witnessed holocausts of atrocity like the sinking of the
_Lusitania_ and the sack of Louvain, the murder of a single lady
may seem a small episode. But the enormity of a crime is not always
measured by the number of its victims. Here was a lady of education
who had devoted her life to the relief of human suffering. The head
of a great nursing institute, she had helped to train hundreds of
nurses, including Germans. When the War broke out she devoted her
whole strength to the care of the wounded, and had lavished her
personal attention on wounded German soldiers. Latterly she had
assisted certain British, French, and Belgian soldiers to escape to
England across the Dutch frontier. Charged with this military
offence, she admitted it with complete candour; indeed, she seems
to have been the principal witness against herself. One may safely
affirm that, having regard to her transparently humanitarian
motives and all the circumstances of the case, no Government in the
world but the German would have inflicted the death penalty on such
a culprit. They not merely inflicted it, but compassed its
infliction with a mixture of duplicity and brutality that must make
every decent human being's gorge rise. Of Miss Cavell herself no
one will dispute that if any death in this War has been heroic,
hers was; one cannot say less, and no one could say more. The sense
of the whole civilized world can be left to judge between this
helpless woman and her murderers.'
_The Scotsman._
'That Miss Cavell was guilty of an offence against martial law was
not denied. But it was not a crime that implied any moral
delinquency or transgression of the normal rules of human conduct.
On the contrary, it was prompted by the spirit of self-sacrifice
and mercy that had guided her whole life, but of which not the
tiniest measure was yielded to herself by the men who pursued her
to the death. While it may be said that she acted imprudently, and
that punishment, and even severe punishment, for her offence was to
be looked for, she acted from motives and under circumstances that
could only raise her in the eyes of all who are capable of
appreciating generosity, courage, and kindness. No suspicion of
espionage was attached to her conduct; no accusation of that nature
was brought against her; and on being charged with what she had
done, she made full and frank acknowledgement. This candour of
confession was turned against her as one of the aggravations of
her offence. It is made but too clear that the tribunal before
which she was hurried thirsted for her blood and for the blood of
all who were concerned in the escape of those prisoners from the
tender mercies of the Brussels military authorities. Having already
lain for several weeks in prison, Miss Cavell was brought before a
court-martial, and after a two-days' trial was sentenced to death
in the evening and led out to execution early next morning. There
was a surreptitiousness as well as a vindictiveness about the whole
proceedings that cannot but amaze, as well as horrify and disgust.'
_The Irish Times._
'If any one in Ireland still fails to see the necessity for
resisting to the utmost the extension of Prussian power in Europe,
this should open his eyes. It will be equally admitted by every one
but her executioners that her sex, her kindness to German wounded,
and her charitable intentions in committing the undoubted offence
against the law imposed upon Belgium by the conquerors should have
been regarded as good reasons for treating her with leniency. All
these considerations were ignored by the German authorities. Their
haste to accomplish the foul deed without possibility of
interference is not out of keeping with the worst that we know of
savage races. In utter contrast with their proceedings, there was
reported yesterday the hearing in a North of England town of an
appeal by a woman charged with attempted espionage against a
sentence of six months' imprisonment. The woman was of German
descent; she had sought information concerning a shell factory, and
she admitted that she would have passed it on to the Germans if
possible. Her trial was fair and careful, and she had the fullest
opportunity of securing legal advice at every stage. Her appeal was
patiently heard. So it is with every case of the kind, whatever may
be the nationality of the accused person. British justice has a
name throughout the world. Henceforth, so will German justice, but
the name will be of other significance.'
