THE TRAFFIC_ IN GIRLS
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sni,—The writer of your very interesting review of my book, Human Merchandise, touches on two not unimportant points on which I may perhaps say a word.
It was not because the traffic in women and the licensed house system are both absent from countries like Great Britain, Canada and the United States that I concluded that the licensed house was the cause of the traffic, but because various Governments, notably those of Poland and Holland, have declared thatthe traffic depends absolutely on the licensed house, and because the licensed house gives the souteneur exactly what he wants—a place where he can keep an eye on the girl he is exploiting, and where she will earn far more for him than she could if dependent on solicitation in the streets.
As for passports and visas, I have no more love for them than your reviewer. But the evidence amassed in the League of Nations' report is conclusive as to the part they play in increasing the difficulty of taking girls, particularly girls under twenty-one, out of certain countries. Passports would not be so extensively forged if the traffickers could obtain genuine ones for their victims whenever they wanted.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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