NURSE CAVELL’S MURDER

Wanganui Herald, Volume L, Issue 14745, 26 October 1915, Page 5

NURSE CAVELL’S MURDER

WEAKNESS OF GERMAN DEFENCE DUTCH PAPER’S CRITICISM. AMSTERDAM, October L>o. All that official Germain can say in defence of tho execution of Nurse C'avell, is an article in tho North German Gazette, which mentions a British officer’s letter in tho Manchester Guardian of the 18th October, concerning a French girl shooting two snipers. The article concludes: When such deeds, which are a mockery of all the usages of war, receive homage, ono must not he astonished if tho guilt-, are treated according to the laws of war. Had this French girl been seized bv us and shot dead, as she deserved to be, the British Press could not loudly enough have deplored German methods of warfare. The same Press is trying to set tho world against us because, in Belgium, a sentence of death according to the laws of war, was carried out upon an Englishwoman guilty of treachery in war. The Telegraaf comments that the German defence of the execution could not he weaker. Ha tiler is it a self-accusa-tion, because it proves that the Gormans are strangers to all human fooling and every sentiment of mercy. The Hundelshlnd says comparison beta con tho French girl’s action with Nurse Cavcll’s conduct, and the horrible punishment inflicted .hv the German Government, is completely unjust. FRENCH GIRL'S HEROISM. THE SHOOTING OF SNIPERS. LONDON, October 2,1. Regarding the letter in the Manchester Guardian, an officer in the British army in France gave a long narrative of his excellences in tho big attack. Incidentally he stated that a girl of 17 performed wonderful acts of heroism, and helped with the wounded in a cellar imnrovised as a dressing station, when two German snipers fired into it from a neighbouring house.. He adds: We were unable to get them, as the door of their house was covered. She saw this, and took a wounded officer’s revolver, climbed the hack of the house, and shot both of them. INCREDIBLE TO BRITISHERS. LONDON, October 20. The Bight Hon. Sir J. Simon, in an interview, said that Nurse C’avell’s trial had no parallel in Britain’s treatment or persons accused of military offences. No woman spy had been shot in Great Britain. What struck a Britisher as incredible was tho calculated indifference with which the American and Kpanish Ministers’ inquiries were treated. The excuse suggested is that war time rails lor severe measures. Our own experiences show that it is possible to comnine regard for the rights of the accused with respect for humane considerations. RECRUITING IN AUSTRALIA "OAMXABLK SLACKERS." Received October 26, 9 a.ra. SYDNEY, October 26. A monster recruiting meeting opened with hared heads in honour of the martyred Nurse Oavell, a band playing the Dead March. Sergeant Coates, a winner of the D.C.M., characterised those refusing to enlist because a few Germans were not interned as "damnable slackers.” The Lyceum Club has opened a Cavell memorial fund. A Presbyterian clergyman at Llndlield has applied fotv a chaplaincy because everyone of lighting age in his congregation has enlisted. A WEEK’S RECORD. SYDNEY, October 26. For the week ending 20th October 2280 men in the Commonwealth were accepted for service abroad. FINDS MINE. SAVES BRITISH TRENCHES. Details of an heroic deed in the war are recounted in the San Francisco papers, once more aptly illustrating the dogged initiative of the Britisher. Lieutenant W. A. Cooper, a famous English football star, has been decorated with the Military Cross for his coolness in uncovering and removing a ton and a half of explosive from a German mine which threatened to fieatroy an important saiient on the British front. Cooper was driving a mine 201) yards long under the German position when he broke into a German •nine crammed with high explosives. Acting quickly, he cut the wires leading to the German trenches, and then proceeded to carry away the explosive matter piecemeal. As the tunnel was very low, he and his men lay head to feet, and passed the dangerous material back from hand to hand. The task occupied 12 hours, and tne explosives handled showed a total weight of over ..000 pounds. Five of the men were rendered unconscious by tne fumes. DIVER BASK ON GUERNSEY COAST. Substantiation of rumours (hat German submarine bases had been established in English waters was brought (o New York by Frank S. Peer, of ithica, New York State, a cattle breeder, who owns a breeding place on the Isle of Guernsey, Channel Islands. He said that four months ago the Brit'sh naval authorities had discovered that petrol had been secreted on the unfrequented Guernsey coast, and that -German submarines had by this means replenished their supplies of fuel. As the result of the watch that was kept, forty persons of Getmart origin were arrested. Peer also raid that the British were trapping by moans of steel nets, and tahwh. tubmapines in the vicinity of Guernsey by means of steel nets, and that he knew personally that 28 had been thus captured In five months. Captain John Leale, who recently returned to San Francisco after spend'ng 15 months in Guernsey, also referred to the large numbers of German submarines caught by the British off Guernsey.