er places, as their fate is just the same whether they go or
not."

The Commissioners state:

"The well-meant system devised by the Registrar General's
Department which requires every woman personally to appear before
an Inspector at the office, and declare her willingness to enter
a licensed brothel, and that she does so without coercion, before
she can be registered, may probably act as some check upon glaring
cases of kidnaping, so far as the licensed brothels are concerned.
But it seems clear that for the supply of such establishments,
there is no need to resort to kidnaping, in the ordinary
acceptance of the term. There can be no doubt that, with the
exception of a comparatively few who have been driven by adversity
to adopt a life of prostitution, when arrived at a mature age, the
bulk of the girls, in entering brothels, are merely fulfilling
the career for which they have been brought up, and even if they
resent it, a few minutes' conversation with a foreigner, probably
the first many of them have ever been brought into communication
with, is but little likely to lead them to stultify the results of
education, according to whose teachings they are the property of
others and under the necessity of obeying their directions. The
idea that they are at liberty not to enter a brothel unless they
wish it, must, to girls so brought up, be unintelligible. To what
other source indeed could they turn for a livelihood? Who can
tell, moreover, what hopes or aspirations have been instilled into
the minds of these girls? The life on which she is about to enter
has probably not been painted to her in its true colors. Why
should they shrink from it? As a matter of fact they never do....
Mr. Smith, however, thinks, with regard to these women, Government
supervision does ameliorate their condition somewhat. The women
are periodically seen in their houses by the inspectors, and the
cleanliness and comfort of the houses is carefully looked after.'
With the internal cleanliness and comfort of brothels, we think
the Government has little to do. But the amelioration of the
inmates is a matter which certainly stands on a different footing,
and is one in which the Government has a deep interest."

The Report goes on to state that the Commissioners do not endorse the
views of Mr. Smith as to the amelioratio