V.D. PREVENTION IN THE FORCES
SIR,—Miss Hardwick does something of an injustice to the Army Medical Authorities when she stresses this single aspect of their attempt to reduce the high V.D. incidence rate. I have no personal knowledge of the problem in Europe, but the basic principles are not so dissimilar from those encountered in the Far East, where I had the opportunity of making an intensive statistical and personal survey of this question from the viewpoint of an Army psychiatrist. V.D. prevention in the Forces is, and must be, basically a problem of morale, and the present high incidence is only one indication of the morale problems of the present transitional period in the Forces.
Nevertheless, it is impossible to deny the existence of a significant group in any population who will continue to expose themselves to risk under present Service conditions, with their special morale problems, despite intensive propaganda, education and welfare assistance, short- term in policy as these inevitably muSt be. It is to this group that the Army's prophylactic treatment, and the insistance on full treatment of the civilian female population at risk, is directed. And, in some areas at least, the incidence of infection amongst the willing female population, " girl-friend " or prostitute, reached alarming proportions.
In the scale of importance I would place compulsory treatment of infected civilians far below good man-management and leadership, educa- tion by (and sometimes of) unit officers, good propaganda and the provision of adequate recreational facilities, especially those which soften the inevitable monasticism of Service life. But there is, and can be, no one solution to this problem ; with the V.D. rate at its present high figure we cannot afford to waste any possible line of approach. It remains only our duty to see that we use tact, discretion and common sense in the application of this method, and so produce the minimum possible psychological trauma to the individuals concerned and to the "democratic feelings" that we hope to engender.—Yours, &c.,
ir Map perley Hall Drive, Nottingham. T. A. RATCLIFFE.
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