For the Innocent Ones

“For the Innocent Ones” 

It can be said that hardly a day goes by without some report of the abandonment of newborns on the public streets. 

These acts of cruel inhumanity, which have become almost daily occurrences in recent times as we have noted, lead us to seriously consider that these are perhaps the least horrific incidents, and that many other, even more cruel and unnatural acts must be happening of which neither the news nor the police are aware. 

These are cases of outright infant suppression, which, unfortunately, the moral depravity in certain lower social strata and the conditions of public surveillance make easily possible and even more easily concealable. 

It should be immediately understood that we do not intend to place exclusive blame on the police authorities for these heinous crimes that revolt public conscience, as their actions are largely constrained when dealing with the non-native population, which is unfortunately responsible for the majority of these unnatural acts. 

From thorough investigations we have taken the care to conduct and from information gathered from reliable individuals who have resided in Egypt for years, we have been able to ascertain that the responsibility for the abandonment of infants, and likely the undiscovered cases of suppression, can be attributed to the class of [female] servants generally employed by European families. Among them, there are many who have left husbands and children back home. 

The ardour of the climate, these women’s state of abandonment, and the lack of strict and necessary oversight by their employers make seduction very easy and common and sadly lead to its tragic consequences: brothels or crime. 

We repeat that, in the majority of cases, the police can do no more than collect the abandoned infants and record the event in the news; they are absolutely powerless to prevent so many unfortunate women from succumbing to the ultimate disgrace.

Disgusted by a series of events whose perpetrators no law has punished and no authority has held accountable, we asked ourselves if there might be some way to prevent these acts or, if committed, to bring the guilty parties to face the punishments prescribed by the laws of every civilized country. 

We acknowledge that finding a solution is neither straightforward nor easy, but it is not impossible. 

Here is what seems to us might provide some remedy to these deplorable acts. 

First and foremost, there should be absolutely rigorous surveillance by consular authorities, imposing an obligation on the subjects of their respective nations—who, particularly due to their trades, conditions, and social positions, are more easily susceptible to vice and moral corruption—to report regularly to their country's authorities at certain times of the year. This way, consular offices would always be in a position to accurately know about their whereabouts, occupations, and the utilization of their labor and persons. 

In short, it would require consular offices to perform their policing duties more rigorously and conscientiously, carefully monitoring the actions and conduct of those among their administered subjects who need special surveillance. 

In this way, they would, through information gathering or verification, be able to know, ninenty-nine cases out of 100, also something about the conditions of many unfortunate women who, in a moment of self-forgetfulness, lose themselves forever and, in a misguided sense of retrospective propriety, then also succumb to crime. 

Knowing these unfortunate women who have fallen into immorality, it would then be easy to obtain reports on the fruit of the same immorality from them, thus preventing many crimes of abandonment and possibly even the suppression of creatures. 

And this for what concerns the authorities, because the honesty and conscience of citizens should be a valuable aid to their actions. 

It is difficult to conceal certain abnormal physical conditions for long; for someone who approaches or associates with a pregnant woman, it is impossible not to notice something of her condition. If her condition is illegitimate, why not monitor its progress and, above all, investigate and ascertain the outcome and inform the authorities if necessary? 

And since, as we have mentioned above, the largest contingent of abandonment and, undoubtedly, suppression of infants comes from the category of [female] servants, it should mainly be the conscientious duty of the heads of the families employing them to guide and supervise them scrupulously. If they ever notice that one of them shows the signs of sin, they should not limit themselves to dismissal but ought to inform the authorities who would be responsible for the type of surveillance we have discussed.

These are our ideas, and if they were fortunate enough to be considered by the Authorities and Citizens, we are more than convinced that, if not entirely eradicating crimes against innocent infants, they would greatly reduce their number.