The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-10-13
MURDER OF EDITH CAVELL FOREVER BLIGHT ON HUNS Story of Famous Nurse and Sacrifice for Country in
 Brussels SHOT BY FIRING
 SQUAD AT 2 A. M. Heroic Efforts Made by Brand Whit lock to Save Life of Woman
 Which Proved of No
 Avail
Nv LOUIS. TRACY

I cannot help believing that in after gears, when men talk of "The Great War the judicial murder of Edith Ca we'll, crime committed by German sol- diers or the officer who commanded them, at some early hour in the morning of October 12, 1915, will take fore most place in the indictment which hu- manity will lay against Germany and her rulers. use the word "judiciaP' in its narrowest sense-the sense which indicates the settled purpose of a tribunal, and that the damnable deed was not committed in the red frenzy of war. But there was no element of justice in either the trial or the verdict. It was excluded deliberately from both. It is only necessary to cite the cold facts of the case to convict the Ger man authorities in the Belgian capital of an outrage against their own Hun laws, even the laws which we now know are based on principles not ac- cepted by any other civilized nation under the sun.
 Edith Cavell was born nthe rectory of Swardeston, in Norfolk, in 1872. Forty-three years later she set the seal on a splendid career as nurse by dying for her country. She was devoted to her profession, and did honor to it, for it was her professional skill that singled her out for the important post which she occupied during the last few years of her life, and which ultimately brought about the conditions leading to her heroic death.
 Miss Cavel began her training at the London hospital, when she was 21. She qualified in 1896, and distinguished her self by 10 years of responsible work in England, until she was called to still more arduous mission abroad. Thanks to Florence Nightingale's inspiration, English nursing had outstripped the rest of the world in its development and other countries were applying for English nurses to instruct them in the new English methods. One of these countries was Belgium. A Belgian School of Certified Nurses was in process of foundation at Brussels, and in 1906 Miss Cavel was asked, and con- sentedAto be it's first directress. In ad- dition to her experience and enthusiasm, she was specially qualified for the post by the fact that she had spent several years of her girlhood in Brussels at school and so was already familiar with Belgian life and the French lan- guage. The patrons of the new nurs- ing institution found reason to congrat Glate themselves on-their choice, and looked forward to the great develop Dl0UI sOI the HuTSlHS pIOlGSSlOu III PSl- gium which Miss Cavell with half her life before her, would achieve
 AT HOME IN 1914
 But she was fated not to achieve it- it was her destiny to reach an inn mortality far beyond the scope of the Brussels hospital-for in the eighth year of her pioneer work came the war She was spending holiday with her mother in England at the moment war broke out, and had no difficulty in deciding where her duty lay. Ger many had already revealed the criminal designs against Belgium. There would be work in Brussels for her to do, and she returned immediately to do 1t. She arrived in time to undergo the terrible experience of the German entry into the capital and speedily became absorbed in the overwhelming duties of her position. Belgians, Frenchmen and Britons, as well as scores of wound cd Germans, came under her care. She nursed friend and foe alike. Not even the Hun ever alleged that she showed the least partiality in the treatment of her patients.
 But, as the Huns recovered, they were sent home or back to the front, the others, the unhappy prisoners of war, were marked for the horrors of a Ger man prison camp. Edith Cavell's gen. erous heart was torn by knowledge of the fate that awated these poor wound