Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, The Lansing Papers, 1914–1920, Volume I
362.412 C31/1
The Minister in Belgium ( Whitlock ) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 5.]
Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith enclosed for the information and files of the Department copies of correspondence with the Ambassador at London and with the German Government of Occupation in Belgium in regard to the case of Miss Edith Cavell, an English woman, who was executed last week for assisting soldiers to reach the Dutch frontier.
Further than saying that the Legation exhausted every effort to prevent the infliction of the death penalty, I make no comment upon the facts in this case which are fully shown by the correspondence itself.1
I have [etc.]
The Minister in Belgium (Whitlock) to the Chief of the Political Department of the German General Government in Belgium (Von der Lancken)
Excellency: My Legation has just been informed that Miss Edith Cavell, an English subject living in Rue de la Culture in Brussels, has been arrested.
I should be greatly obliged to Your Excellency if you would let me know if this information is correct, and, if so, what are the reasons for this arrest.
I also wish, in this event, that you would be good enough to furnish the Legation with the requisite authorization of the German [Page 49] judicial authorities in order that Mr. de Leval2 might confer with Miss Cavell and eventually charge someone with her defense.
I embrace this opportunity [etc.]
The Minister in Belgium (Whitlock) to the Chief of the Political Department of the German General Government in Belgium (Von der Lancken)
The Minister of the United States presents his compliments to His Excellency Baron von der Lancken and has the honor to remind him of his letter of August 31, relative to the arrest of Miss Cavell to which letter he has not yet received an answer.
As the Minister has been urged by a despatch3 to occupy himself immediately with the defense of Miss Cavell, he would be greatly obliged to His Excellency Baron von der Lancken if he would enable him to take immediately the measures necessary for this action and to reply by telegram to the despatch which he has received.
The Chief of the Political Department of the German General Government in Belgium (Von der Lancken) to the Minister in Belgium (Whitlock)
Mr. Minister: Replying to the note Your Excellency addressed to me under date of the 31st last, I have the honor to advise you that Miss Edith Cavell was arrested on August 5th and that she is at present in the military prison of St. Gilles.
She has confessed, to having hidden in her home English and French soldiers as well as Belgians of the age to bear arms, all desirous of going to the front. She has also confessed to having furnished these soldiers with the money necessary to travel to France and to having aided their departure from Belgium by procuring guides to conduct them secretly across the Dutch frontier.
The defense of Miss Cavell is in the hands of the Attorney Mr. Braun who has put himself into communication with the appropriate German authorities.
[Page 50]Inasmuch as the General Government, for reasons of principle does not permit prisoners to have intercourse with anyone, I regret exceedingly not to be able to procure permission for Mr. de Laval to see Miss Cavell while she is in close custody (au secret).
I embrace this opportunity [etc.]
The Minister in Belgium (Whitlock) to the Ambassador in Great Britain (Page)
Sir: Referring to your telegram of August 27th,4 in regard to the case of Miss Edith Cavell, who was arrested on August 5th and is now in the military prison at St. Gilles, I beg to enclose herewith for your information copy of a communication which I have just received from Baron von der Lancken5 in regard to the matter.
The legal adviser appointed to defend Miss Cavell has informed the Legation that she has indeed admitted having hidden in her house English and French soldiers and has facilitated the departure of Belgian subjects for the front, furnishing them money and guides to enable them to cross the frontier.
The Legation will of course, keep this case in view and endeavor to see that a fair trial is given Miss Cavell and will not fail to let you know of any developments.
I have [etc.]
The Minister in Belgium (Whitlock) to the Ambassador in Great Britain (Page)
Sir: I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of September 23rd4 in regard to the arrest by the German Military Authorities of Miss Edith Cavell, head of a training school for nurses.
Upon receipt of your telegram 448, August 27th,4 I took the matter up with the German authorities and learned that Miss Cavell had indeed been arrested upon a “charge of espionage”. The Belgian attorney appointed to defend her before the court martial called several times at the Legation and will continue to keep me well posted in regard to the case. It seems that Miss Cavell has made several very damaging admissions and there appeared to be no ground upon which I could ask for her release before the trial.
