Chapter II: Part 2

While this distinction of the German Civil Code may have no application when military law is being enforced, yet it illustrates a distinction, which all humane nations have recognized, between the treason which seeks to overthrow a State by rebellion and lesser offenses against the authority of a State.

Assuming that Miss Cavell's offense could be regarded in any sense as treasonable, it certainly constituted the lesser offense under the distinction above quoted.

The fact is that Miss Cavell was tried, condemned, and executed for her sympathy with the cause of Belgium and her willingness to save her compatriots from suffering and death. Military necessity--ever the tyrant's plea--demanded a victim further to terrorize the subjugated people. They chose Miss Cavell.

Notwithstanding the request of the American Legation in its letter of October 5th that it be advised not only as to the charges, but also as to the sentence imposed upon Miss Cavell, and the express promise of M. Kirschen to inform it of all developments, it was kept in ignorance of the fact that sentence of death had been passed upon her. Minister Whitlock only heard this on October 11th, and he at once addressed a letter to Baron von der Lancken in which, after stating this fact, he appealed "to the sentiment of generosity and humanity in the Governor General in favor of Miss Cavell," with a view to commutation of the death sentence, and at the same time addressed a similar letter to Baron von Bissing, the Military Governor of Belgium, who did not deign to give to the American Government even the cold courtesy of a reply.

On the morning of October 11th our Minister heard--not from the German authorities, but from unofficial sources--that the trial had been completed on the preceding Saturday afternoon, and he at once communicated with the Political Department of the German Military Government, and was expressly assured

"that no sentence had been pronounced and that there would probably
be a delay of a day or two before a decision was reached."

The Director of the Political Department (Herr Conrad) gave a further

"_positive assurance that the [American] Legation would be fully
informed as to the developments in the case._"

Notwithstanding this direct promise and further "repeated inquiries in the course of the day," no further word reached our Legation, and at 6.20 p.m. it again inquired as to Miss Cavell's fate, and the Director of the Political Department again

"_stated that sentence had not yet been pronounced_,"

and he specifically renewed his assurance. Two hours later our Minister _from unofficial sources_ heard that all that had been told him by the Political Department was untrue, and that the sentence had been passed at 5 o'clock p.m.; _before his last conversation with the Director_, and that the execution was to take place that night.

Accordingly the Secretary of the American Legation proceeded at once to Baron von der Lancken, and again asked as a favor to this Government that clemency be extended. He brought with him a letter from the American Minister, which reads as follows:

"My dear Baron:

"I am too ill to put my request before you in person, but once more
I appeal to the generosity of your heart. Stand by and save from
death this unfortunate woman. Have pity on her. Your devoted
servant,
"BRAND WHITLOCK."

Accompanying this purely personal note were two substantially similar communications, the one directed to Baron von Bissing and the other to Baron von der Lancken. These communications run as follows:

"I have just heard that Miss Cavell, a British subject, and
consequently under the protection of my Legation, was this morning
condemned to death by court-martial.

"If my information is correct, the sentence in the present case is
more severe than all the others that have been passed in similar
cases which have been tried by the same Court, and, without going
into the reasons for such a drastic sentence, I feel that I have
the right to appeal to your Excellency's feelings of humanity and
generosity in Miss Cavell's favour, and to ask that the death
penalty passed on Miss Cavell may be commuted and that this
unfortunate woman shall not be executed.

"Miss Cavell is the head of the Brussels Surgical Institute. She
has spent her life in alleviating the sufferings of others, and her
school has turned out many nurses who have watched at the bedside
of the sick all the world over, in Germany as in Belgium. At the
beginning of the war Miss Cavell bestowed her care as freely on the
German soldiers as on others. Even in default of all other reasons,
her career as a servant of humanity is such as to inspire the
greatest sympathy and to call for pardon. If the information in my
possession is correct, Miss Cavell, far from shielding herself,
has, with commendable straightforwardness, admitted the truth of
all the charges against her, and it is the very information which
she herself has furnished, and which she alone was in a position to
furnish, which has aggravated the severity of the sentence passed
on her.

"It is then with confidence, and in the hope of its favourable
reception, that I have the honour to present to your Excellency my
request for pardon on Miss Cavell's behalf."

This note was read aloud to Baron von der Lancken, the very official who had refused to answer the first communication of the Legation with reference to the matter, and he

"expressed disbelief in the report that sentence had actually been
passed and manifested some surprise that we should give credence to
any report not emanating from official sources. He was quite
insistent in knowing the exact source of our information, but this
I did not feel at liberty to communicate to him."

