The Birkenhead News and Wirral General Advertiser. — 1916-08-02 (Birkenhead, Merseyside, England)

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 2, 1918.  Not since Captain. Fryatt'a Emecution. the wanton  ' e x ecution of Nurse Edith; Cavell at Brussels has the asountry been Do deeply stirred as it has been by the apparently cold and calculated murder of the gallant British mercantile seaman, Captain. Fryatt. The circumstances of the two crimes are very similar. In each case the victim was subjected to a secret trial, and the verdict was followed by summary execution, the object evidently' being to prevent the possibility of practical interference-with the carrying:cat of the: sentence by the representative of the American ambassador. The "crime" for which the commander of the "Brussels" suffered death was that of endeavouring:  to ram a "TJ" boat which was intent on. th 4 destruction of his vessel and the, jeopardising,of the-lives of all on board. The ethic the Germans advance,. apparently, is that whecess-the idea of culture and humanity is nrit outraged by the sinking of the "Lnsitenia," with ,the loss of eleven hundred civilian lives, it would have been outraged had the commander of the Cunard liner sunk -the submarine which .attacked" him with such, terrible result. Needless to say, ,internatAonaLlaw, no less thamthe law of our common humanity, is dead against such a perverted contention as this— • contention such as in. the.words.of alk eminent Frencb-stabeemsm,eco?id•ortly . •  advanced by men who are lost to all sense of decencruot to-dinention.chivalry. Captain Fryatt fulfillech to the letter his duty as a shipmaster responsible for the lives of those placed in.his keeping, and in compassing his death fur so doing Germany has added another to the indelible blots which threaten to entirely obliterate its escutcheon. The execution of this gallant seaman is crime which -must be ezpiated,..szed, whilst-deprecating the not unnatural demands that are being made for reprisals in kind, we welcome Mr. Asquith's declaration, uttered solemnly and to the accompaniment of general cheers in the House of Commons on Monday, that the responsible criminals, "whoever they may be and whatever station they may hold" will ultimately be brought betore the bar of justice. We agree with the PrimeMinister that the most culpable parties may not be the actual, members of the court-martial which condemned the captain, but that the actual authors of this and other crimes am theanthors of the system under which they ase•carried out. Mr. Asquith promises-that the Government will carefully consider in what terms a suitable announcement should be made,, and we hope that 4tiel statement, whentit comes, will leave nol room for doubt in Germany that the i authors Of such cruel outrages will be I called upon to pay for their sairageH brutality. Thei-object•of the execution oil Captain Fryatt wae.obvioualy to further' the German policy of terrorism by which it is hoped that apposition to Cwerrnaw methods of frightfulness will be subdued. Only German bureaucracy could imagine, after two years of war in which every spasm of frightfulness haa served only to harden the determination of Britain and her Allies to destroy an utterly evil and debased system, that their enemy-can be frightened into an abandonment of the, ronflict. The death of Captain Fryatt, Jar front intimidating our merchant seamen' has infuriated them, and filled them with red-hot anger which will infallibly be emphasised in deeds whensoever the opportunity presents teelf. As for the spiritual effect of this latest of German rrimes it is reflected in, the Press of the civilised world outside Central Europe in An unanimous chorus-of indignation and loathing. The day will come when . Germany will be held ,strictly accountable for all the outrages committed since the sword was unsheathed two years ago, and in that day of reckoning it will be woe to those to whom can be brought home res.ponsibility for deeds which will make the German name a reproach for generations to come.  , . 4 :' I z  I.