[Page 51]The case will come up for trial next week and I will write you as soon as there is any further development.
I am [etc.]
The Minister in Belgium (Whitlock) to the Ambassador in Great Britain (Page)
Sir: Referring to my letter of October 9th in regard to the case of Miss Edith Cavell, I hasten to send you word that her trial has been completed and that the German prosecutor has asked for sentence of death against her and eight other persons implicated by her testimony. Sentence has not as yet been pronounced and I have some hope that the court martial may decline to pass the rigorous sentence proposed.
I have thus far done everything that has been possible to secure a fair trial for Miss Cavell and am assured by her attorney that no complaint can be made on that score.
I feel that it would be useless to take any action until sentence is pronounced. I shall then of course neglect no effort to prevent an unduly severe penalty being inflicted upon her. I shall immediately telegraph you upon the pronouncement of sentence.
I have [etc.]
The Secretary of Legation at Brussels (Gibson) to the Minister in Belgium (Whitlock)
Report for the Minister
Sir: Upon learning early yesterday morning through unofficial sources that the trial of Miss Edith Cavell had been finished on Saturday afternoon and that the Prosecuting Attorney (Kriegsgerichtsrat) had asked for a sentence of death against her, telephonic inquiry was immediately made at the Politische Abteilung as to the facts. It was stated that no sentence had as yet been pronounced and that there would probably be delay of day or two before a decision was reached. Mr. Conrad gave positive assurances that the Legation would be fully informed as to developments in this case. Despite these assurances, we made repeated inquiries in the course of the day, the last one being at 6.20 p.m. Belgian time. Mr. Conrad then stated that sentence had not yet been pronounced and specifically renewed his previous assurances that he would not fail to inform us as soon as there was any news.
[Page 52]At 8.30 it was learned from an outside source that sentence had been passed in the course of the afternoon (before the last conversation with Mr. Conrad) and that the execution would take place during the night. In conformity with your instructions, I went, (accompanied by Mr. de Leval) to look for the Spanish Minister and found him dining at the home of Baron Lambert. I explained the circumstances to His Excellency and asked that as you were ill and unable to go yourself, he go with us to see Baron von der Lancken and support as strongly as possible the plea which I was to make in your name that execution of the death penalty should be deferred until the Governor could consider your appeal for clemency.
We took with us a note addressed to Baron von der Lancken and a plea for clemency (requête en grâce) addressed to the Governor General; (enclosures 1 and 2 attached to this report).7 The Spanish Minister willingly agreed to accompany us and we went together to the Politische Abteilung.
Baron von der Lancken and all the members of his staff were absent for the evening. We sent a messenger to ask that he return at once to see us in regard to a matter of utmost urgency. A little after ten o’clock he arrived, followed shortly after by Count Harrach and Herr von Falkenhausen, members of his staff. The circumstances of the case were explained to him and your note presented and he read it aloud in our presence. He expressed disbelief in the report that sentence had actually been passed and manifested some surprise that we should give credence to any report not emanating from official sources. He was quite insistent on knowing the exact source of our information but this I did not feel at liberty to communicate to him. Baron von der Lancken stated that it was quite improbable that sentence had been pronounced, that even if so, it would not be executed within so short a time and that in any event it would be quite impossible to take any action before morning. It was of course pointed out to him that if the facts were as we believed them to be, action would be useless unless taken at once. We urged him to ascertain the facts immediately, and this after some hesitancy, he agreed to do. He telephoned to the Presiding Judge of the Court Martial and returned in a short time to say that the facts were as we had represented them and that it was intended to carry out the sentence before morning. We then presented as earnestly as possible your plea for delay. So far as I am able to judge we neglected to present no phase of the matter which might have had any effect, emphasizing the horror of executing a woman no matter what her offense, pointing out that the death sentence had therefore [heretofore?] been imposed only for actual cases of espionage and that Miss Cavell was not even accused by the German [Page 53] Authorities of anything so serious. I further called attention to the failure to comply with Mr. Conrad’s promise to inform the Legation of the sentence. I urged that inasmuch as the offenses charged against Miss Cavell were long since accomplished and that as she had been for some weeks in prison, a delay in carrying out the sentence could entail no danger to the German cause. I even went so far as to point out the fearful effect of a summary execution of this sort upon public opinion both here and abroad and although I had no authority for doing so, called attention to the possibility that it might bring about reprisals.