Baron von der Lancken proceeded to express his belief "that it was quite improbable that sentence had been pronounced," and that in any event no execution would follow. After some hesitation he telephoned to the Presiding Judge of the Court-Martial and then reported that the embassy's unofficial information was only too true.

His attention was further called to the express promise of the German Director of the Political Department to inform the American Legation of the sentence, and he was asked to grant the American Government the courtesy of a "delay in carrying out the sentence."

To this appeal for mercy Baron von der Lancken replied that the Military Governor (von Bissing) was the supreme authority and that he "had discretionary power to accept or to refuse acceptance of an appeal for clemency." He thereupon left the representative of the American Legation and apparently called upon von Bissing, and after half an hour he returned with the statement that not only would von Bissing decline to revoke the sentence of death, but "that in view of the circumstances of this case, he must decline to accept your plea for clemency or any representation in regard to the matter."

Thereupon Baron von der Lancken insisted that Mr. Brand Whitlock's representative (Mr. Hugh Gibson, Secretary of the Legation) should take back the formal appeal for clemency addressed both to him and to von Bissing, and as both German officials had been fully advised as to the nature of the plea, Mr. Gibson finally consented. Baron von der Lancken assured Mr. Gibson that under the circumstances "even the Emperor himself could not intervene," a statement that was very quickly refuted when the Emperor--aroused by the world-wide condemnation of Miss Cavell's execution--did commute the sentences imposed upon six of the seven persons who were condemned to death with Miss Cavell.

During the earnest conversation which took place in this last attempt to save Miss Cavell's life, the American representative took occasion to remind Baron von der Lancken's official associates--although it should not have been necessary--of the great services rendered by the United States, and especially by Mr. Brand Whitlock, in the earlier period of the German occupation, and this was urged as a reason why as a matter of courtesy to the United States Government some more courteous consideration should be accorded to its request. At the outbreak of the war, thousands of German residents in Belgium returned to their country in such haste that they left their families behind them. Mr. Whitlock gathered these women and children--numbering, it is said, over 10,000--and provided them with the necessaries of life, and ultimately with safe transportation into Germany, and having thus placed this inestimable service to thousands of German civilians in one scale, the American representative simply asked, as "the only request" made by the United States upon grounds of reciprocal generosity, that some clemency should be given to Miss Cavell. The refusal to give this clemency or even to accept in a formal way the plea for clemency, is one of the blackest cases of ingratitude in the history of diplomacy.

On October 22nd there was issued from Brussels a "semi-official" but _anonymous_ statement, charging that in the reports of the Secretary of the American Embassy, from which the above quoted statements are mainly taken, "most of the important events are inaccurately reproduced."

No specification of any inaccuracy is however made, except the general denial "that the German authorities with empty promises put off the American Minister" and also the equally general statement that no promise was given to our embassy to advise it of developments in the case.

A vague, general, and _anonymous_ denial, issued by men who seek to wash their hands of innocent blood, cannot avail against Mr. Gibson's clear, specific, and circumstantial statement. The Secretary of our embassy states that on October 11th "_repeated_" inquiries were made of Herr Conrad, the official in charge of the Political Department of the German Government in Belgium, _the last inquiry being at 6.20 p.m. by the clock_ (an hour after the victim had been sentenced to death), and that on each occasion assurance was given to the Legation that "sentence had not been pronounced" and that he (Conrad) would not fail to inform us as soon as there was any news.

Does Herr Conrad deny this?

The Brussels "semi-official" statement has the hardihood to state to the world that the American Minister (Brand Whitlock) had admitted that "no such promise or assurance was given," and it places the responsibility upon M. Deleval, the Belgian legal counselor of the American Embassy. But this impudent lie is speedily overthrown by the positive statement of our Minister at Belgium to our Ambassador in London as follows:

"From the date we first learned of Miss Cavell's imprisonment we
made frequent inquiries of the German authorities and reminded
them of their promise that we should be fully informed as to
developments. They were under no misapprehension as to our interest
in the matter."

Will the American people or the people of any nation hesitate to accept the clear, positive, and circumstantial statements of Minister Whitlock, Secretary Gibson, and Counselor Deleval, at least two of whom are wholly disinterested in the matter, as against the self-exculpatory, general, and anonymous denials of a "semi-official" press bureau, especially when it is recalled that from the beginning of the great war, the German Foreign Office, with whom military honor is supposed to be almost a religion, has stooped to the most shameful and barefaced mendacity?

