'In England the accused is brought before a tribunal which holds a preliminary inquiry taking the summary evidence. He is always assisted by a lawyer, and a complete record of the evidence, oral and documentary, is given to the accused, who is then allowed an interval to prepare for defence. If it is a woman, the trial always takes place before a civil tribunal; if a man, he has the right to claim to be tried before a civil tribunal instead of a court-martial, if he be a British subject. At the trial, whether military or civil, the lawyers for the defence have the same opportunities as are given the accused in an ordinary case in peace times.
'In the last case involving a woman in this country the offender was of German birth, though technically a subject of another country owing to marriage. She was acting in association with a male spy, and was detected travelling to various points in order to collect information about naval defences. The evidence against her was overwhelming, and did not depend solely on witnesses, but on documents found in her possession and letters written by her and her associates.
'Going through the preliminary proceedings as previously described, she was tried in September by three civil judges of our High Court and a jury, and was convicted, not of harbouring German soldiers, but of deliberate and persistent spying for the purpose of providing the enemy with important information. Her male companion was condemned to death; she was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment.
'In the case of a court-martial, reconsideration always takes place; in a civil trial, such as the one just recounted, there is a right of appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal and consideration by the Home Secretary, who gives his advice as to the prerogative of mercy. In the particular case mentioned the woman did not appeal.
'In any case when the accused has claimed to have connexion with a neutral country we have not waited for application to be made to us. We thought it right to give the neutral Embassy information of the arrest. It has happened in several cases that the accused was carrying what he alleged to be a United States passport. In such cases, as the others, the American Embassy was consulted, and the solicitors and counsel for defence were retained with the Embassy's approval.
'Execution never follows a sentence here without a proper interval. Indeed, there was a case not long ago when on the eve of the execution a postponement was requested in order that some further representation might be considered. The sentence was postponed for a week, and the whole case was reviewed in the light of the new material. In a case now pending the accused says he wishes to call evidence from the other side of the world. We don't know whether the evidence will be helpful, but we have postponed the final trial from August to December.
'Mind you, I am not claiming any credit for the British Government for our procedure. There is nothing unusual, to my mind, in taking care that the accused persons have the fullest opportunity for their defence. The thing that strikes Englishmen as most incredible in the case of Miss Cavell is the calculated indifference with which the inquiries of the American and Spanish Ministers were treated. If the excuse is suggested that in time of war severe and harsh measures have to be taken, our own experience is enough to show that it is possible to combine a regard for the rights of the accused and the respect for humane considerations with the effect of punishment of hostile offences of the most serious kind.
'It would have seemed impossible for the Germans to do anything to increase the horror produced by their behaviour in Belgium. It would have seemed impossible to do anything which could cement more closely the bond of sympathy between the populations of England and Belgium. But they have accomplished both impossibilities by one horrible act of brutality.'
The foregoing contrast between British and German conceptions of justice is practically the difference between barbarism and civilization; and Sir John Simon's impressive exposition of the difference between the two systems calls for nothing to elaborate it.
XII
PULPIT AND PEN UNITE IN DENUNCIATION
The publication of the official correspondence affording the details of Miss Cavell's stealthy execution raised a storm of righteous indignation, which found expression in every pulpit in the British Isles; while on the platform or in the press men of light and leading joined in their condemnation of the German atrocity. The following are but a few notable examples of whole sheaves of similar outpourings.
The Bishop of London, in preaching the Trafalgar Day Sermon, at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, said:
'The cold-blooded murder of Miss Cavell, a poor English girl, deliberately shot by Germans for housing refugees, will run the sinking of the Lusitania close in the civilized world as the greatest crime in history. There is one thing about the incident which, perhaps, was not taken into account by those who perpetrated the crime. It will settle the matter once for all about recruiting in Great Britain. There will be no need now of compulsion. I wonder what Nelson would have said if he had been told that an Englishwoman had been shot in cold blood by the members of any other nation? He would have made more than the diplomatic inquiries which have been made by a great neutral into this crime, right and proper as those inquiries are. He would have made his inquiries by the thunder of the guns of the British Fleet, and pressed the question with the Nelson touch which won Trafalgar, as, indeed, our own Fleet at this moment is only too ready to do. But is it possible that there is one young man in England to-day who will sit still under this monstrous wrong? The three million new recruits asked for will be there. Why was she put to death? Why was she murdered? Three thousand thousand Englishmen, and Scotsmen and Irishmen too, will know the reason why. God's curse is on the nation that tramples underfoot and defies the laws of chivalry which once relieved the horrors of war.'