Vice Beyond the Pale: Representing ‘White Slavery’ in Britain c.1880 – 1912 Rachael Claire Attwood UCL 1 This thesis is submitted for the degree of PhD I, Rachael Claire Attwood, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. 2 Abstract This thesis will explore the discourses of ‘white slavery’, as used to represent the traffic in women and girls for the purposes of sexual exploitation during the first chapter of the history of trafficking in Britain between c.1880 and 1912. It will trace the reconfigurations to these discourses and seek to locate their wider significance(s). How did ‘white slavery’, as a means of thinking about sexual danger in specific times and places, function and why was it made to function in this way? What does its application tell us about the society in which discourses of ‘white slavery’ had resonance? What is the significance of sex trafficking in modern Britain? It will approach this task by analysing, contextualizing and comparing the discourses of ‘white slavery’ that emerged during each of three distinct moments in the history of trafficking in Britain, namely, the scandal over the exploitation of British girls on the near Continent between 1880 and 1882, the proliferation of an international anti-trafficking movement in an age of mass-migration between 1899 and 1910, and the struggle for a Criminal Law Amendment Act to combat trafficking in 1912. Focus will be on the discourses of the individuals and groups rallying against trafficking but the discourses of those dismissive of the need for action against such exploitation will also be considered for the insight these negative voices provide into perceptions of trafficking. This process not only promises to improve our understanding of the nature and implications of the phenomenon of trafficking throughout the years under examination. It also promises to improve our understanding of organized responses to systematic sex crimes against women in modern British history and, moreover, our understanding of the nature of hegemony and the loci of power in society during turn-of-the-century Britain. 3 Table of Contents Abstract 3 List of Graphs & Illustrations 5 Acknowledgements 6 Abbreviations 8 Introduction 9 Section One Re-scripting Sexual Exploitation: The Belgian Affair & the Birth of Britain’s Campaign Against Trafficking, 1880 – 1882 Chapter One 45 Chapter Two 70 Section Two Unwelcome Departures? The British Anti-Trafficking Movement in an Age of Mass Migration, 1899 – 1910 Chapter Three 98 Chapter Four 129 Section Three Competing Slaveries: Radical Politics, the Edwardian Crisis & the Struggle for the 1912 Criminal Law Amendment Act Chapter Five 193 Chapter Six 218 Conclusion 255 Bibliography 270 4 Graphs & Illustrations Figure 1 Graph showing suspected & prevented cases of trafficking 103 recorded by the Jewish Association for the Protection of Girls and Women, 1904 – 1910 Figure 2 Graph showing percentage breakdown of countries of 103 origin of the women inscribed as prostitutes on the Register of Health in Buenos Aires, 1889-1901 Figure 3 Cartoon accompanying ‘Stop the White Slave Traffic!’ 224 article in Labour Leader (22 August 1912) Figure 4 ‘Woman’s Danger’ cartoon in The Vote (5 October 1912) 227 Figure 5 ‘Liberalism Begins at Home’ cartoon in Votes for Women 249 (11 October 1912) 5 Acknowledgements I could not have written this thesis if it were not for the support and expertise of others. My principal supervisor, Catherine Hall, has shown me exceptional kindness and patience throughout my time at UCL. It was Catherine who inspired me to set off on the path to becoming an historian when she taught me as an undergraduate at UCL, and it is thanks to her guidance and constructive criticism that I have become the historian I am today. I am also deeply thankful to Anne Summers, whose enthusiasm for my research project, sound advice and generosity both in reading my work and sharing her own with me, have helped beyond measure in writing this thesis. We joked about it at the time, but I was honoured that you signed that copy of the History Workshop Journal offprint for me! Keith McClelland has been an invaluable source of encouragement and expertise since my undergraduate days, and has offered me much support in my role as teaching assistant. My secondary supervisor, Axel Körner, has given me useful feedback and much needed reassurance, and so too has Carol Dyhouse, especially in discussing the ‘white slave’ question with me. A big ‘thank you’ must also be extended to the staff of The Women’s Library, and to Teresa Doherty in particular, for so patiently helping me over the past few summers. I am also grateful to UCL for assisting me in completing my research by awarding me the Simeon Shoul scholarship. The Institute of Historical Research’s Reconfiguring the British and Modern British History seminars have helped me to think about trafficking in Britain