THE NURSE CAVELL FILM

Otago Witness, Issue 3861, 13 March 1928, Page 28

THE NURSE CAVELL FILM

A SCREENING IN BRUSSELS. BIG REPRESENTATIVE AUDIENCE. RUGBY, March 5. Mr Wilcox announces that, despite the censor’s ban, ** Dawn ” will be shown in kinemas throughout Britain. LONDON, March 5. The Rev. Mr Gahan, who was British chaplain at Brussels during wartime and was the last - 'Englishman to see Nurse Cavell'alive, states:—“l am strongly opposed to the exhibition of the film Dawn.’ It is most undesirable to reawaken war memories, even if they are accurate, and apparently it is not. Nurse Cavell did not faint, and no soldier refused to fire. She was not shot by an officer, and the execution was carried out in the usual way, none of the firing party knowing which rifle was loaded with blank or real cartridge. I regard the hour I spent with Nurs e Cavell the night before her execution as the most sacred in my lifetime. The subject emphatically is not one that should be reproduced on films. Nurse Cavell was a brave, noble woman, who deemed it but her duty to do as she did, but she was perfectly aware that she was acting contrary to the laws of war and running the gravest risks.” BRUSSELS, March 9. Members of the Cabinet, nurses, and others personally conversant with the ori ginal happenings, were among the 2500 who witnessed the Nurse Cavell film at Agora kmema, which is the largest here The vast audience sat in respectful silence but there was applause for five minutes at the conclusion.