When the world recalls how Austrian Ambassadors in Paris, London, and Petrograd made the most emphatic statements that the forthcoming ultimatum to Serbia would be "pacific and conciliatory," and assured the Russian Ambassador that he could therefore safely leave Vienna on his vacation on the very eve of the ultimatum, and when the German Ambassadors in the same capitals gave the most solemn and unequivocal assurances that

"the German Government had no knowledge of the text of the Austrian
note before it was handed in and had not exercised any influence on
its contents,"

and later admitted, when the lie had served its purpose by lulling the world into a sense of false security, that it had been fully consulted by its ally before the ultimatum was prepared and had given it carte blanche to proceed, when these notable examples of Prussian Machiavellism are recalled, little attention will be given to these futile attempts to wash from the shield of German honor the blood of Edith Cavell.

One can to some extent understand the Berserker fury which caused von Bissing to say in effect to this gentle-faced English nurse, "You are in our way. You menace our security. You must die, as countless thousands have already died, to secure the results of our seizure of Belgium"; but can we understand or in any way palliate the attempt to hide the stains of blood on that prison floor of Brussels with a cobweb of self-evident falsehoods?

These stains can never be washed out to the eye of imagination.

"Let none these marks efface,
For they appeal from tyranny to God."

In the last interview between our representative and Baron von der Lancken, which took place a few hours before the execution, our representative reminded these Prussian officials

"of our untiring efforts on behalf of German subjects at the
outbreak of the war and during the siege of Antwerp. I pointed out
that, while our services had been gladly rendered and without any
thought of future favors, they should certainly entitle you to some
consideration for the only request of this sort you [the American
Minister] had made since the beginning of the war."

Even our Minister's appeal to gratitude and to one of the most ordinary and natural courtesies of diplomatic life proved unavailing, and at midnight the Secretary of the American Legation and the Spanish Minister, who was acting with him, left in despair. At 2 o'clock that morning Miss Cavell was secretly executed.

Even the ordinary courtesy accorded to the vilest criminal, of being permitted before dying to have a clergyman of her own selection, was denied her until a few hours before her death, for the legal counselor of the American Legation on October 10th applied in behalf of this country for permission for an English clergyman to see Miss Cavell, and this, too, was refused, as her jailers preferred to assign her the prison chaplains as well as her counsel. Even the final appeal of our Minister for the surrender of her mutilated body was denied, on the ground that only the Minister of War in Berlin could grant it.

Apart from the brutality of the whole incident there is one circumstance that makes it of peculiar interest to the American people and which gives to it the character of rank ingratitude. Our representative, as above stated, did advise the German officials that a little delay was asked by our Legation _as a slight return for the innumerable acts of kindness which our Legation had done for German soldiers and interned prisoners in the earlier days of the war before the German invasion had swept over the land_. The charge of ingratitude may rest soundly upon far greater and broader grounds.

This great nation had contributed in money and merchandise a sum estimated at many millions for the relief of the people in Belgium. In so doing it did to the German nation an inestimable service, for when Germany conquered Belgium the duty and burden rested upon it to support its population to the extent that it might become necessary. The burden of supporting 8,000,000 civilians was no light one, especially as there existed in Germany a scarcity of food. As bread tickets were then being issued in Germany to its people, the supplies would have been substantially less if a portion of its food products had been required for the civilian population of Belgium, for obviously the German nation could not permit a people, whom it had so ruthlessly trampled under foot, to starve to death. Every dollar that was raised in America for the Belgian people, therefore, operated to relieve Germany from a heavy burden.

Moreover, when the war broke out, Germany needed some friendly nation to take over the care of its nationals in the hostile countries, and in England, France, Belgium, and Russia the interests of German citizens were assumed by the American Government as a courtesy to Germany, and no one can question how faithfully in the last fourteen months Page in London, Sharp in Paris, and Whitlock in Brussels have labored to alleviate the inevitable suffering to German prisoners or interned civilians.

In view of these services, it surely was not much for the American Minister to ask that a little delay should be granted to a woman whose error, if any, had arisen from impulses of humanity and from considerations of patriotism. To spare her life a little longer could not have done the German cause any possible harm, for she was in their custody and beyond the power of rendering any help to her compatriots. To condemn any human being, even if he were the vilest criminal, at 5 o'clock in the afternoon and execute him at 2 a.m., was an act of barbarism for which no possible condemnation is adequate.

Under these circumstances, it would be incredible, if the facts were not beyond dispute, that the request of the United States for a little delay was not only brutally refused, _but that our Legation was deliberately misled and deceived until the death sentence had been inflicted_.

