We are advised by Dr. Zimmermann that Miss Cavell was given a fair trial and was justly convicted, but as the proceedings of the trial were not public and as Miss Cavell was denied knowledge in advance of the trial of the nature of the charges against her, and as we know little of the circumstances of her alleged offense except the reports of her judges and executioners, the world will be somewhat incredulous as to whether the trial was as just to the accused as Dr. Zimmermann would have us believe.
The difficulty with this assurance is that the German conception of what is a fair trial differs from that which prevails in Anglo-Saxon countries, just as the German word "Gerechtigkeit" does not convey the same mental or moral conception as the English word "justice." "Gerechtigkeit" means little more to the Teutonic mind than the exercise of the power of the State, and claims no further sanction than its authority. In England, France, and the United States the idea of justice is that an individual has certain fundamental and inalienable rights which even the State cannot override, and none of these fundamental rights have been more highly valued in the evolution of English liberty than the rights of a defendant who is charged with crime. Whether guilty or not guilty, he cannot be arrested without a judicial warrant on proof of probable cause; he may not be compelled to testify against himself; he is entitled to a speedy trial and shall be informed in advance thereof of the exact nature of the accusation; his trial shall be public and open, and he shall be confronted with the witnesses against him and have compulsory process for his own defense; in advance of trial he shall have permission to select his own counsel, and shall have the opportunity to confer freely with him.
Most of these fundamental rights were denied to Miss Cavell.
It is difficult to understand why, in view of the policy of terrorism, which has prevailed in Belgium from the time that the invader first crossed its frontier, the justice from the standpoint of military law should be referred to in Herr Zimmermann's defense. In the official textbook of the General Staff of the German Army the definite policy of terrorizing a conquered country is proclaimed as a military theory. Its leading axiom is that
"a war conducted with energy cannot be directed merely against the combatants of the enemy State and the positions they occupy, but it will and must in like manner seek to destroy the total intellectual and material resources of the latter. Humanitarian claims, such as the protection of men and their goods, can only be taken into consideration in so far as the nature and object of the war permit. Consequently the argument of war permits every belligerent State to have recourse to all means which enable it to obtain the object of the war."
Miss Cavell's fate only differs from that of hundreds of Belgium women and children in that she had the pretense of a trial and presumably had trespassed against military law, while other victims of the rape of Belgium were ruthlessly killed in order to effect a speedy subjugation of the territory. The question of the guilt or innocence of each individual was a matter of no importance. Hostages were taken and not for the alleged wrongs of others.
Did not General von Bülow on August 22nd announce to the inhabitants of Liège that
"it is with my consent that the General in command has burned down the place [Andenne] and shot about 100 inhabitants."
It was the same chivalrous and humane General who posted a proclamation at Namur on August 25th as follows:
"Before 4 o'clock all Belgian and French soldiers are to be delivered up as prisoners of war. Citizens who do not obey this will be condemned to hard labor for life in Germany. At 4 o'clock a rigorous inspection of all houses will be made. Every soldier found will be shot. * * * The streets will be held by German guards, who will hold ten hostages for each street. These hostages will be shot if there is any trouble in that street. * * * A crime against the German Army will compromise the existence of the whole town of Namur and every one in it."