_The Nursing Mirror._
'The heroic and tragic death of Miss Edith Cavell has placed the
martyr's crown on the head of this most courageous and patriotic
woman, and has consecrated afresh the whole of the nursing
profession for her sake in the eyes of the world. Never has the
heart of the nation been more deeply stirred than by this crowning
deed of infamy; never have the vials of its righteous indignation
been poured forth in such a torrent of just anger. The whole of the
civilized world has risen as one man to protest against this
violation of all the laws of mercy and of judgement against this
act by which Germany stands forth for all time alone, apart,
leprous and unclean, among the people of the earth. Her words to
the chaplain on the evening before her execution were those of
quiet courage and resignation. Spoken in the stern solemnity of
that prison cell, with the sincerity that comes from the nearness
of the eternal dawn, these words carry a force and conviction they
might otherwise lack to every one of her fellow workers round the
world, and are driven home to each heart like a nail fastened in a
sure place.... This day of national adversity is our day of
opportunity. In it may we be all "brave in peril, constant in
tribulation, and in all changes of fortune, and down to the gates
of death, loyal and loving one to another."'
_The Lady's Pictorial._
'It is difficult to speak of the crime which has blotted the
already foul page of Germany's infamy in constrained language. The
whole civilized world stands aghast at the callous brutality and
deceit of the German officials in Brussels who have done to death a
noble Englishwoman; and words are impotent things in which to
express the horror, the disgust, the fury, that this brave woman's
murder has excited. Nor is it possible to deal in other than
conventional phrases with her splendid self-sacrifice. She has died
for her country, but she has also won the martyr's crown. Her love
for her country was boundless. To serve it she ran a risk the
gravity of which she fully recognized, and she freely admitted that
in so doing she had offended against military laws. We all know--it
is written for all time on the pages of history--how she paid the
penalty. There is no need to retell the shameful story, to extol
further her splendid heroism, to waste breath in execrating the
savages whose name is now besmirched beyond all cleansing; whose
blood-thirst has been slaked at the heart of a helpless woman. But
it is worth while--it cannot be too often repeated--to cry aloud
that Edith Cavell died that her countrywomen may live. Who dared to
ask what is one woman among the tens of thousands of men who have
perished for their country in view of all that this heroic nurse's
slaughter means to England? Dying in her country's service,
sacrificed to the savagery of the most treacherous, bestial,
merciless enemy against which civilized peoples have ever had to
fight, a victim to their lust of hate, she has left to Englishwomen
an example and a message which must surely stir them to follow her,
if need be, to death.'
_The British Weekly._
'The Saxon name Edith, which is linked with the most ancient
glories of English history, has acquired a new lustre through the
sufferings of Edith Cavell. In every church on Sunday preachers
sounded the praise of the loving, gentle woman who was shot by the
Germans in Brussels in the dark of a mid-October night a few hours
before the fleet of Zeppelins started on their flight towards
London. Her only crime was that she furthered the escape from
Belgium of her countrymen and their Allies. The shield clasped for
their sake in her delicate hand was like the buckler of Arthur in
Spenser's poem, "All of diamond perfect pure and cleene," and
coming ages will see that it was hewn out of the adamant rock.
Amid the panoply of the martyrs her diamond shield will burn.'
_The Catholic Times._
'Baron von Bissing, the German Governor-General of Belgium,
recently addressing a meeting of German women in Brussels, said,
"We must do our best to carry on here in Belgium a real German
'Kultur' work." He has just given the world a proof of what the
Germans can do for the promotion of "Kultur" in Belgium. It is a
proof which has brought home fully to civilized people the truth
that when the Germans are called barbarians there is no
exaggeration in the charge. The shooting of women is a relic of
barbarism abhorrent to the general feeling of the present day. The
execution of Miss Cavell brings into relief once more the main
characteristic of German warfare. Laws, civilized customs,
honourable traditions, must give way if they obstruct German
domination. A multitude of Belgians, male and female, have been put
to death with as much cruelty as was displayed towards Miss
Cavell. It is needless to say that by revealing their true
character during the War the Germans have been fighting most
effectively against their own cause. The horror excited by their
infamies is worth whole regiments of recruiting-sergeants. Not only
in the countries at war with Germany, but amongst the populations
of the neutral nations, it produces the firm belief that there
could be no greater enemy of popular rights than Germany, and that
the success of German "Kultur" work would blast civilization like a
deadly blight.'
