'MR TRAVELLERS' AID SOCIETY.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—I have been much interested in the references in the Spectator for the last two weeks to the methods employed by
those who seek to decoy young girls to their ruin. The Travellers Aid Society has been working now for twenty- seven years and has guarded many thousands of girls from becoming victims of the white slave traffic through mishaps on their journeys. It may interest your readers to know of some other of the methods employed to get bold of girls, and the following stories, given from the experience of our own work, can be vouched for. A girl expecting to be met by the T.A.S. Station Visitor (who was walking up the platform at the very moment) was spoken to by a well-dressed woman, who said she was the one sent to meet her, and that a cab was ready and she must make baste to come with her. Happily the girl suspected her, and asked for her credentials, and while she was speaking the Station Visitor with her proof of identity came up and the woman hastened away. A German girl was not met at the station by her mistress as expected, when a man speaking her language came up to her and offered to take her away. The station-master, seeing this, asked him what he meant by speaking to her as he was unknown to her. In reply he said defiantly, "You cannot speak to her," and was about to press the girl to go with him. The station- master called the interpreter and explained to the girl that the Travellers Aid Society might be trusted to look after her, and then sent her to the care of the Society, where she was lodged and her friends were communicated with. A French girl, an orphan, had answered an advertisement in Paris, and hoped she had secured a good engagement in this country, but wisely asked the Society to make some inquiry about it before she left her native land. The house to which she would have come was notorious as one of the worst in all London. These few instances out of many serve as illustrations of the dangers to which young girls aro exposed.—I am, Sir, &c.,
JESSIE GORDON, Secretary.
[The Patron of the Travellers' Aid Society is Her Majesty Queen Alexandra ; the President is Lady Frances Balfour. It works under the auspices of the Young Women's Christian Association. Its address is 3 Baker Street, London, W. Office hours, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays, 10 a.m. to noon. Letters requiring attention at other times should be marked "imme- aliate."—En. Spectator.]
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