Policing sexual morality in British ports in the First World War

@drmaryfraser

The discourse of sexual morality in the First World War created a moral panic, not only in Britain, but across the Dominions of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland and India and later also in America. Sexual immorality was seen particularly in the port towns of Liverpool and Swansea. However, the police felt able to contain it to the houses of ill-repute in Liverpool:
"Disreputable Houses. Manchester and Glasgow are neither of them equal in population to this town (Liverpool). In the former there are *** houses of ill-fame, in the latter ***. In Liverpool there are not less than ****. I have already said that the tonnage of this port exceeds that of London. Our docks are at our doors, with 15 miles of quays. There is an average floating population of 20,000 seamen."[1]
As houses of ill-repute had to be registerd with the police, they were regularly inspected and this surveillance created some kind of safeguard to keep immorality within the dock area and segregated from the rest of the population.
Swansea was similar:
"workmen in the docks declared that the Swansea Docks were a hotbed of immorality, and much worse than ever before, and that there were girls to be seen from 13 years of age with drunken sailors day and night on board ships." [2]
The common factor in these well-established British docks was the mobile population of sailors who were said to encourage and maintain immorality in the local population. In Swansea, the local authority asked the Army to control the dock area, so preventing the spread of immorality by attempting to isolate it in the docks.
However, when 40,000 Canadian troops arrived in Folkestone in early 1915, the town was not a well-established port. It was a genteel holiday resort on the south coast, which had been connected to London by train in 1844, when the railway line was built. It was a port for crossings to Boulogne.
Below is a section of the barracks which housed the Canadian troops at Shorncliffe, 2 miles from Folkestone:

The Canadian troops were welcomed into the town, although they outnumbered the local population of just over 33,000 [3]. But as they were known to be well-paid, inevitably crime developed and the Chief Constable alerted the Watch Committee (responsible for appointing police officers) that prostitutes had arrived from London and immorality was developing. The fear that it would spread to the rest of the population of this genteel town was not lost on the police, they feared they had no means to confine it to the dock area. Unlike Liverpool and Swansea, the Canadian troops were based in Folkestone for the duration of the war, returning from leave in France: Folkestone was their home, unlike the floating population of sailors in Liverpool and Swansea.
From February 1916 the British government passed laws under the Defence of the Realm Act (DORA) to try to evict the prostitutes from towns which housed troops. They met with some success initially, as 37 prostitutes and brothel keepers were evicted in February 1916 from Folkestone. However, this did not satisfy the Dominions, who spoke of their outrage at the state of the streets, particularly in London. The Canadian Prime Minister, Robert Borden spoke for them all in April 1917:
"I do not think you will ever get Canada to send men Overseas to any war again unless we are assured that such conditions as have met our soldiers here will not meet them again. ... I think it is a horrible outrage that they should be exposed as they have been," [4]
He and other Dominion leaders were particularly concerned at the spread of venereal disease to the troops, as there was no cure for the disease at this time. They implored Britain to reduce the temptations to their troops. Canada's pleas were endorsed by the Australian Prime Minister who had been receiving letters from parents of their soldiers saying that while they expected their sons might be killed in the war and die as heroes, they were not expecting the disgrace of them arriving home, on demobilisation, with venereal disease.
The following year, in February 1918, the Dominions said they were "profoundly dissatisfied with the inaction of His Majesty's Government" as they could see no change in the situation from the previous year [5]. They wanted all women prostitutes to be interned. However, the Home Secretary, Sir George Cave, said the problem was no longer the spread of disease by prostitutes, 70% of the spread was now caused by the "amateur girls" over whom there was no control.
This is a synopsis of a paper presented at the Social Dynamics in Atlantic Ports XIVth-XXIst Centuries conference in Ostend, Belgium 24th - 26th April 2019 see http://porttowns.port.ac.uk/cfp-social-dynamics-in-atlantic-ports/

References and bibliography
Fraser, M. (2019) Policing the Home Front 1914-1918: The control of the British population at war. London and New York: Routledge Studies in First World War History. Ch 9, Policing sexual morality, pp. 162-191.
[1] The Police Review and Parade Gossip. An address to Police Recruits. 1st October 1915 p. 477
[2] The Police Review and Parade Gossip. Women Police and Patrols: Opposition to patrols at Swansea. 9th July 1915 p. 335
[3] Personal communication from Mark Ballard, Archive Services Officer, Kent History and Library Centre.
[4] TNA HO45/10182 Imperial War Conference: Temptations of Overseas Soldiers in London. 24th April 1917, p. 17.
[5] TNA HO45/10802 307990. War Cabinet 352 and 365. Extracts from the minutes of the War Cabinet meetings, Friday 22nd February and Wednesday 13th March 1918.

@drmaryfraser