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APPENDIX C.
REPORT ON MY WORK AMONGST THE GIRLS ON THE STREET, BEING A PLEA FOR A
CENTRAL GIRLS' HOME AND CLEARING STATION.
Sir,
I herewith beg to tender you a few notes on my experiences as a street patrol.
For the past eighteen months I have been engaged with others in work on behalf of the Young
Men's Christian Association in an effort to protect soldiers, sailors, and now, demobilised men, from
the dangers of the streets.
In practical experience it has been found impossible to deal effectively with the problem without
also giving attention to the girls and women into whose hands the men fall. Many of the girls are not
confirmed or hardened prostitutes, and scores of them can be persuaded to leave the streets if only
provision could be made for their future.
It is a common experience for a soldier or civilian to agree to leave a girl, if I am able to give an
assurance that I will provide for her. It is just here that the great difficulties arise.
My work is night work, and mostly late night work, for that is the best and most effective time
to carry on our mission. It is hard enough to find accommodation that is suitable during the day;
it is infinitely harder late at night.
A bed is the first necessity, coupled with some motherly supervision; perhaps a hospital the
second ; a home and employment following after. It is in these matters that help is urgently needed.
It is appalling at times to have to close one's eyes to a vast number of cases, or to take away
everything from the girls with one hand and have nothing to offer with the other.
For instance on an average we have 45 to 50 separations per week, and when I have successfully
got the boy away from the girl, whom I may know to be a prostitute, I then approach the girl, who
will say, "I have no home, no money, no work."
Here comes the problem. What am I to do with her?
I have practically to tell her to carry on till I can do something for her, thus running great risk
of losing her altogether, whereas if I could take her to some suitable place there and then, supervised by
an experienced matron who would co-operate with me, and carefully deal with the case, undoubtedly
that girl could be saved.
I believe there are hundreds of young girls of 15 to 24 years of age on our streets to-day, obtaining
their existence as prostitutes, who would gladly return to a life of respectability if we could say to them:
"Now, girlie, no matter what the position is, I can help you right now."
* * * * * * *
It is a terrible fact, but I can state from my experience, that the prostitutes of my district are
practically all diseased and need treatment. All my girls consent to medical examination with very
little persuasion if tactfully dealt with, and many to-day are healthy and doing well, who were once
badly diseased and also frequently prisoners in Holloway.
These girls live at the common lodging houses, but, after getting anyone of them to the stage
of willingness for examination, and taking her to the hospital, she has no means of following up the
treatment or carrying out the doctor's instructions, because in these types of houses there is no privacy
whatever. The girl becomes sickened with the situation, disheartened with herself, and does not,
because she cannot, proceed with the personal treatment which is so essential. If she turns again to
her former mode of life she thus infects every man with whom she comes into contact, and it may be
innocent people as well.
Further, whilst she is in this condition we cannot get her work, however willing she may be
to make good.
The venereal disease maternity case is another serious problem for the rescue worker. We have
practically no place but the workhouse to offer her, and this she positively refuses until the very last
moment, and continues her life on the streets in spite of the unborn child. I have known cases where
girls of 17 and 18 years of age have thus remained on the streets as long as 8i months in pregnancy.
The unmarried mother, who leaves the infirmary after confinement with no prospects either of
home, money or work, and very little hope of getting them, and with her baby to support, turn again
in nine cases out of ten to the streets, not from choice but in desperation; she may not previously have
been a prostitute, but the victim of misfortune, or deception, and with her shame still green in her
memory, will not return to her friends or relatives even should they be willing to have her.
* * * * * * *
Recently I dealt with a case where the girl had only left the infirmary four days, and as a last
resource had accepted the vile proposition of a strange man, near a coffee stall, in order to find shelter
for herself and her child. Fortunately I saw her and the child accompanied by the man enter a hotel
restaurant where rooms are let. The time was 1.30 a.m., and my suspicions were aroused.
I obtained admission and got consent to go to the room which they had taken, and after great
difficulty shamed the man into leaving the girl, and, as it was so late, left the girl and the baby by themselves
in the room for which the man had paid 12s.
Only a week or two since, I had a letter from a maternity home from a girl I have never yet met,
but who must have heard of my work, asking me what she must do after her child was born. She said
she had been told that girls like her often ended on the streets and was aghast at the thought of it. I
have written her, and hope soon to see her and try to help her to a brighter life.
When our girls are forced, through such circumstances, to contemplate practising what even
animals would not countenance, surely something must be done.