matter, in Japan at any rate, hold out the
possibility of moral redemption for the inmates of the Yoshiwara, and
as a matter of fact many women in Japan who, through the force of
compulsion, have entered this place, frequently marry, and marry well,
and subsequently live absolutely chaste lives. The standard of
morality among the married women of Japan is, I may remark, high, and
is rarely lowered.

I hope I shall not shock my readers if I remark that I consider the
stringent regulations that exist in Japan as to the supervision of the
Yoshiwara in many respects admirable. It will probably surprise many
persons to learn that the high state of organisation in regard to
everything connected with the superintendence of these places, as also
the development of lock hospitals, is largely due to the zeal and
exertions of the late Dr. G. Birnie Hill, of the Royal Navy, who was
for many years lent by the Admiralty to the Japanese Government for
that purpose. Under his auspices a stringent system of medical
supervision was organised, which has been attended with excellent
results in the direction of stamping out and obviating diseases which,
I may observe, are of foreign importation. I know that the existence
of any system of medical inspection will, in the estimate of a large
number of estimable men and women in this country, be regarded as
proof positive of the immorality of the Japanese. "We mustn't
recognise vice," is their contention. I am of opinion, on the
contrary, that we should either recognise vice and restrict, restrain,
and regulate it, or else make vice illegal, as the Puritans did, and
fine or imprison both men and women addicted to it. I could understand
either of these two courses, but I must confess that I altogether fail
to fathom the state of mind of those persons who adopt neither
opinion, but either assert or infer that in the name of religion,
morality, modesty, and many other commendable things, we should permit
our streets and thoroughfares to be infested by women plying their
immoral trade with all the resultant consequences.

[Illustration: THE ETERNAL FEMININE
FROM A PRINT BY TOSHIKATA]

As I stated at the commencement of this chapter, a nation should be
judged not only by its standard of morality but by the degree in which
it lives up to or falls short of that standard. Judged by this, surely
the fairest, the only fair, rule, Japan has every reason to be
considered a moral country. Those