Part 8 (1/2)

”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 p.r.o.nounce 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 dispa.s.sionately.

There is no occasion to import fact.i.tious bitterness into the tragedy, which was born in prejudice, suckled in suspicion, and reared to its foul maturity on hatred. All the cogent and d.a.m.ning 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), ent.i.tled, 'Correspondence with the United States Amba.s.sador 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.

The German authorities may be safely left to the judgement of fair-minded peoples; and in pa.s.sing it may be remarked that civilized communities have an inherent regard for justice, even when it operates to their own immediate disadvantage. It would be a sorry world if it were otherwise; how sorry a few nations who consigned their honour to the melting-pot can make it, we know only too well. It would be sorrier still but for the firm conviction that in the end right will triumph over might, justice will prevail over injustice, encouraging us to look forward to the time when 'Civilization smiles; Liberty is glad; Humanity rejoices; and Pity exults.'

When the welter of blood and the ruinous dissipation of treasure is at an end, and we can appraise our tangible losses in life and money and endeavour to form some conception of the moral gains resulting from the conflict, amid the innumerable individual deeds that make us proud of those of our race the heroism in life and death of Edith Cavell will s.h.i.+ne forth like a precious jewel.

It is well to remember that 'of every tear that sorrowing mortals shed, some good is born, some gentler nature comes'; and in her death and the tears that we shed for it, the martyr leaves behind her an inestimable legacy that will yield rich dividends to humanize the souls of those who are left behind to admire and reverence the example of a n.o.ble woman.

When the foregoing paragraph was written, one's faith in the strength of our Empire and belief in the righteousness of our cause justified the sure knowledge that we had not witnessed the real conclusion of this pathetic soul-rending incident, that was without exact parallel in our varied Empire story; but one could only wait--and wonder.

For three further searing years the war continued its desolating course, that entailed the death and mangling of millions of the combatants and the expenditure of uncountable wealth.

The end came with dramatic suddenness that almost paralysed the suffering nations, who could scarcely realize that intense courage, energy, and determination had at length given the Allies the victory.