It is not surprising that the secrecy, the precipitate haste and the
early morning hour of the execution gave rise to many sensational
reports, among others that Miss Cavell fainted on the way, and was shot
to death by the commanding officer as she lay unconscious. But it seems
to be certain that the execution was carried out in the usual military
way and without any aggravating incident. It was, however, quite in
keeping with the brutal and conscienceless procedure throughout that
the place of burial was kept secret, so that none of the friends of the
martyred nurse could pay even the tribute of a tear at her grave. One
needs but to look at the photographed face of von Bissing, the German
Governor-General of Belgium responsible for the vindictive killing of
Miss Cavell, to see the outward signs of a despicable soul. The only
charitable thought with which one can review his acts is that his mind
was already diseased and corrupted by the illness that not long after
sent him to the final accounting for his Belgian infamies which—with
the exception of Germany—roused the whole world to execration.
It is worthy of note in this connection that in a talk with Mr. Karl
Kitchen, a writer for the New York _World_, Von Bissing expressed great
astonishment that an American newspaper man thought it worth while
paying a visit to Brussels over “such an affair.” He was unable to
understand “why the world is interested in the case. When thousands
of innocent people have died in the war, why should anyone become
hysterical over the death of one guilty woman?” And he admitted in the
talk that the authorities had hurried on the execution not because Miss
Cavell had helped fugitives to escape, but because they wanted to make
her an example to awe the Belgians. He said:
“A few years in prison is not sufficient punishment for an offense
of this kind. For punishment in a case of this nature is meted out
to deter others from committing the same offense. If the Cavell
woman had been sent to prison she would have been released in two or
three years—at the end of the war. Amnesty is usually granted to all
prisoners convicted of offenses of this nature, espionage, and so
forth, when peace is made.
“The Cavell woman was not charged with espionage. The charge of
aiding the enemy’s soldiers to escape which was made against her was
sufficiently serious. Her death was deplorable—but I do not see why it
should occasion such hysteria in America.”
That was von Bissing’s self-justification. Baron von der Lancken’s plea
was more _naïve_. As the execution was purely a military affair, he,
the Civil Governor, did not interfere. “It would have been a breach of
etiquette if he had done so!” It counted nothing with these official
exponents of Kultur that Miss Cavell had been the compassionate and
skillful nurse of numbers of wounded German soldiers in the Brussels
hospitals. That offered them no reason for treating her with leniency.
[Illustration:
_Drawn by Joseph Cummings Chase._