To the Editor of the Mrs, G. A. Fitch Is leaving Shanghai, may T have the privilege of maki a few remarks?
'Travellers' Ald as it functions throughout the world, has two main objectives:—
'The intel ent and human care of traveler fall Kinds, in distress away' from home. tion of responsibility to' the "community to prevent ple from setting ber manent charges upon the community Anyone who has had any exper!- ence In practical social or community work understands the cost to the community, in cold hard cash, effort and man power of the social reclama~ tion and individual rehabilitation of the economically unit and degenerate. Shanghai is already overburdened ait organized for this task of social salvage. 'There are many" splendid, courageous individuals and tions doing all they can at the bottom, of the cliff to clear away the wreckage, but as one fine woman, who has been at it for thirty years said, they' are so busy picking up the wrecks that they do not have time to got to the top of the dif and keep them from going over the edge.
This problem of women and chitd~ ren in Shanghai to the generat public, ig more or less a vague, sinister dilemma but very comfortably remote} In {ts more vicious aspects, On the streets, from seven pin. oF earlier during winter months, around)
On or over in 'Thibet Road T have counted ten girls with their' amahs (making twenty in all) to a block; openly plying their trade. Passing them on the stretch, it was remarked to me as T pointed them out to my companion, that they seemed quite comely and looked anything but Metreated or distressed. A woman, who has been, and now {s, devoting! her entire life to the help of these! women toils me that there is a reason for this, As soon as one girl loses her income value, becomes Ill or too unattractive, she is replaced by a new] Feerult—and most of these recruits fare brought in either through false protenses or direct barter from the villages and. countryside or othe: cities in the Orient. And may I add here that beauty is not a necessary] Fequisite—the less attractive the girl the more easily is she per-Sunded and controlled! The discards are thrown aside, to be found later among those social ranks: that mark Shanghai to such an extent as to make it the concern of the League of Nations, so flagrant is its moral filth!
Nearly a year ago, I was discussing the problem of women and children in Shanghai with one of the world's greatest women social solentists, with Teference to launching further relict measures for them here and I raised the question of "duplication," knowing that of all the faults social work can have it is perhaps the greatest. "How can there be duplication?" she flung at me, "The problem is 59) tremendous that existing organizations could be multiplied over and over again and there would stilt be work, eft undone."
With' an average of 12,000 pa: angers dally passing through only one of the stations of this city, not to mention freighters and passenger ships it seems to me that there fs a field of responsibility that has not been and can not be undertaken existing organizations, Also in my! experience 'Travellers' Ald works through rather than in competition with existing social agencies. 'This phase of Travellers' Aid policy is clear to many local agencies. In May, representatives of the King's Daighters Society evidenced their apprecintion of the urgent need, in Shanghai "for some such service as Travellers' Ald, by elting cases and pointing cut the effort and: time it would have saved them.
If Travellers' Ald was just another remedial agency, I could understand reluctance on the part of Shanghai public to sponser its foundation. 'While certain of its services are of an emergency relief nature, Travelers' Aid Is essentially and fundamentally preventive!
I believe that Shanghai, as have other cities throughout the world, must come to realize that old adage that "an ounce of prevention is worth 8 pound of cure."
Veny Ivrenesrep.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.