THE VOICE OF FRANCE
The French Senate 'bowed with respect and profound emotion before the
memory of this heroic martyr to duty, who sacrificed her life in the
cause of patriotism and of eternal right'; and the French press glowed
with magnificent tributes to the memory of the brave Englishwoman. One
of the most striking articles was that communicated to _L'Homme
Enchaine_ by M. Clemenceau:
'It was necessary that Miss Cavell, symbolizing in her heroic death
and her simplicity an incalculable mass of awful butchery, should
rise from her tomb to show the Germans that every soul of living
humanity revolts with disgust against a cause which can only defend
itself by a most cowardly assassination.
'The profound truth is that she honoured her country in dying for
that which is the finest in the human soul--the conscience of a
grandeur of which the greater part of us dreams, and which only a
few of the elect have a chance of realizing. This was the lot of
Miss Cavell; driven to a wall by a detachment of riflemen, she was
walking without a complaint, without a regret, being already no
longer of this earth, when a physical faintness made her falter. To
me it only makes her appear greater, since, combination of strength
and weakness, she thus showed herself woman, purely woman, to the
end. "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"--"My God, My God, why hast
Thou forsaken Me?"--said Another on His cross, in a moment of
weakness and distress by which the splendour of His sacrifice was
increased.
'Edith Cavell did not speak a word; she fell. Thereupon an officer,
a representative gentleman of "Germany above everything," a
delegate of the Emperor, and, through the Emperor, of "the old
German God," carrying out his despicable task of butcher, calmly
drew near, placed his revolver at the temple of his victim, pressed
the trigger, and then, with his hand red with blood, signed to his
"men," if such I may call them, that the work of Germania was done.
We shall not forget the name of Miss Cavell, but we do not know, we
never shall know, the name of the other. He calls himself a
German--that is enough. Every other German would have claimed the
honour of carrying out the same task. Since the day of Joan of Arc,
to whose memory I know that the British will one day wish to erect
a statue, Great Britain has owed us this return. She has given it
nobly.
'Now the Eumenides are let loose--Miss Edith Cavell, murdered by a
coward, will live among the men of all ages and of all countries
with a life which, for a time of which one cannot foresee the end,
will bring shame and torment on the people on whom her blood lies;
and that the lesson may be lasting, I should like to see in Rome,
Brussels, Nish, Paris, London, and Petrograd, as an indestructible
memorial of a community of sentiment, a statue of this noble woman
and of the German officer. It would be sufficient to take as a
model the excellent drawing published by Abel Faivre in the _Echo
de Paris_, in which that fine artist has indicated in a few strokes
of sublime grandeur the nobility of the blessed victim, and,
without forcing anything, the features of the assassin.
'Those who come after us, and whose knowledge of the terrible
realities of these days will only be derived from cold,
dispassionate words, must have before their eyes an image recalling
the living facts: Edith Cavell and a Boche without name,
representative of a people which, feeling the weight of universal
opprobrium, has not found one spark of conscience from which to
utter one word of protest.'
_The Journal des Debats._
'Miss Cavell died like a heroine, like a true worthy daughter of
England, the victim of those who would like to have killed her
country, and who revenged themselves on a woman. The murder of Miss
Cavell deserves to be avenged, and it will be, and in a manner more
terrible than the Germans dream of. The soul of England and the
soul of France are to-day united over the body of poor but glorious
Miss Cavell in a most sacred oath.'
_Intransigeant._
'The German who cold-bloodedly, without even the excuse of the
passion of battle, judged, condemned, and executed Miss Cavell is
a monster, a being who has placed himself voluntarily beyond the
pale of human law. England, who has furnished us with so many
causes for gratitude since the beginning of the War, now offers for
our admiration a loyal, strong, and simple heroine. This winter at
the feast of Joan of Arc English officers brought flowers to her
statue. The French will not forget the great example of Edith
Cavell. She has entered the eternal light which shines on the
foreheads of heroines and martyrs. For centuries to come little
children will spell her name, and learn in the story of her life
lessons of courage.'
DUTCH PROTESTS
The German reign of terror just over their own borders the Dutch may
accept as a menace and a warning to themselves; but the assassination of
Nurse Cavell aroused the most emphatic denunciations of the crime.
_The Amsterdam Telegraaf._
'Under the fatherly government of Bissing, the Belgians at present
have cause to envy the Parisians of 1793 in the Reign of Terror.
