The military, prostitution, and colonial peoples: India and the Philippines, 1885–1917

Abstract

British moral reformers, under the leadership of Josephine Butler, Henry J. Wilson and James Stansfeld, successfully campaigned for the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts. These Acts had introduced a military system of regulated prostitution into England modeled on state regulated prostitution utilized on the Continent from 1864 to 1869. These initial antiprostitution agitations later took the form of a social purification movement. Repeal in 1886 left the British Army in India in noncompliance with Parliamentary efforts at abolition. In 1891 American members of the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union undertook a sociological investigation of Indian military cantonments-the Abolitionist cause had been extended to the United States and the Continent. Based on these reports, reformers at home were able to extract admissions from the military and government that the system continued in existence. Nevertheless, the British Army reorganized its program, according to subsequent investigations, into neoregulationism. During World War I, the British Army in India finally abandoned its neoregulationist policy. Symbolic reform was another matter. British reformers met with successes in introducing social purity into Indian social reform. Future campaigns against temple prostitution and Indian social progress grew from these efforts. The American experience with the Philippines was a logical extension of reform policy toward India. Failures paralleled those of British and Indian reformers. As in the case of British reform, there was a redirection of efforts to antiopium and antigambling reforms. Generally, anti-vice reforms were instrumentalities contributing to early efforts at "modernization."

Eliot Ness (April 19, 1903–May 16, 1957): Gangbuster to Security Executive—A Meandering Career of Great Highs and Tragic Lows

“…Reflecting ingeniously on experiences with social diseases during World War I, Roosevelt's legislative architects planned for the health and well being of soldiers in and around camps, forts, and field operations. Military historians, public health specialists, and sociologists had fully documented security and troop-strength implications stemming from houses of prostitution near military facilities before and during the First World War (Anonymous, 1918;Brandt, 1985;Buchanan, 1919;Erskine & Lloyd, 1942;Feldman, 1967;Pivar, 1981;Sandos, 1980). Only a teenager during that war, Eliot Ness could not have imagined that by World War II he would play a role in the human security aspects of disease control.…”

The modern career of ‘the oldest profession’ and the social embeddedness of metaphors

“…In June 1888, anti-CD agitators passed a resolution in the House of Commons requiring 'instructions to be sent to the governor general in India to dismantle [its] CD legislation' (see also Pivar, 1981;Levine, 2003, pp. 91-92).…”