in a broader context, and I am thankful for being given the opportunity to present my work at each seminar. My work has also benefited from the feedback I have received at the Women’s History Network and Social History Society conferences, as well as from the ideas and interpretations of modern British history from the two classes of undergraduates I have taught at UCL. Many thanks are due to Esme Cleall, Simone Borgstede, Anna Gust, Liz Harvey, and John Stevens for showing me the ropes as a UCL postgraduate; to Laura Ishiguro and Hilary Ingram for reading my work and offering me advice at key moments; and to Kate Donington and Charlotte Lydia Riley for their support and friendship. Outside of academia, I owe my sanity to, among other people, Elizabeth Minor, Rosie and David 6 Cutts, and Stuart Hallifax. Paul Rollason has shown me great kindness in difficult times, and this will never be forgotten. Eric has helped me complete this thesis and has, along with a certain Mlle. Camille, changed history for me. Ultimately, I owe a debt of gratitude to my parents. My mother, who is one of the strongest women and feminists in the world without knowing it, has shown me unwavering love and support. My father, a formidable ‘radical retiree’, has patiently read through the various parts of this thesis, offering me advice and invaluable guidance on the way. Both have taught me determination and conviction. Both have given me the chance to pursue my studies and I am conscious that this opportunity is something that past generations of my family have not been fortunate enough to have. ‘Thank you’ does not cover it. Rachael Attwood Brighton, December 2012 7 Abbreviations BSP British Socialist Party CLA Criminal Law Amendment ECPAT UK End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and the Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes, United Kingdom EU European Union FA Friends’ Association for Abolishing State Regulation of Vice HL Hartley Library, University of Southampton ICA Jewish Colonization Association ILP Independent Labour Party JAPGW Jewish Association for the Protection of Girls and Women JLS Jewish Ladies’ Society for Preventive and Rescue Work LNA Ladies’ National Association NUWSS National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies NUWW National Union of Women Workers NVA National Vigilance Association RCAI Royal Commission on Alien Immigration SDF Social Democratic Federation TARA Trafficking Awareness Raising Alliance, Glasgow TAS Travellers’ Aid Society TUC Trade Union Congress UNCRC United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund WFL Women’s Freedom League WL The Women’s Library, London WSPU Women’s Social and Political Union 8 Introduction On Saturday 18th May 1912, under heavy clouds and in a chill wind, some 9,000 children drawn from the Boy’s Brigade and the Boy Scouts, the Girl Guides and the Navy League Girl’s Brigade, together with a host of other youth groups, assembled amid thick crowds of onlookers in London’s Hyde Park to begin the year’s Empire Day celebrations. Just as their peers would do, and had done for some years, throughout Britain’s colonies, dominions and dependencies under the auspices of the League of Empire, they gathered to manifest their pride in Britain’s imperial status and to demonstrate the ‘oneness in diversity of the British brotherhood’. A vibrant pageant ensued to the sounds of the bands from the Thirteenth Battalion London Regiment and Queen Victoria’s Rifles. Presided over by the Lord Mayor of London, the Duchess of Argyll, Lord Meath and a number of other elite members of the League and imperial representatives, a Union Jack was hoisted aloft from a central flagstaff and sixty-five standard-bearers representing each of Britain’s imperial territories marched in front of it, lowering their colours in salute to the British flag. Then, to drum rolls from the bands and patriotic cries from the audience, all of the young attendees made a pledge of loyalty to the flag before marching in columns past the central flagstaff. With the fervour of the occasion reaching fever pitch, the grand finale began. The imperial standard bearers marched past the Union Jack once again, this time to the sound of a song that had been reserved for that moment.1 And so rang out the Georgic air, written by James Thomson and set to music by Thomas Arne in 1740, which had come to represent Britain’s alternative national anthem: When Britain first, at Heaven’s command, Arose from out the azure main; This was the charter, the charter of the land, And guardian angels sang this strain: ‘Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves: Britons never shall be slaves’ 1 See: The Times (20 May 1912); The Advertiser, Adelaide, SA (21 May 1912) 9 The nations, not so blest as thee, Must, in their turn, to tyrants fall; While thou shalt flourish great and free, The dread and envy of them all.