W. C. T. U. Achievements 
 
 in Burma 
 
 FLORA E. STROUT 
 World’s W. C. T. U. Representative 
 
 (Address delivered before the National W. C. T. U. Con- 
 vention of 1917) 
 
 When I think of Burma I always think 
 of color, vivid and alluring, of brightness 
 and laughter, for the people, especially the 
 Burmans, are light hearted and merry, not 
 particularly energetic, but always charm- 
 ingly picturesque in their gay skirts, velvet 
 slippers, bright turbans and scarfs. I could 
 dwell for hours on the beauty of the flowers, 
 the green of the paddy fields, the charm of 
 the cocoanut palm on the banks of that great 
 waterway, the Irrawaddy river, but I want 
 to speak about the W. C. T. U. in Burma and 
 what it has done for that country. 
 
 One cannot overestimate the opportuni- 
 ties there are for our work in a country 
 like Burma. Everything is wide open to us 
 and we only need to enter into our posses- 
 sions. There are 12,000,000 people in this 
 delightful country, speaking 175 different 
 languages and dialects. The Burmans, who 
 are 8,000,000 in number, are the people who 
 have the greatest influence, as they were 
 the ruling race when England conquered the 
 country. They are Buddhists and therefore 
 should be total abstainers, as Buddhism 
 strictly forbids the use of alcohol to its fol- 
 lowers, but I regret to say that their con- 
 tact with the west has done much to break 
 down these restraints and they are culti- 
 vating the drink habit to an alarming de- 
 gree. The hill tribes of various names and 
 tongues, with the exception of many of the 
 
Karens, who are largely Christian, are apt 
 to be both drunken and immoral. 
 
 Besides. the drink habit, numbers of the 
 people are addicted to one drug habit or 
 another, although the importation of all 
 drugs, with the exception of opium, is for- 
 bidden by the government. Cigarets are 
 used everywhere, even by the very young 
 of both sexes, thus seriously affecting their 
 growth and strength as well as their prog- 
 ress in school. The betel habit, which is 
 both offensive and injurious, is very preva- 
 lent. We believe it is because of these habits, 
 especially the alcohol and drug habits, that 
 Burma has a most unenviable record as re- 
 gards crime—it leads all of the provinces of 
 India in this respect. 
 
 On my arrival it seemed necessary to in- 
 augurate an educational campaign. This was 
 accordingly done with the hearty approval 
 and co-operation of the director of public 
 instruction, who not only opened the schools 
 to our scientific temperance addresses but, 
 with the consent of headmasters and princi- 
 pals, permitted the distribution of literature 
 and pledge cards, which he had previously 
 examined and endorsed. We started organ- 
 ization work and with the help of the mis- 
 sionaries, who are always. our staunch 
 friends, we soon had the young people and 
 children working in our Y. P. B’s and L. 
 T. L’s. At first there seemed to be a failure 
 on the part of the young people to appreci- 
 ate the seriousness of the pledge. We there- 
 fore selected a few of the most intelligent 
 and faithful students, organized them into 
 one of our Branches and allowed them to 
 bring in their schoolmates. This worked so 
 well that in Moulmein, where we began with 
 thirty members, the number has increased 
 to as many as five hundred. 
 
 _ We had no money, no complete organiza- 
 
 2 
 
tion, no literature, no headquarters with 
 which to begin, but our work grew in favor 
 and, counting the children, we now have a 
 membership of 3,000. We also have thou- 
 sands of leaflets, a fine headquarters (thanks 
 to our Methodist friends), two full-time paid 
 workers and from the first the general work 
 has been practically self-supporting, al- 
 though the World’s W. C. T. U. and friends 
 at home have helped to finance special work. 
 We also have an especially fine equipment _ 
 for our scientific temperance work in the 
 schools. 
 
