The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1918-10-22
Case Comes to Trial.

1t was the morning or Thursday, the
7th Of October, that the case came on
before the court-maruial in the senate
| chamber where the military trials al
ways took place. and Miss Cavell was
arTaigned with the Princess de Croy,
the Countess de B%elleville and 80 others.
The accused were seated nj a circle
facing the court in suCn a way that
they could neither see nor communi-
cate with their own counsel, who were
| compelled to sit behind them. Nor could
they see the witnesses, who were also
| placed behind them.
The charge brought against the ac-
Cused was that of having conspired to
violate the German military penal code,
Furnishing with death those VINO con-
duct troops to the enemy. It's basis in
German military law is round in para
graph 81 Of the German military code,
which says.
whoever, with the intention of help
ing the hostile power, or of in1uring the
| German or allied troops, is guilty of one
of the crimes of Paragraph 80 of the
German penal code, will be sentenced to
death for treason"
Among the crimes mentioned in Par
agraph 80 is that Of conducting soldiers
to the enemy" C"Dem feinde mann
schaften zufuhrt," ~
We have no record of that trial; we
do not know all that occurred there be-
hind the closed doors of that senate
| chamber, where for our score years
laws based on another and more en-
lightened principle of Justice had been
discussed. The lips of the lawyers who
were there, and Of the accused, those
| among thdNB4 who we're acquitted, have
not been u%nsealed, and wIll'not be until
| the little land is released from the ter
| ror which daily enacts such scenes,
Miss Cavell did not Know, or knew
only in the .vaguest manner, the Of
Tense with which she was charged, No
written statement Of 1t had ever been
delivered to her, no written statement
| of it. had ever been given to her at
torney, and it Is a pathetic circumstance
that 1t was her own honesty n frank
| ness, her own direct English way of
thinking, that convicted her, With the
naivete of the pure In heart she as
sumed that the Germans were charg-
ing her with the deeds she had COM
mitted, and this she really admitted,
and even signed a paper to- that ef-
feet. But we know enough to be able
to say that Miss CaveIl did not deny
having received at her hospital Eng
fish soldiers whom she nursed n to
whom she gave money; she did not
deny that she knew they We're going
to try to cross the porder into Hol-
land. She even took a patriotic pride
in the fact. She was very calm. She
was interrogated in German, a language
SHE ulu HUI GIluGl Hldllht " liit ANNcN
lions and responses were translated IN
to French. Her MIND was very alert
and she was entirely self possessed and
Frequently rectified any inexact details
and statements that were put to her.
When In her ~interrogatory she was
asked II she had not aided English
soldiers left behind after the early bat
ties Of the preceding autumn about
Mons and Charleroi, she said yes; they
were English and she was English and
she would help her own The answer
seemed to impress the court. They
asked her II she had helped 90.
Yes" she said, more than ~; ZOO
NO, not all English; french and Bel
gians, too
But the French ana Belglans We're
| not of her W nationality, said the
iudge-and that made a serious DIFF
ference, She was subjected to a nag
ging interrogatory. One of the judges
said that she had been rooIish to aid
| English because, he said, the English
are ungrateful.
mo" replied Miss Cavell, the Eng
lish are not ungrateful.'
"How do 0 know they are not?'
asked the inquisitor.
Because" she answered, some OF
them have written to me from England
to thank me-"
1t was a fatal admission on the part
of the tortured little woman; under the
| German military law her having helped
soldiers to reach Holland, a neutral
i country, would have been a less seri-
Gus ~offense, but to aid them to reach
an enemy country, ana especially Eng.
land, was the last offense in the eyes
of a German military court.
The trial was conducted on Satur,
day, and on Sunday one Of the nurse,
In Miss Cavells school came to tell m
that there was a about town tina