Statement by Herr Zimmermann, German Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
It is indeed hard that a woman has to be executed, but think what a State is to come to which is at war if it allows to pass unnoticed a crime against the safety of its armies because it is committed by women. No law book in the world, least of all those dealing with war regulations, makes such a differentiation, and the female sex has but one preference according to legal usage, namely, that women in a delicate condition may not be executed. Otherwise a man and woman are equal before the law, and only the degree of guilt makes a difference in the sentence for a crime and its consequences.
In the Cavell case all the circumstances are so clear and convincing that no court-martial in the world could have reached any other decision. For it concerns not the act of one single person, but rather a well-thought-out, world-wide conspiracy, which succeeded for nine months in rendering the most valuable service to the enemy, to the disadvantage of our army.