By giving way to the soldiers’ needs on that front Mehmed Ali proved to be more flexible and pragmatic than the contemporary British naval commanders who were aiming at a moral standard “altogether too high for the people with whom it dealt . . . [especially by insisting on] the whole illogical system of indiscriminate pressing with its corollary of not allowing the men shore-leave when in port.” Allowing women to join their husbands in Syria, however, created hygiene problems which certainly contributed to the spread of syphilis and other venereal diseases among the soldiery and which the authorities now found difficult to address.

XREF: Connects to earlier highlights about camp shantytowns (loc 657) and health concerns driving their dismantling, including the syphilis inspection regimes at loc 1086. Builds on: "Soldiers' families followed them into camp shanty-towns"

Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed…, loc. 1162