Martyred Nurse Cavell

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 275, 10 February 1928, Page 1

Martyred Nurse Cavell

GERMAN PROTESTS AGAINST FILM “Will Arouse Bitter Passions” PROTESTING that 'an English film production of the work . and execution of Nurse Cavell in Belgium during the War will only revive painful memories and embitter the relations between the two countries, the German Foreign Office is making every effort to prevent the picture from being shown in public. By Cable. —Press Association. — Copyright.

LONDON, Wednesday. A film has been produced in England based on the story of the war work of Nurse Cavell and her execution. The film is entitled “Dawn,” Miss Sybil Thorndike figuring as the nurse. It is pointed out by the German Foreign Office that the film version of Nurse Cavell’s execution differs from the German official account. The latter contains nothing about a German officer having shot the nurse or about the German soldiers of the execution squad having refused to obey the order to fire.

A message from Berlin says the German Foreign Office announces that the German Ambassadors to London and Brussels are making efforts to prevent the film being shown in public on the grounds that such a film will only revive painful memories and embitter the relations between the two countries. The Berlin newspaper “Tagliche Rundschau” says: “The film travesties the truth. The attitude of Britain toward European reconciliation

leads us to hope that means will he found to prevent the exhibition of a film which is calculated to whip up the passions of the people.*’ The German Embassy in London unofficially points out the undesirability of the film. The “Daily Express” says it understands it is unlikely that the British Foreign Office will act. The only body capable of suppressing the film is the Board of Film Censors. The producers are taking no notice of the protest. They say the film will be shown in Brussels and in Berlin also because it will in no w'ay offend German susceptibilities.—A. and N.Z.

Charged with harbouring refugees and assisting them to escape, Nurse Edith Cavell was shot by the Germans at Brussels on October 12, 1915. She was educated in Brussels and in 1906 became matron of a hospital there. When war broke out and the German Army invaded Belgium, she remained at her post, and succoured the sick and wounded of both sides. As an Englishwoman, however, she gave assistance to a secret organisation which assisted Allied refugee soldiers to escape into Holland. For many months the “underground railway” was very successful, but eventually they were betrayed to the Germans, and 35 persons, including Edith Cavell, were arrested. Both the American and Spanish Ministers exercised their utmost influence in a vain appeal to the Germans. Edith Cavell went to her death in calm, self-possession, among her last words being, “I am glad to die for my country.” Her body was taken to England in May, 1919, and buried in Norwich, her native city. A monument to her was erected in London in 1920.. It is of grey granite, standing. 40ft high, and in front of it stands the statue of Nurse Cavell in uniform.