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Trafficking in Women 1924-1926 the Paul Kinsie Reports for the League of Nations Vol

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Trafficking in Women 1924-1926 the Paul Kinsie Reports for the League of Nations Vol TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN 1924-1926 THE PAUL KINSIE REPORTS FOR THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS VOL. 1 HISTORICAL SERIES N°2 JEAN-MICHEL CHAUMONT MAGALY RODRÍGUEZ GARCÍA PAUL SERVAIS (EDS) Geneva, 2017 United Nations Publications Sales Number: E.17.0.1 ISBN: 978-92-1-101501-0 eISBN: 978-92-1-060155-9 ISSN: 2519-1675 eISSN: 2519-4992 Copyright © United Nations, 2017 Table of Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................... 5 Introduction Jean-Michel Chaumont Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium Magaly Rodríguez García KU Leuven, Belgium and Paul Servais Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium .................................................................................... 7 Kinsie Reports 1924 ........................................................................................................................................ 24 1925 ........................................................................................................................................ 190 1926 ........................................................................................................................................ 404 . 5 Acknowledgements Several persons and institutions contributed to the realization of this publication. The encouragement and professional assistance from the personnel of the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG), in particular from Blandine Blukacz-Louisfert, Jacques Oberson and Irina Roffe, has been invaluable. We would also like to thank Miranda Patel and Mark Wyers for their language corrections and copy-editing of the manuscript. We are equally grateful to all the authors of the city introductions for their enthusiastic and disciplined collaboration, and to Marie-Laurence Flahaux, Pascale Iserbiet, Amélie Leybaert, Nicolas Marquis, Jacques Marquet, Bernardine Pejovic, Diego Rodríguez Vallejo, Adeline Rosenstein, Charles Van Onselen and Anne-Laure Wibrin for their various forms of support. Thanks also to the Institut d’analyse du changement dans l’histoire et les sociétés contemporaines (IACCHOS) from the Université catholique de Louvain, the Fonds national de la recherche scientifique (Belgium) and the UNOG for their material contribution to this project. 7 Introduction Jean-Michel Chaumont Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium Magaly Rodríguez García KU Leuven, Belgium and Paul Servais Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium The official history The involvement of the League of Nations in the struggle against the trafficking of women resulted from article 23c of its Covenant, entrusting it with the supervision of the application of the 1910 International Convention for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic. The first initiative taken in that direction was to convene a general conference in Geneva in 1921, at the end of which the double recommendation was made to transform the term “white slave trade” into “traffic in women and children” and to establish a permanent technical commission dedicated to the problem: the Advisory Committee on the Traffic on Women and Children in charge of advising the Council of the League.1 Meeting for the first time from 28 June to 1 July 1922, the Advisory Committee was originally composed of representatives from nine countries and five “assessors” appointed by the following private organizations: the International Bureau for the Suppression of Traffic in Women and Children, the International Women’s Organizations, International Catholic Association for the Protection of Girls, the Federation of National Unions for the Protection of Girls (of the Protestant persuasion), the Jewish Association for the Protection of Girls and Women. The following year, the delegate of the United States of America, Grace Abbott, director of the Federal Children’s Bureau, joined the Advisory Committee. At the second session’s 5th meeting, on 24 March 1923, she proposed carrying out an international inquiry into the traffic in women and children, a proposal which immediately led to the appointment of a subcommittee intended to evaluate its desirability. One deciding vote had to be taken at the following meeting: by five votes (Italy, Poland, Spain, United States, Uruguay) against three (France, Japan, Romania) and an abstention (Denmark), Grace Abbott’s proposal was approved and transmitted to the Council of the League of Nations. In July 1923, the Council named the first five members of the Special Body of Experts on Traffic in Women and Children officially in charge of the inquiry: Maria Cristina Giustiniani 1 League of Nations, Records of the International Conference on Traffic in Women and Children (Geneva, 1921). A third recommendation was to supplement the provisions of earlier international agreements by extending the protection to women of 21 and to minors of either sex. TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN 1924-1926 The Paul Kinsie Reports for the League of Nations ‒ VOL. I 8 . Bandini (Italy), Abraham Flexner (United States), subsequently replaced by William Snow, Félicien Hennequin (France), Isidore Maus (Belgium) and Alfred de Meuron (Switzerland). The governments of Japan, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Uruguay were invited to propose three additional experts and so it was that Yotaro Sugimura (Japan), Sidney Harris (United Kingdom) and Paulina Luisi (Uruguay) completed the Committee.2 The memorandum Grace Abbott submitted to the Advisory Committee defined rather precisely not only the questions the investigation should answer but also its organization. Its introduction deserves to be cited at length: [Miss Abbott recommended that] an investigation be undertaken through the Secretariat of the League of Nations in order to ascertain the following facts with reference to international traffic in women and girls; (1) whether there is an international traffic in women and girls for purposes of prostitution; (2) between what countries the traffic is being carried on and the methods used in procuring and transporting women and girls; (3) the effectiveness of national measures undertaken to eliminate the traffic. In this investigation the facts as to (1) adult women who willingly and with full knowledge of the purpose for which they are being recruited as well as (2) young girls and (3) adult women who by force or fraud are being imported or exported for purpuses of prostitution should be ascertained. Geographically the investigation should include, if possible, the principle cities of the world but if this is not possible typical cities should be selected from which there is reason to believe the traffic is or is not being carried on, those in which regulated houses and those in which abolition is the policy […]. From official sources the facts as to the administration of laws designed to eliminate the traffic can be learned. To secure the information as to the traffic itself, it will be necessary to send to the cities included in the survey, agents of high standing with special training and experience to make personal and unofficial investigations. It is recognised that such investigations are difficult not to say dangerous, but they are absolutely necessary to secure the facts to refute sensational exaggerations or general denials as to the traffic and – what would seem to be for the Committee of extreme importance – an intelligent basis for a sound program for international co-operation for the suppression of the traffic, if it is found to exist.3 2 On the modus operandi, work and impact of the Special Body of Experts (SBE), see Jean-Michel Chaumont, Le mythe de la traite des blanches: enquête sur la fabrication d’un fléau(Paris, La Découverte, 2009). In the past few years, the literature on the League of Nations and its various consultative commissions has exploded. See a recent bibliography in Magaly Rodríguez García, Davide Rodogno and Liat Kozma, eds., The League of Nations Work on Social Issues: Visions, Endeavours and Experiments (Geneva: United Nations Publications Office, 2016). 3 Project for an investigation into the traffic in women and children. Memorandum by Grace Abbott (United States), submitted to the Advisory Committee (21 March 1923), CTFE 152, published in appendix (No. 10), to the hearing of the second session of the Advisory Committee on the Traffic in Women and Children. It should be noted that, Bascom Johnson, deputy of William Snow within the SBE, had planned the investigation exactly as it was carried out. In a brief memorandum of 1 March 1923 addressed to Valeria H. Parker, Johnson writes: “If no systematic and thorough survey has been made or planned, urge the importance of such, and present a plan for [the] same. This plan should, in my judgment, include both open and under-cover investigations in the principal cities of the world, with special emphasis on those cities from and which there is already reason to believe the traffic exists. The under- cover investigators should be required to identify alien prostitutes in the cities to which they are brought, to learn their names and the names of their procurers, and the places from which they are brought. Thereupon it should be necessary for the investigators to proceed to the places whence the traffic originates to identify the procurers and the system under which they operate.” (League of Nations Archives – hereafter LNA, S 180, Abbott, G-Corresp., File “United States”). This amounts to saying that the experts agreed to endorse the plan envisaged by Johnson on the model of what the “vice commission”
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