A Noble Woman Part 5

'I know that the motives of the condemned were not base; that they acted from patriotism; but in war one must be prepared to seal one's patriotism with blood, whether one faces the enemy in battle, or otherwise in the interest of one's cause does deeds which justly bring after them the death penalty. Among our Russian prisoners are several young girls who fought against us in soldiers' uniforms.

Had one of these girls fallen, no one would have accused us of barbarity against women. Why now, when another woman has met the death to which she knowingly exposed herself, as did her comrades in battle?

'There are moments in the life of nations where consideration for the existence of the individual is a crime against all. Such a moment was here. It was necessary once for all to put an end to the activity of our enemies, regardless of their motives; therefore the death penalty was executed so as to frighten off all those who, counting on preferential treatment for their s.e.x, take part in undertakings punishable by death.

'It was proved after a long trial of the sentenced persons that they for some months past had been engaged in a.s.sisting Belgians of military age to enlist in hostile armies, and in enabling French and English deserters to escape the country. They had many helpers, and had organized branches.

'The Governor-General had repeatedly issued warnings against such activity, pointing out that severe punishment for such action was unavoidable.

'The guilty persons were sentenced in a public sitting according to the law based on the provisions of the imperial penal code and the military penal code for war treason and espionage. No special law exists for Belgium, and no so-called "usage of war" influenced the verdict of the court.'

Dr. Zimmermann maintained that the execution was carried out in accordance with the established regulations, death occurring immediately after the first volley, as attested by the physician who was present.

The greater part of Dr. Zimmermann's futile reasoning is not worth discussion in detail. The one outstanding fact is the common belief that no military authorities in Europe, other than German, would have executed Miss Cavell for an offence actuated by purest motives of patriotism, and in which there was not the faintest suspicion of espionage. It may be remarked, too, that in America Judge Lynch never executed a woman. The attempt to draw a parallel case between Nurse Cavell and Russian women who have fought as soldiers is puerile in the extreme. In the case of the Russian, she is dressed in male uniform, and the German who shoots her in action does so in ignorance of her s.e.x; Miss Cavell was a Red Cross nurse whose services to German wounded alone should have struck a spark of compa.s.sion.

Later, an inspired telegram was issued from Berlin to counteract the 'incorrect and exaggerated' discussions in the foreign press. It was stated that Miss Cavell was sentenced in a public sitting, although it is an incontrovertible fact that the American Legation could not get permission to be represented. It is laid to Miss Cavell's charge that she 'nursed only rich people for heavy fees.' Even if it were true, it would not palliate the German offence of hurried and clandestine murder; but we know, and the Germans know, that her whole life was spent in doing good for others. Finally is repeated the old statement that cruelties were committed by Lord Kitchener during the Boer War on women and children. This oft-repeated libel needs no refutation of ours, because it was demolished years ago by the German official history of the Boer War.

The next step in German impudence was an attempt to make believe that in the doc.u.ments exchanged between the American Legation in Brussels and the German authorities as published by the British Government, some circ.u.mstances of the utmost importance are inaccurately reported by the Belgian lawyer who acts as legal adviser to the Legation. To this Sir Edward Grey informed the press that the papers relating to the case of Miss Cavell were published exactly as they were received from the American Emba.s.sy and with the American Emba.s.sy's consent.

On November 20, however, nearly a month later, the British Foreign Office did make public one correction:

'The letter addressed by the United States Minister at Brussels to the Amba.s.sador in London, under date October 14, to the effect that the German prosecutor had asked for a sentence of death against Miss Edith Cavell _and eight other persons implicated by her testimony_ was due to erroneous information furnished to the United States Legation, and, so far as it has been possible to discover, no other person has been directly implicated by any testimony on the part of Miss Cavell.'

The acknowledgement of this mistake, however, could have afforded the Germans but little satisfaction, because its only effect was the removal of a slur on the loyalty of Miss Cavell to her friends.