 Our young people are for the most part 
 thoroughly alive and do organizing on their 
 own account, distribute temperance litera- 
 ture in their jungle homes, and it is most 
 inspiring to see them conduct their own 
 meetings and take part in medal contests, 
 debates and discussions. The playlet, “The 
 Trial of Prince Nicotine,’ which has been 
 translated into their language, is proving a 
 great favorite in the Karen schools. The 
 schools of Burma are- beginning to teach 
 scientific temperance. A text-book on hy- 
 giene which has been introduced recently 
 contains considerable physiology and some 
 temperance teaching, but the important fact 
 is that the school authorities demand that 
 lectures and examinations shall be given on 
 the subject and our services were very much 
 in demand by schools of all sorts. In most 
 of the schools there are signs forbidding the 
 use of tobacco and betel upon school prem- 
 ises and where once dozens could have been 
 seen using both, now it is only occasionally 
 that students violate this regulation. All 
 this has been in a very real way the out- 
 come of our work which has been cordially 
 supported by the educational authorities. 
 
 We have made our mothers’. meetings a 
 prominent feature and they are the most 
 
 3 
 
popular line of our work. The mortality 
 among children in Burma is enormous and 
 early in its career our organization realized 
 that instruction to the women on the care 
 of children was vitally necessary. We there- 
 fore started a number of unions where every- 
 thing pertaining to the welfare of the home 
 and child is discussed and the result has 
 been most encouraging. 
 
 The legal phase of the work was a little 
 difficult, but every petition to the govern- 
 ment was given a most courteous reception 
 and no one could have received more con- 
 siderate treatment anywhere than your rep- 
 resentative received from the English offi- 
 cials. In numbers of instances our requests. 
 have been granted. At our request several 
 applicants were refused licenses. Twice we 
 were allowed to paste temperance posters 
 all over Rangoon and other towns and even 
 the street car company allowed us free ad- 
 vertising for six months in a certain number 
 of cars. The liquor traffic is still licensed in 
 Burma, but there is a growing sentiment 
 that prohibition ought to be tried in certain 
 sections of the country, and it will need only 
 one such trial, we believe, to bring death to 
 alcohol all over the province. 
 
 We prepared programs to be used in the 
 various churches and on World’s Temper- 
 ance Sunday asked that temperance sermons 
 be preached, pledges presented for signa- 
 tures and collections taken for our work. 
 The response was most generous. 
 
 I wish there were time to speak of our 
 fine workers, Mrs. Phinney, the former pres- 
 ident; Mrs. Singiser, the present president; 
 Miss May Mack, the superintendent of the 
 Y. P. B.; Mrs. Stevens, superintendent of 
 the L. T. L. To their work in a very large 
 degree is due the success of the W. C. 'T. U. 
 in Burma. Miss Mack, who is supported by 
 
 4 
 
the World’s W. C. T. U., has proved herself 
 invaluable and is making good in all she un- 
 dertakes. We ought not to forget the 
 Life Line, our fine paper which survived the 
 death of the first organization and is one of 
 the best of all temperance publications, we 
 think. 
 
 I must not forget to speak of a branch of 
 our work which is always of tremendous 
 importance in the Orient—our purity work. 
 Rangoon, like most port cities, was, and still 
 is, filled with unspeakable wickedness. The 
 government thought that by segregating 
 vice in a portion of the town the question 
 could be best handled. This permissive area 
 was in the center of the city near the 
 churches and school; indeed, both were ac- 
 tually within the very bounds. We called 
 upon leading English people to help in this, 
 our first efforts along purity lines, and the 
 response was most gratifying. The Ran- 
 goon Vigilance Society was thus formed, the 
 Bishop of Rangoon becoming president and 
 your representative the secretary. The in- 
 itiative of the W. C. T. U. in this matter was 
 recognized and its purity superintendents 
 were made permanent members of the com- 
 mittee. Their work is done through the 
 society and reported to the W. C. T. U. 
 
 Under the leadership of Mr. John Cowen, 
 we began a tremendous campaign, holding 
 prayer meetings in the streets at night, 
 bringing facts before the government and 
 the public, and trying to get in touch with 
 any poor creatures who might want to leave 
 their lives of shame. Soon it was apparent 
 that a refuge would be needed. A house was 
 given to us rent free. It was furnished free 
 of charge by one of the shops, the city re- 
 moved the taxes, the electric light company 
 put in the fixtures free of charge, the food 
 supplies were furnished gratis and the ma- 
 
 5 
 
tron gave her services for a month. We had 
 some very pathetic cases—one a girl dressed 
 like a Burman, who proved to be a Hindoo 
 wife stolen from her husband and sold to 
 the keeper of a disorderly house. She was 
 a dear, grateful, pure-hearted girl, but when 
 her case was brought to court, through some 
 mix-up which I cannot go into, it was lost. 
 Flaming with indignation, I went to the 
 police officials most. concerned and said, “If 
 she had been a horse we would have won 
 the case.” “Oh, yes, of course,” he replied, 
 “a horse is of more value in the East than a 
 woman.” Nothing burns itself more into 
 the heart of a worker in the Orient than the 
 truth of that statement—a horse is of more 
 value there than a woman. 
 
