The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1918-10-22

l'AAGb "A%l WHICH AIeYH were CHARGED.
nor were the offenses themselves clear
~ defined. SO that Miss CaveIl, like
many another who has shared her fate
was arrested and held I'm prison while
the secret police continued their inves-
legations and made up the "dossier,"
Cbriefl. which would reveal its secrets
only before the military court, which
was prosecutor, judge and Jury,
FOR one OF our Anglo-Saxon race and
legal traditions TO understand condi-
tons In Belgium under the German
~upa II is necessary to Danish
resolutely. from the mind every con-
ception of right we have inherited from
our INSTRUMENTATION long since
crystallized into inimitable PRINCIPLES
OF law and confirmed in our charters
OF liberty. In the German mentality
these conceptions do not exist: they
think in other sequences; they act &C.
cording to another principle, il ii is a
principle-the conviction that there IL
only one right, one privilege, and that
1t belongs exclusively to Germany; the
right, namely, to do whatever they have
the physical force to do.
Trials in Belgium.
These so-called courts. of whose ar
bitrary and irresponsible and brutal ma
lufe l nave tried to convey some no.
ton, were mere inquisitorial bodies.
GUIDED by no principle a v that inter
est in their own bloedy nature; they
did as, they pleased, and would have
Scorned a Jeffreys as too lenient, a
Lynch as too formal, a Spanish auto
de re as too technical, and a tribunal
OF the French revolution as soft and
sentimental. Before them the accused
had literally no rights, not even to
present a defense, and If he was per
mltted to speak in his own behalf 1t
was only as a generous and liberal
favor. "
The defense was not a defense in our
meaning of the word. The lawyer was
not allowed to see his client before he
appeared to plead the case before the
court where the accused was arraigned
for trial, and he was not permitted to
speak to his client during the trial.
Often he lie not know what the accu-
sation was until the trial began, and
sometimes he did not know it even
then.
There were no written charges and
no specifications, much less an indict-
ment or information; indeed, the So
called judges-the. bench Of German
officers sitting there in the senate
chamber--did not know themselves the
charge on which they were to pass
Judgment, The secret police would
bring upon them all the evidence, as
they called II, which they had been
able to collect, and present It as they
pleased, with no concern as to its per-
| AAlNliNo VI lNAVNdllENt
The court would admit heresay. and
presumtions, and conclusions. and in
f%erences, and innuendoes, so long as
they were on behalf of the prosecution;
there was no cross-examination, some
time even so interrogatory on the mart
of the presiding judge. The accused
was sometimes allowed to present a de-
Tense, but Ii was generally only such as
he might cOntrive in sparring with the
judges If they questioned. him, He had
no process for witnesses in his own be-
half, and no right to have them heard
even If they appeared.
After the evidence was In the Off
Ger, a kind of Judge advocate, who act
ed as prosecutor, would state the pen
atty he thought applicable, and the
court would vote to apply It. The law
yer for the defense, after having gone
through the case without. any possibility
Of preparation, without having spoken
to his client before or during the trial,
and with no admitted principles to guide
him, without the right to present testi-
mony in rebuttal, would be allowed to
make a statement or an argument, But
as though he were not already laboring
under a disadvantage sufficiently heavy,
he must, be careful in his argument not
to say anything that would reflect In
the least on one of the witnesses espe-
cially II the witness happened to be d
German soldier, or even a German; he.
must not contradict or contrary a. Judge
advocate, or question the validity or
propriety of n act of the prosecution,
for this would be equivalent to con-
tempt of court and amount to the helm
Gus offense OF falling in respect to the
German army, He must show the most
exquisite and exaggerated respect for
the court, n as a result he could only
stand there ~niddy-nodding, pale with
fear, and-say nothing.
In a word, even when the judgments
Of those extraordinary tribunals re.
Elected a kind of natural Justice as
perhaps they did on occasion, the whole
proceeding was the veriest travesty
and mockery. The judges could be
swayed by any passion, and preurdice,
any whim. and when the accused hapa
pened to be someone who had offended
the secret police or "Messieurs les Mill
%taires,' the judgment was a foregone
conclusion-rnless he was n parsonage,
especially a titled parsonage, and then,
with revolving snobbishness, he wa
shown consideration.
1t was before such a court that Edith
Cavell was to be arraigned. / had
asked Maitre de Leval to provide for
her defense, and on his advice, mas
much as Maitre Braun was already of
counsel in the case. chosen by certain
friends of Miss Cave1l. | invited him
into consultation. Maitre Braun was
a Belgian lawyer OF standing and abil-
ity; his son was defending the most
| ulSlluE uiSIltu W TIC a1thSf'l. ElIlt GTlI-
cess of Croy; he was a mar thoroughly
equipped, who had tire advantage OF
knowing German as well as he knew
French, and had appeared constantly
and not without success before the Ger
man tribunals, / asked, then, that
Maitre Braun would appear for Miss
Cavell, representing the American le-
cation.
II was supposed at first that the case
was no more serious than the general
ity Of cases brought before such trih-
unals, that is, that it was one OF those
numerous cases in which Belgians we're
being condemned to deportation to some
German prison, like Madame Carton
de Wharf or Maitre Theodor, to mem
ton the most celebrated, or, II one were
to consider the cases of those less
prominently situated, the many convie-
tons and sentences TO imprisonment
for terms of years--two, Or ten, or 20.
They all amounted to the same thing,
those terms Of Imprisonment, for they
would be freed at the conclusion Of
peace, II they lived and II peace wero
ever concluded. s
y 1t was not until weeks had passed
that we heard that the charges to be
brought against Miss Cavell were seri-
GUS, but still we were in mystery; all
we could learn was that the instruc-