In the clumsy attempt to justify their savagery the Germans have done nothing to prevent judgement going by default in the heart of all civilized nations. They omit all reference to their inhuman haste and calculated trickery, and their venomous refusal to allow exhumation and proper burial. No laws of war permit such outrages, no military necessities can excuse and no pedantic partisan can vindicate them.

XI

JUSTICE AND SAVAGERY CONTRASTED

Sir John Simon, the late Home Secretary, in an interview with a United States correspondent in London, averred that in the record of Britain's treatment of persons accused of military offences the case of Miss Cavell had and could have no parallel. To no woman, even in cases of clearly proved espionage, had Britain meted out a sentence of death; and in no case is a woman, whatever her nationality, tried in any but a civil court.

It may be urged that in an occupied territory such as Belgium the administration of the law may call for slight difference; but the Cavell case was not a sudden or unexpected discovery that called for a drumhead court-martial on a battle-field. The 'crime' was committed in Brussels, where the invaders claim to have restored orderly government under their own civil governor.

'In England the accused is brought before a tribunal which holds a preliminary inquiry taking the summary evidence. He is always a.s.sisted by a lawyer, and a complete record of the evidence, oral and doc.u.mentary, is given to the accused, who is then allowed an interval to prepare for defence. _If it is a woman, the trial always takes place before a civil tribunal_; if a man, he has the right to claim to be tried before a civil tribunal instead of a court-martial, if he be a British subject. At the trial, whether military or civil, the lawyers for the defence have the same opportunities as are given the accused in an ordinary case in peace times.

'In the last case involving a woman in this country the offender was of German birth, though technically a subject of another country owing to marriage. She was acting in a.s.sociation with a male spy, and was detected travelling to various points in order to collect information about naval defences. The evidence against her was overwhelming, and did not depend solely on witnesses, but on doc.u.ments found in her possession and letters written by her and her a.s.sociates.

'Going through the preliminary proceedings as previously described, she was tried in September by three civil judges of our High Court and a jury, and was convicted, not of harbouring German soldiers, but of deliberate and persistent spying for the purpose of providing the enemy with important information. Her male companion was condemned to death; she was sentenced to ten years'

imprisonment.

'In the case of a court-martial, reconsideration always takes place; in a civil trial, such as the one just recounted, there is a right of appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal and consideration by the Home Secretary, who gives his advice as to the prerogative of mercy. In the particular case mentioned the woman did not appeal.

'In any case when the accused has claimed to have connexion with a neutral country we have not waited for application to be made to us. We thought it right to give the neutral Emba.s.sy information of the arrest. It has happened in several cases that the accused was carrying what he alleged to be a United States pa.s.sport. In such cases, as the others, the American Emba.s.sy was consulted, and the solicitors and counsel for defence were retained with the Emba.s.sy's approval.

'Execution never follows a sentence here without a proper interval.

Indeed, there was a case not long ago when on the eve of the execution a postponement was requested in order that some further representation might be considered. The sentence was postponed for a week, and the whole case was reviewed in the light of the new material. In a case now pending the accused says he wishes to call evidence from the other side of the world. We don't know whether the evidence will be helpful, but we have postponed the final trial from August to December.

'Mind you, I am not claiming any credit for the British Government for our procedure. There is nothing unusual, to my mind, in taking care that the accused persons have the fullest opportunity for their defence. The thing that strikes Englishmen as most incredible in the case of Miss Cavell is the calculated indifference with which the inquiries of the American and Spanish Ministers were treated. If the excuse is suggested that in time of war severe and harsh measures have to be taken, our own experience is enough to show that it is possible to combine a regard for the rights of the accused and the respect for humane considerations with the effect of punishment of hostile offences of the most serious kind.

'It would have seemed impossible for the Germans to do anything to increase the horror produced by their behaviour in Belgium. It would have seemed impossible to do anything which could cement more closely the bond of sympathy between the populations of England and Belgium. But they have accomplished both impossibilities by one horrible act of brutality.'

The foregoing contrast between British and German conceptions of justice is practically the difference between barbarism and civilization; and Sir John Simon's impressive exposition of the difference between the two systems calls for nothing to elaborate it.