This makes the fate of Miss Cavell our affair as much as that of the Lusitania. And yet we have the already familiar semi-official assurance from Washington that while our officials "unofficially deplore the act, officially they can do nothing." Concurrently we are told in the President's Thanksgiving proclamation that we should be thankful because we have "been able to assert our rights and the rights of mankind," and that this "has been a year of special blessing for us," for, so the proclamation adds, "we have prospered while other nations were at war."

I venture to say in all reverence that the God of nations will be better pleased on the coming Thanksgiving Day--which also should be one of penitence and humiliation--if we do a little more _in fact_ and less in words to safeguard the rights of humanity. Our initial blunder was in turning away the Belgian Commissioners, when they first presented the wrongs of their crucified nation, with icy phrases as to a mysterious day of reckoning in the indefinite future. An act of justice now will be worth a thousand future "accountings" after the long agony of the world is over. "Now is the accepted time, this the day of salvation."

_Let our nation begin with the case of Edith Cavell, and demand of Germany the dismissal of the officers who flouted, deceived, and mocked the representative of the United States. That concerns our honor as a nation._

The final scene of the tragedy is best stated in the simple but poignantly pathetic words of the Chaplain, who was permitted to see the victim a few hours before her death:

"On Monday evening, 11th October, I was admitted by special
passport from the German authorities to the prison of St. Gilles,
where Miss Edith Cavell had been confined for ten weeks. The final
sentence had been given early that afternoon.

"To my astonishment and relief I found my friend perfectly calm and
resigned. But this could not lessen the tenderness and intensity of
feeling on either part during that last interview of almost an
hour.

"Her first words to me were upon a matter concerning herself
personally, but the solemn asseveration which accompanied them was
made expressedly in the light of God and eternity. She then added
that she wished all her friends to know that she willingly gave her
life for her country, and said: 'I have no fear nor shrinking; I
have seen death so often that it is not strange or fearful to me.'
She further said: 'I thank God for this ten weeks' quiet before the
end.' 'Life has always been hurried and full of difficulty.' 'This
time of rest has been a great mercy.' 'They have all been very kind
to me here. But this I would say, standing as I do in view of God
and eternity, I realise that patriotism is not enough. I must have
no hatred or bitterness towards anyone.'

"We partook of the Holy Communion together, and she received the
Gospel message of consolation with all her heart. At the close of
the little service I began to repeat the words 'Abide with me,' and
she joined softly in the end.

"We sat quietly talking until it was time for me to go. She gave me
parting messages for relations and friends. She spoke of her soul's
needs at the moment, and she received the assurance of God's Word
as only the Christian can do.

"Then I said 'Good-bye,' and she smiled and said, 'We shall meet
again.'

"The German military chaplain was with her at the end and
afterwards gave her Christian burial.

"He told me: 'She was brave and bright to the last. She professed
her Christian faith and that she was glad to die for her country.'
'She died like a heroine.'"

It would be interesting to compare these last hours of one of the noblest women in English history to those of that rare and radiant Greek maiden, whom the genius of Sophocles has glorified in his immortal tragedy. The comparison is altogether in favour of the English heroine, for while Antigone went to her death bravely, yet her final words were those of bitter complaint and almost whining lamentation. Compare with these words the Christlike simplicity of Miss Cavell's last message to the world, and the difference between the noblest Paganism and the best of Christianity is apparent. Truly the light of Calvary illumined her dark cell! Standing "in view of God and eternity," she uttered the deeply pregnant sentence that "patriotism is not enough." Her executioners had illustrated this, for the ruthless killing of Edith Cavell for military purposes was actuated by that perverted spirit of patriotism which believes that any wrong is sanctified if it serves the State.

No one suggests that General von Bissing had any personal feeling against Miss Cavell. Indeed his conduct would be the more tolerable if it had been actuated by the spirit of anger. He killed her in cold blood and to strengthen the German occupation in Belgium. News of the very recent successes of the Allies in Flanders and in the Champagne districts in the great offensive had reached Belgium and had caused a perceptible ferment in that down-trodden people. It therefore seemed necessary to show the iron hand again and to the Prussian ideal, as already illustrated by official proclamations of Prussian Generals, it was a matter of no consequence whose life was taken or whose right was invaded. It served to terrorize the Belgian people--Such was its real purpose.

And you, women of America and of the World! Will you not honor the memory of this martyr of your sex, who for all time will be mourned as was the noblest Greek maiden, Antigone, who also gave her life that her brother might have the rites of sepulture? Will you not carry on in her name and for her memory those sacred ministrations of mercy which were her lifework?

_Make her cause--the cause of justice and mercy--your own!_

* * * * * * *

_Printed in Great Britain._

End of Project Gutenberg's The Case of Edith Cavell, by James M. Beck