Does The Salvation Army have a history of working in the field of anti-trafficking?
As mentioned before the rescue of women is embedded in The Salvation Army’s history. In the 1880s ‘fallen women’ were offered sanctuary and there developed a burning desire to combat the white slave traffic of the day. At that time there was a strong movement to pass through parliament the Criminal Law Amendment Bill. This was after years of labouring in vain for legislative measures to stamp out the traffic of white slaves. Mr Benjamin Scott, Chamberlain of the City of London met with Mr WT Stead, Editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, hoping to seek assistance to put an end to the trade. It was estimated that at that time more than 15,000 British girls in Europe alone has been sold or kidnapped. Stead approached Bramwell Booth (then a senior leader of The Salvation Army), and also spoke with some of the women rescued by The Salvation Army. He decided that he would expose the evil of white slave traffic through his paper under the title The Maiden Tribute (see more). Stead asked Booth for h