Not a person is sure of his life, and certainly not an honest and
brave person, for the German reign of terror seeks by frightful
examples to make the whole of Belgium a nation of traitors and
cowards. Love of country, which the Germans themselves claim to
honour as the highest virtue, they punish in the enemy as the most
frightful crime.
'In the last fortnight were pronounced ten sentences of death and
thirty-two of penal servitude for from ten to fifteen years. Among
these death sentences were four women. We wrote once in this
journal, "Holland is incapable of shuddering any more." We were
wrong. The death penalty on a brave woman has caused the whole of
this country to freeze with horror. Openly and unashamed Germany
makes herself a nation of outlaws against whom in the future every
possible measure of reprisal must be counted as warranted.'
_Nieuws Van Den Dag._
'What poor psychologists German officials and officers seem to be!
They started with the request to the Belgian Government for free
passage; they then overwhelmed the neutral press with one-sided
reports regarding the _Lusitania_ case and the visits of Zeppelins
to undefended towns; finally, incidents of this sort! Everywhere
they betray a lack of the most elementary conception of
psychology.'
XIV
AMERICA'S VERDICT
Apart from questions of common humanity, Americans are keenly interested
in the tragical end of Edith Cavell because of the untiring services of
the American Legation in Brussels, first to see that the accused had a
fair trial, and, second, their desperate and heroic efforts to gain time
in which to formulate a final appeal for clemency. The admiration of all
true Americans must be excited by the account of the humane endeavours
of their representatives, which lose not a jot because their appeals
were made to a cold-blooded, ferocious tribunal that is a stranger to
compassion, and does not subscribe to the ordinary decencies of
civilized life and practice.
The following press comments indicate the unanimity of the note of
detestation with which America views one of the greatest crimes of all
time.
_New York Herald._
Under the heading 'Nana Sahib in Belgium' was foreshadowed the
national abhorrence which will hold Germany to be the moral leper
of civilization. Mr. Whitlock's report 'will cause a wave of horror
to sweep over the world at the possibility of a nation which is
capable of perpetrating such terrible deeds as a mere matter of
military routine succeeding in this War and dominating Europe.
'For the consolation of those weaklings who object to the execution
of Miss Cavell it is announced that the black act was done
according to German military law, and therefore "legal." So the
slayings in Louvain, Dinant, and other blood-soaked spots in
Belgium were in accordance with military law, and therefore
"legal." The sinking of the _Lusitania_ was therefore similarly
"legal." The desolation of Armenia was in accordance with Turkish
military law, and therefore "legal." The order of Herod, if
re-enacted by the military authorities of Germany, would be in
accordance with German military law, and therefore "legal." But the
civilized world would denounce it just as it denounced the Belgian,
_Lusitania_, and Armenian slaughters, and as it is denouncing the
execution of Miss Cavell.'
_New York Times._
'In the great tribunal of civilization the Germans have done
themselves immeasurable hurt by their savagery against those who
opposed them. Putting the interests of State above the interests
and rights of the individual, putting the ends Germany seeks to
attain above all other things on earth, destroying the peace of the
world, bringing on the bloodiest War in history, a War that has
brought to their deaths millions of the people of Europe and
threatens to impoverish great nations, all for the attainment of
ends the world has denounced in themselves, and by means which too
often have violated the foundation principles of humanity and
justice, Germany has brought herself into a position where the
world turns from her in horror, and dreads nothing so much as the
success of her arms. Man's love of life, the chivalric sentiment of
man for woman, tender consideration for the helplessness of age and
of youth, all these she has maimed and bruised and defaced with her
mailed fist, all these she has trampled under foot. The execution
of Edith Cavell but carried out the spirit and purpose of the
Imperial military policy.'
_The Sun._
'In spite of the manifestations of "frightfulness" with which the
record is already crowded, we are not willing to believe that
chivalry to women is dead in the German army. To the rank and file
von Bissing can never be a hero. Doubtless his monstrous deed will
be justified; nevertheless, it will sicken the soul of many an
honest German officer. And the German women--for woman is true to
her sex the world over--will deplore the fate imposed upon one who
was the victim of her sympathies. Never has there been a war in
which women have not played such a part as this Englishwoman did.
