EDITH CAVELL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17688, 28 July 1919, Page 3

EDITH CAVELL

•» WHY THE GERMANS MURDERED HER. One searches tie pages of history for a second Edith Cavell (writes Ferdinand luohy, in the Daily Mail). Four names suggest themeeihrcfr—throe from this little island kingdom, and yet it is probabiy a Frenchwoman, Mine. Tallien, "Our Lady of lncxmidoc," who is Miss Cavell's nearest prototype. What Mme. Tallien did is known. She risked her life hiding and saving those who had been marked down for the guillotine by Robespierre. Are we in a position to hand down to posterity similar particulars of what Edith Cavell did? We Imow that she helped Allied Soldiers to escape, but concerning the. system upon which she worked and the people with whom she worked, all has been silence. The facts hereunder related came into my possession in a curious way. At Yprea, in 1915, it was decided to produce a Christmas number called the Salient, and the late Captain E. D. Pain, of the 6th SomeißCte,' formerly of the Evening Standard, _ and myself, were commissioned. to edit it. Among the contributions sent in was a manuscript of 10 pages entitled, "A Modern Scarlet Pimpernel," and across it had been scrawled by a general officer, " Go very carefully with this. Wβ don't want to give anything away." The narrative gave tho system upon which Edith Cavell had worked in conjunction with the Prince de Croy (or Crony), and it had to ba mcroilassly blue-pencijled before it could appear even in the Salient, with its circulation of 80 copies. At that time Miss Cavell had lain for only a few weeks in the grave, and tha publication of the slightest additional fact might have materially helped von Biasing in his ruthless ferreting out of secrets in Brussels. Tho narrative begins: "There are those who affirm that all romance has been stripped from war nowadays and who sigh /or tho daya of Roundhead and Cavalier of the Red Cap and My Lady Guillotine or even the days of '70. We would direct the attention of such to the shifts adopted by a certain Belgian nobleman and his sister (the Prince and Princess de Croy) m order to get Allied soldiers out of the country into Holland during the first, months of the war. Tho Prince's chateau was in the district of Mons and the big German advanos swept up and over it like a tidal wave, leaving behind it a scattered jetsam of detached officers and men, the collection and returning to England of whom now became the self-imposed task of the Prince and Jus sister." The Princess went to Brussels, disguised as a peasant woman, in a cart, and saw Mith Cavell, an old friend. To her she outlined her plan. _ The chateau at Mons was to be the rallying centre for all Allied fugitives, both wounded and unwounded. The peasants would lead tho fugitives there by- m>ht and the signal would be sand thrown at a certain window. The Princess proposed to establish "forwarding agents" along the line of route to tho Dutch frontier, whose duty it would be to give food and shelter to the .fugitives as they arrived attended by duly accredited guides. Would Miss Cavell act as one of three such forwarding agonts m Brussels? b The Englishwoman roadily agreed. She had, she said, already been sheltering English fugitives of her own accord. Mils Cavell was to Keep the men in Brussels frontiers 7b ° g °* &Wa,y to &e On being reminded that the Germans had threatened to shoot anyone caught harbourinp; Alhed soldiers Miss Cavell wrifedWe must take the risk., Wβ are doing no harm, only helping our own people A German woman would do the earned . Miss Cavell was then given further instructions: "Don't have anything to do with men arriving here who axe not in the company of one .or other of our guides Our guides will simply give the day of the week as tho code word. Here are the? assumed names. There will only be six altogether three working between MoiS and Brussels and three more between BruT scls and the frontier. The latter are poachers, and smugglers, well accustomed u O ndor P^ur? s » Hollan<L ™ U be After more detail, the narrative conmues: "After the system hadW w£fc. ing some tune the Germans got much Btncter, and only parties of two or three r-ould be got through to Brussels, and C had o have false identification papers pr* Pf e £ The Princess took the graphs, while the Prince forged the tures and stamps." •"*,"**- Miss Cavell used herself to take the men to tho rendezvous. She- warded off suspicion by sending her fugitives out into Fr O^ ffWded - B S ? r ? ete a they were French or Belgian, and by giving them uork 03 orderlies in her hospital if they f /Hi* EnsM* a«d tongue-tied. So that, whenever the Germans called they wou d find everything in order. Many fugitives, unfortunately, were caugit, and when m omhan clothes, or even if still in uniform, were shot out of hand. ini\ 11 i v throus:l1 the spriaff "and summer of ■} tte process of smuggling the fugitives "*u H oontoraed. "Miss CaveU was splendid. She went on with her own work all the tune, nursing Germans, French, and' Belgians. She never made a slip from beginning to end. She was ultimately given away by one or two of the men she had payed writing to thank her. The Germans intercepted these letters" Tliis was just before the battle of Loos, and tho Germans at once saw red. They themselves had managed to introduce a number, of spies into England in tho guise of Belgian refugees during the wild exodue from Antwerp and Ostend the year before biiroly Misa Cavell was passing'spies across tho Dutch frontier in addition to fugitive soldiers. In their clumsy way they sourfit to entrap tho Englishwoman by sending to her house two agents who posed as fugitives from the Mons chateau. MiS3 Cavell, not seeing a recogniised guide simply answered that she could not take them m—nothing more The Ger mans had hoped in this way to get in touch with the other links in-the chain as Miss Cayell passed their agents on, and so tx>ssibly get to the bottom of a general espionago conspiracy. They already held sufficient proof to arrest Miss CaveU on the lesser charge—punishable by them, however, •v.'itli the same penalty as the greater .livonts now moved rapidly. "Bourg"' was the first to be arrested. Miss Cavell warned tho Prince, and it was decided that he should disappear to clear the air. The Prince, however, would never have gone had ho known .of tho wholesale arrests that v^ le 'to follow. In effect, a week later tho Germans arrested 30 persons, including tho Princess and Miss Cavell. Tew were allowed a lawyer. In order to extract information from the prisoners,-none of whom would answer any questions tho Germans introduced agents masquerading as follow prisoners into the cells. These bogus prisoners, acting on dciinite instructions, succeeded in drawing out several of the real prisoners and making them talk, as evidence at the "trial" afterwards showed. The narrative concludes: "The Prince had ™ c vgrthmhuk« a ffreat admiration ' for Miss Cavell. There was no real evidence against her, but sho refused to dony having helped our soldiers. To the end'she thought of others, and, when seated beside the Princess at tho trial, pretended not to know her. We know the rest. At 9 o'clock on the night fixed-for the execution of Miss Cavoll rental diplomats hurried to the Theat.ro Koyn.l, whore ron Bissing and von dor i.anekcn were enjoying thc-msolvcs. "The matter is entirely in the hands of tiio. Military Govoraor," said tho former. f . "Monsieur," said the Spanish Minister. ,: vou are committing -worso thnn a crime. Yr-'i are oammittnijr an error." The facts above recorded neod no embroidery, oxcopt this—thp Jinnrl that shot a groat heroine is tji« hand that, koirt Rnntvui seated at Versailles. No chance. Let v<? remember that ns wo brvro our heads to<liv: nbovo all. lot, it, h~ romombrrpd hv 1 ho.British Army of tho TJhino.. surrounded a* it, is by ovory form of ronton «"rvili't.v. w ' do not hate. Tint, i<= childish. But we can despise. That is English.