XII

PULPIT AND PEN UNITE IN DENUNCIATION

The publication of the official correspondence affording the details of Miss Cavell's stealthy execution raised a storm of righteous indignation, which found expression in every pulpit in the British Isles; while on the platform or in the press men of light and leading joined in their condemnation of the German atrocity. The following are but a few notable examples of whole sheaves of similar outpourings.

The Bishop of London, in preaching the Trafalgar Day Sermon, at St.

Martin-in-the-Fields, said:

'The cold-blooded murder of Miss Cavell, a poor English girl, deliberately shot by Germans for housing refugees, will run the sinking of the _Lusitania_ close in the civilized world as the greatest crime in history. There is one thing about the incident which, perhaps, was not taken into account by those who perpetrated the crime. It will settle the matter once for all about recruiting in Great Britain. There will be no need now of compulsion. I wonder what Nelson would have said if he had been told that an Englishwoman had been shot in cold blood by the members of any other nation? He would have made more than the diplomatic inquiries which have been made by a great neutral into this crime, right and proper as those inquiries are. He would have made his inquiries by the thunder of the guns of the British Fleet, and pressed the question with the Nelson touch which won Trafalgar, as, indeed, our own Fleet at this moment is only too ready to do. But is it possible that there is one young man in England to-day who will sit still under this monstrous wrong? The three million new recruits asked for will be there. Why was she put to death? Why was she murdered? Three thousand thousand Englishmen, and Scotsmen and Irishmen too, will know the reason why. G.o.d's curse is on the nation that tramples underfoot and defies the laws of chivalry which once relieved the horrors of war.'

The following is the Rev. F. B. Meyer's eloquent contribution:

'We may thank G.o.d for the chivalrous reverence in which the British race holds womanhood; and how n.o.bly that reverence has been responded to is evident in the unparalleled service which the women of our time have been giving to fill the depleted ranks of labour and to render invaluable service in all departments, from the hospital to the harvest-field.

'The crowning horror of the German treatment of womanhood is the atrocious murder of this woman, who lived to alleviate suffering, and who only did what any one of us would have done in saving the lives of refugees who sought the shelter of a home. There should be no necessity for executing a woman in war-time; and if it is said that crime is committed in pa.s.sion, the murder of Miss Cavell is inexcusable even on that ground, because she was executed in cold blood.

'It is impossible for any British men who are of suitable age and physical fitness for the army to hold back, because it is certain that the measure meted out to Nurse Cavell would be gentleness itself compared to the treatment which would befall our womanhood if once the German invasion triumphed over our resistance.

'If only the crime that we deprecate to-day would lead us to concentrate our thought on the War, we should be doing more than we realize towards bringing it to an end. The pessimist, the croaker, the grumbler, the critic, work in a contrary direction. Our enemies, with their Hymns of Hate and concentrated venom, endeavour to hurt us, and they forget that pa.s.sions of that sort recoil on their instigators as poisonous gases roll back with the wind to those who sent them. We do not concentrate in a spirit of revenge or hatred, but in the stern resolve of an entire nation that we shall never stay our hands until our Empire is free from all fear of menace.

'Miss Cavell has set the world an example of how we should bear ourselves in a supreme crisis. Her heroic conduct, her calm composure in the face of death, cannot be accounted for merely by her temperament. They were due to her religious faith.

'She died as a Christian, looking towards the Redeemer, and forgave her persecutors, and she will go on ministering still.

'A life like hers will reverberate through the world. Thousands will be inspired by her example, and long after the War has pa.s.sed away her name and character will s.h.i.+ne like a beacon light in history.'

The Rev. Lord William Cecil contributed a special sermon to the columns of the _Daily Telegraph_, of which is quoted only the final portion:

'Edith Cavell lives in the heart of the nation; nay, in the esteem of the world.

'She by her deed has won undying renown, and has made England more glorious. Far and wide will they tell the tale, and add--"Of such are the English."