEW ZEALAND.” AUCKLAND, March 7. Superintendent Kiely, officer in charge of the Auckland police district, says there is not an atom of evidence to support the ►statement made by Mrs Field at the aunual meeting of the W.C.T.U., that an organised system is at work in this country for recruiting girls for the underworld. Referring to the particular instances quoted by Mrs Field, the superintendent

said a few cases to which a certain amount of suspicion had attached had been reported to the police, but in nqjie of them' had there been an atom. of evidence to show the existence of “White slavery." Superintendent Kiely added, can say, ' without hesitation that, so far as Auckland is concerned, there is not a vestige < of truth in the assertion. I can also say i with almost as much confidence, that 1 ‘white slavery’ is unknown in New Zea- 1 land." 1 - , 1