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XXX
"What would be gained? The inducement to enter the life or to persist in it would be lessened;
the total volume of business and the volume transacted by any one woman would be decreased; the
financial waste would be less; the amount of disease disseminated would be less; the demoralisation of
the woman would often be less complete, less overwhelming, less irretrievable: surely, very important
gains.
"Well drawn, well codified, well executed laws could accomplish this. Any civilised society
utilising the resources and instrumentalities that every such society has within its reach, can, if really
so minded, ultimately reduce prostitution and its ravages so far by direct action.
"It is well worth doing; it is, humanly speaking, a possible undertaking, even though, I repeat,
nowhere as yet by any means accomplished. Let us not, however, deceive ourselves into thinking that
such a direct frontal attack absolves us from effort in other and different directions. Further achievement
depends upon alterations in the constitution of society and its component parts. In so far as
prostitution is the outcome of ignorance, laws and police are powerless; only knowledge will aid. In
so far as prostitution is the outcome of mental or moral defect, laws and police are powerless, only the
intelligent guardianship of the state will prevail. In so far as prostitution is the outcome of natural
impulses denied a legitimate expression, only a rationalised social life will really forestall it. In so far as
prostitution is due to alcohol, illegitimacy, to broken homes, to bad homes, to low wages, to wretched
industrial conditions—to any or all of the particular phenomena respecting which the modern conscience
is becoming sensitive—only a transformation wrought by education, religion, science, sanitation,
enlightened and far-reaching statesmanship can effect a cure. Our attitude towards prostitution, in
so far as these factors are concerned, cannot embody itself in a special remedial or repressive policy, for
in this sense it must be dealt with as part of the larger social problems with which it is inextricably
entangled. Civilisation has stripped for a life-and-death wrestle with tuberculosis, alcohol, and other
plagues. It is on the verge of a similar struggle with the crasser forms of commercialised vice. Sooner
or later, it must fling down the gauntlet to the whole horrible thing This will be the real contest—a
contest that will tax the courage the self-denial, the faith, the resources of humanity to their
uttermost."
F. N. Kay Menzies.
The questions of immediate self disinfection and ablution centres have not been dealt with in
this report as they have formed the subject of separate reports to the Council.

(а) Treatment (including laboratory work for treatment centre).
(b) Laboratory work for medical practitioners.