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248 THE WHITE SLAVE MARKET
demn the whole system.
It is not our part to
sit at home and condemn people who fall into
difficulties and temptations in other countries.
But this might be forgiven us if we plead
with the parents of lads likely to go to these
countries where we have commercial and other
interests, that they tell them what they are
going to face and put before them ideals of
justice and self-control. In the distant oilfields
of Burma there are over five hundred
Americans and Canadians boring for oil.
These young fellows are many of them fine
specimens of manhood. There are, again, hundreds
of young Britishers who are out in
those parts working for various companies.
Their labours often extend into very wild and
desolate places. It is so common for young
men to keep girls that nothing is thought of
it, and the whole country is flooded with poor,
unfortunate, half-bred, illegitimate children
who have no fathers and no one to be responsible
for them. It is horrible to think
of ; and the horror deepens when it is brought
to light that many of the little girls of these
unions are sold into immoral slavery for a few
rupees. They have no one to guide them, no
one to defend them, no one to care what
becomes of them. They are so much human
flesh, to be bought and sold for the only
purpose for which in these countries female
human flesh is of any use. And for all the
children, whether they come to this end or
not, what fate is there in store ? They have
not got all the instincts of the people of the