 Now, what has been accomplished? At 
 our petition, segregation has been abolished. 
 Measures have been passed against the ad- 
 vertising and soliciting of vice; 114 houses 
 have been closed; forty-five girls have been 
 rescued; a woman’s dispensary has been 
 opened; purity lectures have been given; 
 literature on the subject distributed, and a 
 censorship over the moving picture shows 
 has been established. This sounds like a 
 good deal, and so it is, but we must remem- 
 ber that in a city like Rangoon there is 
 much laxness of law enforcement and the 
 evil. is so awful and so widespread that 
 we fee] that we have scarcely touched its 
 fringes. However, a wholesome public sen- 
 timent has begun to grow and we hope in 
 the near future to get some important legis- 
 lation which will make public prostitution a 
 crime for both sexes. 
 
 When we think of what has been done in 
 a field acknowledged as our most difficult 
 one, the question naturally arises, how? Let 
 me answer-—-through prayer. From the be- 
 _ginning we emphasized prayer and the name 
 
 6 
 
of Christ. At our last prayer meeting be- 
 fore I sailed, when at our call forty or fifty 
 busy missionaries gathered together, one of 
 them said, “This is the secret of the success 
 of the W. C. T. U. in Burma: ‘Not by might 
 nor by power but by my spirit, saith the 
 Lord of Hosts.’” In connection with this 
 thought, let me say that we give great prom- 
 inence to our evangelistic work, holding re- 
 ligious meetings wherever we can—it is so 
 important to bring the Lord Jesus to these 
 poor people of heathen lands. 
 
 We need to get a larger vision of what our 
 work means in the mission fields, to the 
 women, the men and the children. It is the 
 missionary who sends for us; we are fight- 
 ing the evils which most hinder his work. 
 A Buddhist will tell you his religion is 
 superior to ours because his is strictly non- 
 alcoholic. “I cannot be a Christian,” said a 
 Mohammedan student to his professor in a 
 college in Burma, “I cannot learn to drink 
 wine.” Isn’t it shameful that our people 
 have been responsible for this impression 
 which the non-Christian most undoubtedly 
 has of our religion? No wonder these peo- 
 ple think the Christian religion an alcohol 
 religion! No wonder they think the West 
 wholly corrupt! The West is responsible 
 for much of the evil in the Hast. Said a 
 Buddhist priest to my interpreter after I 
 had finished speaking on temperance and 
 purity, “I am very glad that some one from 
 the West can talk like that. Western peo- 
 ple come here and live such lives and do 
 such things that we do not know what to 
 think of them or their religion.” 
 
 We need to get a vision of tempted, strug- 
 gling humanity to realize that in our reac- 
 tion, the one upon another, there is no Hast, 
 no West, but we are all one. If we do not 
 
 ve 
 
purify and help to elevate the degraded 
 parts of the earth, they will drag us down. 
 
 God wants this work done and we, His 
 children, are the ones to do it. It is a 
 shame to begin the work on a field as we 
 did in Burma and allow it to die. Who will 
 support it? you ask. America will, I believe, 
 in a very large way have to stand behind it. 
 There is money enough; I have never seen 
 such awful extravagance in all my life. There 
 is enough spent every day on foolish things 
 to support our work for years, yet while 
 the world is swarming with idle women who 
 spend millions on their clothes and on their 
 pleasure, we are crippled for money and 
 crippled for helpers. This wonderful oppor- 
 tunity for service is in a very real way 
 America’s opportunity. What are we going 
 to do with it? 
 
 Price of this leaflet, 2 cents each; per 50, 40 cents; 
 per 100, 75 cents 
 
 National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union 
 Evanston, illinois 
 
 IS 463