The Spanish Minister forcibly supported all our representations and made an earnest plea for clemency.
Baron von der Lancken stated that the Military Governor was the supreme authority, (Gerichtsherr) in matters of this sort; that appeal from his decision could be carried only to the Emperor, the Governor General having no authority to intervene in such cases. He added that under the provisions of German Martial Law the Military Governor had discretionary power to accept or to refuse acceptance of an appeal for clemency. After some discussion he agreed to call the Military Governor on the telephone and learn whether he had already ratified the sentence and whether there was any chance for clemency. He returned in about a half an hour and stated that he had been to confer personally with the Military Governor, who said that he had acted in the case of Miss Cavell only after mature deliberation; that the circumstances in her case were of such a character that he considered the infliction of the death penalty imperative and that in view of the circumstances of this case he must decline to accept your plea for clemency or any representation in regard to the matter.
Baron von der Lancken then asked me to take back the note which I had presented to him. To this, I demurred, pointing out that it was not a “requête en grâce” but merely a note to him transmitting a communication to the Governor, which was itself to be considered as the “requête en grâce.” I pointed out that this was expressly stated in your note to him and tried to prevail upon him to keep it; he was very insistent however and I finally reached the conclusion that inasmuch as he had read it aloud to us and we knew that he was aware of its contents there was nothing to be gained by refusing to accept the note and accordingly took it back.
Even after Baron von der Lancken’s very positive and definite statement that there was no hope and that under the circumstances “even the Emperor himself could not intervene”, we continued to appeal to every sentiment to secure delay and the Spanish Minister even led Baron von der Lancken aside in order to say very forcibly a number of things which he would have felt hesitancy in saying in [Page 54] the presence of the younger officers and of Mr. de Leval, a Belgian subject.
His Excellency talked very earnestly with Baron von der Lancken for about a quarter of an hour. During this time Mr. de Leval and I presented to the younger officers every argument we could think of, I reminded them of our untiring efforts on behalf of German subjects at the outbreak of the war and during the siege of Antwerp. I pointed out that while our services had been rendered gladly and without any thought of future favors, they should certainly entitle you to some consideration for the only request of this sort you had made since the beginning of the war. Unfortunately our efforts were unavailing. We persevered until it was only too clear that there was no hope of securing any consideration for the case.
We left the Politische Abteilung shortly after midnight and I immediately returned to the Legation to report to you.
The Minister in Belgium (Whitlock) to the Chief of the Political Department of the German General Government in Belgium (Von der Lancken)
Excellency: I have just learned that Miss Cavell, an English subject and therefore under the protection of my Legation, was condemned to death this morning by the Council of War.
Without discussing the causes which occasioned so severe a sentence, which, if my information is correct, is more severe in the present case than in any others of the same character which have been tried by the court, I feel that I must appeal to Your Excellency’s sentiments of humanity and generosity in behalf of Miss Cavell, in order that the death sentence pronounced against her may be commuted and that this unfortunate woman may not be executed.
Miss Cavell is indeed the head nurse of the Surgical Institute of Brussels. She has spent her life in tending the sufferings of others, and, at her school, many nurses have had their training who throughout the entire world, in Germany as in Belgium, have watched by sickbeds. At the outbreak of the war, Miss Cavell lavished her care upon German soldiers as well as others.
