SENTENCE TO STAND

Southland Times, Issue 22214, 5 January 1934, Page 5

SENTENCE TO STAND

NURSE CAVELL’S ALLEGED

BETRAYER.

(United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) (Rec. 7.0 p.m.) Paris, January 3. A Frenchman, George Gaston Quien,

sentenced to death in 1918 for being principally responsible for Nurse Cavell’s betrayal to the Germans, has been informed that plans to secure a new trial have been abandoned. He must serve 20 years’ imprisonment imposed after a review of the case. Quien’s sentence expires in 1938. He is described as a model prisoner, but has never ceased to protest his innocence. Lawyers have hitherto . frequently considered securing a retrial.

Nurse Cavell, who was shot by the Germans, was at the outbreak of the Great War matron of the Ecole Beige d’lnfirmieres Diplimees, later known as the Ecole Edith Cavell. She decided to remain at her post, where she continued to succour the sick and wounded. On August 5, 1915, she was arrested by the Germans and charged with harbouring refugees and assisting them to escape. On October 7 her trial took place; on October 11 she was sentenced to death, and despite the meditation of neutral diplomatists, she was shot in the Tir National, Brussels, at 2 o’clock the following morning. Among her last words were: “I am glad to die for my country.’’ In May, 1919, her body was taken to England, and after a memorial service at Westminster Abbey was buried in the precincts of Norwich Cathedral.