The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-10-31

ing that he could not do anything of
the sort. Turning to Vi1lalobar, he
said, ST can't do that sort of thing
I am not friend of my sovereign as
you are of yours" to which a reJo1n-
der was made that in order to be a
good friend one must be loyal and
ready to incur displeasure in case OF
ne ed. However, our arguments along
this line came to nothing, but Lanck.
en- finally came to the point of saying
that the Military Governor of Brus-
sells was the supreme authority Ger
ichtsherr) in matters Of this sort and
that even the Governor General mad
nc power to intervene. After further
argument he agreed to. get General
Won Sauberschweig, the Military Gov
ernor, out of bed to learn whether
he had already ratified the sentence
and whether there was any chance
for clemency.
LAncken was gone about half an
hour, during which time the three of
us labored with Harrach and Fa1ken-
hansen, without, I am sorry to say,
the slightest success When Lancken
returned he reported that the Mill.
tary Governor said that he had acted
| in this case only after mature DELHI
Grafton; that the circumstances of
MISS SdV611S OllOICG were u SuCIA
character that he considered inf1ic-
ton of the death penalty imperative.
Lancken further explained that I'M
der the provisions of the German
Military law the Gerichtsherr had dis
cretionary power to accept or to re-
fuse an appeal for c1emency; that in
this case the governor regretted that
he must decline to accept the appeal
for clemency or any representations
IL. regard to the matter.
| We then brought up again the
question of having the Emperor call
ed on the telephone, but Laneken re-
piled very definitely that the matter
had gone too far, that the sentence
had peen ratified by the Military
Governor, and that when matters had
some that far @even the Emperor
himself could not intervene" (Al-
though accepted at the time as true
this statement was later found to be
entirely false and is understood to
have displeased the Emperor. The
fEmperor could have stopped the exc
| cution at any moment.)
He then asked ne to take back the
note had presented to him. at first
uemurred, pointing out that this was
not an appeal for clemency but
merely q note to him transmitting q
note to the governor which was Itself
Ito be considered the appeal for. Gle
niency. I pointed out that this was
specially stated in the minister's note
to him, and tried to prevail upon him
to keep it. He was very insistent
however, and inasmuch as he had al.
ready read the note aloud to us an6
we knew that he was aware of the
contents it seemed that there was
nothing: te be gained by refusing te
accept the note, and I accordingly
Etook it. back.
/ Despite Lancken's very positive
statements as to the futility of oul
errand, we continued to appeal tt
every sentiment to secure delay and
time for reconsideration Of the case
The Spanish Minister led Lancker
aside and said some things to hin
that he would have hesitated to say
in the presence of Harrach. Falken
hansen and Leval. Lancken squirm
ed and clustered by turns, but stucl
to his refusal. While this converse
ton was going on, I went after Har
rach and Falkenhausen again. Thi
time, throwing modesty to the winds
reminded him of some Of the thing
we had done for German interests a
J the outbreak of the war; how. we ha
irepatriated thousands of Germa,