Photocopy letter. Written from Lausanne
'I will ask her [Miss Forsaith] to send a copy to you of my rather long report to lay before our next King Street Committee'
(See copy of letter from Josephine Butler to the British Committee dated 26 Jan 1897.) She wrote report from information obtained from an International Federation Committee meeting held in the Hotel she is staying in Lausanne. M. de Morsier came especially from Paris to tell them what was going on there.
'Congress held in Paris on the subject of the Depopulation of France'
Opinion of doctors and scientists there: 'That at the present rate of population, in a few years, France will not be able to put an army on the field, sufficient to meet the humblest attack.' The cause of this: 'The habit of resorting to Maisons Tolerees in place of marriage, and drink'. Josephine Butler thought that these opinions should be published in England to show British Regulationists what happens 'when Governments make of that vice a recognised institution, regulated by the state'.
Snow there for six days without stopping, but she keeps warm with splendid fires due to a wonderful little porter who keeps her wood basket well filled and supplies all her small shopping needs.
'The notice or reply of Lord George Hamilton, to which you draw my attention, is most important and significant'