Were other reasons lacking, her humanitarian career has been such as to inspire every sentiment of pity and incite pardon.
If my information is correct, Miss Cavell, far from concealing anything has acknowledged with laudable frankness, all the charges against her, and it may even be that information supplied by herself [Page 55] and which she only could furnish has caused the extreme sentence to be pronounced upon her.
It is therefore with confidence and with the hope of its favorable reception that I beg Your Excellency to present to the Governor General my plea for clemency for Miss Cavell.
I embrace this occasion [etc.]
My dear Baron,
I am too ill to present my request myself but I appeal to your generous heart to support it and to save this unfortunate from death. Have pity on her.
Yours
Excellency: I have just learned that Miss Cavell, an English subject and therefore under the protection of my Legation, was condemned to death this morning by the Council of War.
Without discussing the causes which occasioned so severe a sentence, which, if my information is correct, is more severe in the present case than in any others of the same character which have been tried by the court, I feel that I must appeal to Your Excellency’s sentiments of humanity and generosity in behalf of Miss Cavell, in order that the death sentence pronounced against her may be commuted and that this unfortunate woman may not be executed.
Miss Cavell is indeed the head nurse of the Surgical Institute of Brussels. She has spent her life in tending the sufferings of others, and, at her school, many nurses have had their training, who throughout the entire world, in Germany as in Belgium, have watched by sickbeds. At the outbreak of the war, Miss Cavell lavished her care upon German soldiers as well as others.
Were other reasons lacking, her humanitarian career has been such as to inspire every sentiment of pity and incite pardon.
If my information is correct, Miss Cavell, far from concealing anything has acknowledged with laudable frankness, all the charges against her, and it may even be that information supplied by herself [Page 56] and which she only could furnish has caused the extreme sentence to be pronounced upon her.
It is therefore with confidence and with the hope of its favorable reception, that I have the honor to present to Your Excellency my plea for clemency in favor of Miss Cavell.
I embrace this occasion [etc.]
The Minister in Belgium (Whitlock) to the Ambassador in Great Britain (Page)
Your letter September twenty third9 and my replies October 9th and eleventh. Miss Cavell sentenced yesterday and executed at two o’clock this morning despite our best efforts continued until the last moment.10 Full report follows by mail.
The Legal Adviser of the Legation at Brussels (de Leval) to the Minister in Belgium (Whitlock)
Report for the Minister
Sir: As soon as the Legation received an intimation that Miss Cavell was arrested, your letter of the 31st of August, of which copy is herewith annexed, No. 1,11 was sent to Baron von der Lancken. The German Authorities were by that letter requested, inter alia, to allow me to see Miss Cavell, so as to have all necessary steps taken for her defence. No reply being received, the Legation, on the 10th of September,12 reminded the German authorities of your letter.
The German reply, sent on the 12th of September,13 was that I would not be allowed to see Miss Cavell, but that Mr. Braun, lawyer at the Brussels Court, was defending her and was already seeing the German Authorities about the case.
I immediately asked Mr. Braun to come to see me at the Legation, which he did, a few days later. He informed me that personal friends of Miss Cavell had asked him to defend her before the German Court, that he agreed to do so, but that owing to some unforeseen [Page 57] circumstances he was prevented from pleading before that Court, adding that he had asked Mr. Kirschen, a member of the Brussels Bar and his friend, to take up the case and plead for Miss Cavell, and that Mr. Kirschen had agreed to do so.
I therefore at once put myself in communication with Mr. Kirschen, who told me that Miss Cavell was prosecuted for having helped soldiers to cross the frontier. I asked him whether he had seen Miss Cavell and whether she had made any statement to him, and to my surprise found out that the lawyers defending prisoners before the German military Court were not allowed to see their clients before the trial, and were not shown any document of the prosecution. This, Mr. Kirschen said, was in accordance with the German military rules. He added that the hearing of the trial of such cases was carried out very carefully, and that in his opinion, although it was not possible to see the client before the trial, in fact the trial itself developed so carefully and so slowly, that it was generally possible to have a fair knowledge of all the facts and to present a good defence for the prisoner. This would specially be the case for Miss Cavell, because the trial would be rather long as she was prosecuted with 34 other prisoners.