'Indeed, to all Germans who have not been corrupted by Prussian
militarism, the hurried, stealthy shooting of hapless Edith Cavell
in the dead of night behind prison walls will always be a bitter
memory. More than all the counts in the Bryce Report of atrocities
in Belgium it will weigh in the scale of judgement, for it has
struck the world with horror.'
_The Tribune._
'Alive, Miss Cavell was but an offender against German military
rules; dead, dead after summary conviction, dead under
circumstances that give the incident the character of a midnight
assassination and the colour of an atrocity, she becomes to all men
of English blood a martyr and an inspiration to new patriotic
devotion.
'The thing is like the Zeppelin raids, it is like the Louvain
slaughter, it is like the _Lusitania_ massacre. The wrongs done to
the women and children of a race do not terrify the men. They only
serve to rouse the spirit, strengthen the arm, nerve the will.
"Terribleness" is but the emptiest of threats and the weakest of
weapons. There is something almost pathetic in the German dullness
to the things that move the world. It begs, whines, pleads for the
goodwill and the approval of neutral mankind. It stands almost as a
suppliant for the alms of approval of other races. But in the same
moment, without warning, without reason, without anything but an
incomprehensible stupidity and folly, it does something that shocks
the moral sense, the humanity, of men and women the world over.'
_Philadelphia Public Ledger._
'The Administration has a duty in this matter which it should not
overlook. Miss Cavell, as a British subject, was under the
protection of the American Legation. The American Minister made
both an official and a personal request that her life might be
spared. This request was not only refused, it was treated with
contempt. Mr. Gibson's report is scrupulously restrained in
language, but his indignation may easily be read between the lines.
The sentence was carried out with a haste that emphasizes the
insults to the United States; the procedure from the beginning was
marked by insolence to its representatives. To let the matter drop
here would be a confession that this country can neither protect
its citizens' interests, nor those of other nations whose interests
it has undertaken to guard.'
_The Baltimore Sun._
'It is difficult to speak in temperate language of the execution of
Edith Cavell. ... The world will pronounce this one of the
crowning atrocities of cold-blooded brutality. It is impossible to
think of it without horror, to speak of it without execration.'
_The Chicago Tribune._
'The execution of Edith Cavell should and may be the cause of
mental awakening on the part of those who have hitherto remained
obstinately secure in the face of a world of terrors....
Civilization is breaking faster and faster. How far the sword and
torch will sweep no man can prophesy, but this we know--the
American nation has given to the German Empire an offence greater
than that furnished by Belgium, and has not as yet taken any step
to protect itself from retribution.'
XV
CONCLUSION
It may be urged against this simple chronicle of the life and death of
Edith Cavell that an Englishman could be expected to approach the
subject only in too heated and partisan a spirit to set forth the case
dispassionately.
There is no occasion to import factitious bitterness into the tragedy,
which was born in prejudice, suckled in suspicion, and reared to its
foul maturity on hatred. All the cogent and damning facts dealing with
the arrest, trial, and death of the heroic Red Cross nurse are vouched
for by the American Legation in Brussels; these facts are embodied in
the statements communicated by Mr. Whitlock to Mr. Page for transmission
to Sir Edward Grey, and may be read in the British 'White Paper,'
_Miscellaneous No. 17_ (1915), entitled, 'Correspondence with the United
States Ambassador respecting the execution of Miss Edith Cavell at
Brussels.'
The American Legation summed up the truth so far as the Germans would
allow the truth to be made known--and it may be accepted that what
details they permitted to escape from their net of secrecy and deceit
would be only those that would enable them to put the best face on what
they were pleased to consider merely a regrettable, but inevitable,
incident of warfare.
In this old world of ours, however, 'murder will out.' Whatever steps
Potsdam cunning took to keep the secret in its own dark bosom, the
enormity was disclosed to a scornful world, and the Germans found
themselves in a common pillory upon which beat the fierce light of a
merciless criticism and well-merited opprobrium.