FATE OF EDITH CAVELL

Hokitika Guardian, 22 January 1931, Page 6

FATE OF EDITH CAVELL

NEW LIGHT ON WAR CRIME. STORY TOLD BY AMBASSADOR. | OBDURATE PRUSSIAN BULLY. I Fresh liglit on the execution ol ' Nurse Kdith Cavell by the Germans during the war is provided by the publication of an extract from the diary of the -Marquis of YillalobaV. whowas Spanish Ambassador in Brussels at the time. When the Germans invaded Belgium. Miss Gavel I. who was matron of a hospital in Brussels, decided to stay at her post and succour the sick and wounded. On August o, 1015. she was j arrested by the Germans on a charge | of harbouring refugees and assisting j them to escape. She was tried by courtj martial, sentenced to death on October 111, and executed the following day.

Hitherto the final responsibility for .Miss Cavell’s death was laid at the door of General vo» Bissing, the Governor of Belgium. The Mmquis of Villalobar states that General von Sauberzweig. the military Governor of Brussels, was the man who insisted on her death.

The marquis, in the extract from liis diary, which was published in Brussels a few weeks ago. says that shortly before'"’Miss Kdith Gavell’s trial General von Bissing had gone to Germany owing to sickness and had appointed General von Sauberzweig to be Acting Governor of Belgium in his absence. The latter, he sitvs. was alone responsible for Miss Cavell’s death. The marquis describes him as a typical representative of the worst in Prussia, a bully and an ignorant tyrant. Late on the evening before Miss Caved was shot. Mr Hugh Gibson, then hirst Secretary to tin* United States Legation, told the marquis that she was to he executed at dawn. In an effort to stay the execution, the marquis called upon Baron von der Lauchen, the German Director of Political Affairs in Belgium, who said that General von Sauberzweig was resolved to put Miss Caved to death, and nothing would stop him.

“Miss Caved may have sent hundreds of men to the front by means of her ambulance,” the marquis remarked to the baron, “hut if you kill her she will send millions against you from her tomb.” At last the marquis persuaded the baron to have one more interview with General von Sauberzweig. ■ In .20 minutes the baron returned, saying it was hopeless mid that the general had received him most discourteously. The marquis then .suggested that the baron should telephone, the Kaiser whose headquarters were not far distant. Baron von der Laneken was stupified. and kept repeating, “Telephone the Emperor? One cannot telephone the Emperor.” A few hours later Miss Cavell was shot. The baron later informed the Marquis of Villalobar that when the Emperor learned of the execution he was very angry, reprimanded those resopusihhq and gave orders that no other woman was to he executed. Months afterwards the marquis dined with King George and Queen Mary. He then related what had taken place. The King said: “It is a relief to me to learn that the German Emperor was not responsible for such a (.Time.”