I informed Mr. Kirschen of my intention to be present at the trial so as to watch the case. He immediately dissuaded me from taking such attitude, which he said would cause a great prejudice to the prisoner, because the German judges would resent it and feel it almost as an affront if I was appearing to exercise a kind of supervision on the trial. He thought that if the Germans would admit my presence, which was very doubtful, it would in any case cause prejudice to Miss Cavell.
Mr. Kirschen assured me over and over again that the military Court of Brussels was always perfectly fair and that there was not the slightest danger of any miscarriage of justice. He promised that he would keep me posted on all the developments which the case would take and would report to me the exact charges that were brought against Miss Cavell and the facts concerning her that would be disclosed at the trial, so as to allow me to judge by myself about the merits of the case. He insisted that of course he would do all that was humanly possible to defend Miss Cavell to the best of his ability.
Three days before the trial took place, Mr. Kirschen wrote me a few lines saying that the trial would be on the next Thursday, the 7th of October. The Legation at once sent him, on the 5th of October, a letter, No. 2,14 confirming in writing in the name of the Legation [Page 58] the arrangement that had been made between him and me. This letter was delivered to Mr. Kirschen by a messenger of the Legation.
The trial took two days, ending Friday the 8th.
On Saturday I was informed by an outsider that the trial had taken place, but that no judgment would be reached till a few days later.
Receiving no report from Mr. Kirschen, I tried to find him but failed. I then sent him a note on Sunday, asking him to send his report to the Legation or call there on Monday morning at 8.30. At the same time, I obtained from some other person present at the trial, some information about what had occurred, and the following facts were disclosed to me:
Miss Cavell was prosecuted for having helped English and French soldiers as well as Belgian young men, to cross the frontier and to go over to England. She had admitted by signing a statement before the day of the trial, and by public acknowledgement in court, in the presence of all the other prisoners and the lawyers, that she was guilty of the charges brought against her, and she had acknowledged not only that she had helped these soldiers to cross the frontier, but also that some of them had thanked her in writing when arriving in England. This last admission made her case so much the more serious, because if it only had been proved against her that she had helped the soldiers to traverse the Dutch frontier, and no proof was produced that these soldiers had reached a country at war with Germany, she could only have been sentenced for an attempt to commit the “crime” and not for the “crime” being duly accomplished. As the case stood, the sentence fixed by the German military law was a sentence of death.
Paragraph 58 of the German military Code says:
“Will be sentenced to death for treason any person who, with the “intention of helping the hostile power or of causing harm to the “German or allied troops, is guilty of one of the crimes of paragr. “90 of the German penal Code.”
The case referred to in above said paragr. 90 consists in:
“. . . conducting soldiers to the enemy . . . (viz.: dem Feinde “Mannschaften zuführt.”)
The penalties above set forth apply, according to paragr. 160 of the German Code, in case of war, to Foreigners as well as to Germans.
In her oral statement before the Court, Miss Cavell disclosed almost all the facts of the whole prosecution. She was questioned in German, an interpreter translating all the questions in French, with which language Miss Cavell was well acquainted. She spoke without trembling and showed a clear mind. Often, she added some greater precision to her previous depositions.
[Page 59]When she was asked why she helped these soldiers to go to England, she replied that she thought that, if she had not done so, they would have been shot by the Germans, and that therefore she thought she only did her duty to her country in saving their lives.
The Military Public Prosecutor said that argument might be good for English soldiers, but did not apply to Belgian young men she induced to cross the frontier and who would have been perfectly free to remain in the country without danger to their lives.
Mr. Kirschen made a very good plea for Miss Cavell, using all arguments that could be brought in her favor before the Court.
