Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-11-12
/: The Truth About Belgium
- BY BRAND WHITLoCK


entail FLANDERS a poacher guided him
by night across the frontier.
Miss Cavell indeed was ideally
situated to aid such patriotic work.
Her nursing home offered an eX-
ceptional basis. The Germans had
apparently convinced themselves at
least that among tine seventy whom
they had arrested they had the ring
leaders of q formidable organiza-
ton and that they had undOne the
knot of the conspiracy that had been
carrying on so extensively the work
OF recruiting for the allied armies.
They determined 70 break ii up,
and they employed their favorite
-"furchterlichkeit'' (fright-
fulness(. What would ma Ike deep
or impression on the mind or instil
greater fear i'm the hearts of the
and shoot her-this calm. courage
Gus little woman with the stern
lips and the keen gray ewes that
were not afraid? And then she
was English-the objectionable Of
Tense.
1t is possible that the men at the
political department did not know
that Monday afternoon, that the
judgment had been pronounced.
D., 'AIessieurs les Militaires" had an
affair in hand and they had set
their hearts on carrying II out; and
tncN may not nave lOlN NhClii 1T TIC
political department, may have kept
the truth from their colleagues, or,
with that contempt they always
had for the civil department of
government, may have warned them
10 keep their hands of. 1t may be
that the political department did
not care, or did not dare, to inter-
fere. If the military party had de-
ceived or ignored them they, OF
course, in the solidarity and disci-
pline that binds all Germans, would
not have given that fact as an eN-
cuse. The excuse they did give
was that Maitre de Leval had led
and that, anyway, even If Conrad
had told MaiIre de Leval what he
did, neither Conrad nor Maitre' de
LeVal had any diplomatic quality
and that therefore the German au-
thorities had not deceived the Amer
lean legation. The first excuse is
not founded on fact, the second
rests upon q distinction too trivial
to give ii any moral or legal value.
Maitre de Lsval did not lead us into
error Conrad did tell him, and did
tell Topping, either honestly believ-
ing that he said or having been in
stfucted TO say-it must be one on
the other-that no judgment had
been rendered when, as a matter OF
fact, that judgment had been rem
dsred hours before. The deed of
course was the work of the military,
deliberately planned in hatred and
determinedly executed in cold blood.
Her Undshnsd onenss
Edith CaVeI was tried for and
convicted of an offense which, while
she did not know it and Was allowed
no legal adviser to make it plain,
had not even been defined in Ger
man military laws; her. judgment
was pronounced in secret and they
tried 70, keep the fact of it secret
until they could hurry their victim
out In the night and do her to death.
And Gibson summed it all up, l.
think, that night, when he exelaim-
edi ... -..
They've done a job of which
Lefty Lewis and Gyp The Blood
would have been ashamed"
There we're many stories of how
they were betrayed; there was the
tale of the post card sent to Miss
CaveE by the boy whose indiscreet
gratitude betrayed his benefactor;
there was another that would. have
somewhere down IN the Borinage,
angry because his pay was not at
once forthcoming, betrayed his EN-
ployeFs. And only lately heard r
fantastic tale to the effect that one
of the accused was g. somnan1bulist
. VINO talkeu IN ms sleep ana lhat
the Germans, as always, strong on
science and modern methods, hyp-
Noticed him and so obtained the
facts. The story is hardly sufficient
for our Anslo-S Saxon notions of evil.
dence and / think that-the explana-
ton was somewhere to be found in
another dark tragedy which some
months later shocked that Brussels
that was so accustomed to tragedy.
Months later, one evening in Feb
ruafy-the tenth, my journal says
after a dinner at a house where
once there had been only gaiety
and light and sprlghtly talk I was
sitting and smoking last cigarette
and waiting for the old butler to,
come in and announce my motor.
He came at last, but instead of the
formula there was whispered con-
sultation with tho master of the
house, then l was beckoned to, and
We left the room and went to the
dim salon where a man was walt
ing for me; he had q white, drawn
face-annther had been condemned.
was to be shot that night; could
/ do anything? .- -.
The name of the condemned man.
Louis Brill, suggested nothing to me
other than one more vague form
among that host of wratths whom
German squads had hurried into the
darkness and the silence, hut in the
first of the confused explanations
the name of Edith Cavell was mem
toned. Then / Lad the story.