The Military Public Prosecutor however asked the Court to pass a death sentence on Miss Cavell and eight other prisoners amongst the thirty-five. The Court did not seem to agree, and the judgment was postponed. The person informing me said he thought that the Court would not go to the extreme limit.
Anyhow, after I had found out these facts (viz. Sunday evening), I called at the Political Division of the German Government in Belgium, and asked whether, now that the trial had taken place, permission would be granted to me to see Miss Cavell in jail, as surely there was no longer any object in refusing this permission. The German official, Mr. Conrad, said he would make the necessary inquiry at the Court and let me know later on.
I also asked him that permission be granted to Mr. Gahan, the English clergyman, to see Miss Cavell.
At the same time, we prepared at the Legation, to be ready for every eventuality, a petition for pardon, addressed to the Governor General in Belgium, and a transmitting note addressed to Baron von der Lancken.
Monday morning at eleven I called up Mr. Conrad on the telephone from the Legation (as I already had done previously on several occasions when making inquiries about the case) asking what the military court had decided about Mr. Gahan and myself seeing Miss Cavell. He replied that Mr. Gahan could not see her, but that she could see any of the three protestant clergymen attached to the prison; and that I could not see her till the judgment was pronounced and signed, but that this would probably only take place in a day or two. I asked the German official to inform the Legation immediately after the passing of said judgment, so that I might see Miss Cavell at once, thinking of course that the Legation might, according to your intentions, take immediate steps for Miss Cavell’s pardon if the judgment really was a sentence of death.
Very surprised to still receive no news from Mr. Kirschen I then called at his house at 12.30 and was informed that he would not be there till about the end of the afternoon. I then called, at 12.40, at the house of another lawyer interested in the case of a fellow-prisoner, [Page 60] and found that he also was out. In the afternoon however the latter lawyer called at my house, saying that in the morning he had heard from the German Commandantur that judgment would be passed only the next morning viz. Thursday morning. He said he feared that the Court would be very severe for all the prisoners.
Shortly after this lawyer left me, and while I was preparing a note about the case, at 8 p. m., I was privately and reliably informed that the judgment had been delivered at five o’clock in the afternoon, that Miss Cavell had been sentenced to death, and that she would be shot at 2 o’clock the next morning. I told my informer that I was extremely surprised at this, because the Legation had received no information yet, neither from the German Authorities nor from Mr. Kirschen, but that the matter was too serious to run the smallest chance, and that therefore I would proceed immediately to the Legation to confer with Your Excellency and take all possible steps to save Miss Cavell’s life.
According to Your Excellency’s decision, Mr. Gibson and myself went, with the Spanish Minister, to see Baron von der Lancken, and the report of our interview and of our efforts to save Miss Cavell is given to you by Mr. Gibson.15
This morning, Mr. Gahan, the English clergyman, called to see me and told me that he had seen Miss Cavell in her cell yesterday night at 10 o’clock, that he had given her the Holy Communion and had found her admirably strong and calm. I asked Mr. Gahan whether she had made any remarks about anything concerning the legal side of her case, and whether the confession which she made before the trial and in court was in his opinion perfectly free and sincere. Mr. Gahan says that she told him she perfectly well knew what she had done, that according to the law of course she was guilty and had admitted her guilt, but that she was happy to die for her country.
The Minister in Belgium (Whitlock) to M. Sadi Kirschen
My Dear Sir: Thank you for the letter you have addressed to Mr. de Leval,16 informing him that the affair of Miss Cavell would come up before the Council of War on Thursday next at 8 a. m.
As agreed, I would be greatly obliged if, after the hearing, you would be good enough to send me a memorandum, setting forth the causes for which Miss Cavell is being prosecuted and indicating the [Page 61] charges proven against her during the trial, as, also, the sentence when it shall have been rendered.
Accept [etc.]
Legal Counselor of the Legation
The Minister in Belgium (Whitlock) to the Ambassador in Great Britain (Page)
Sir: Referring to previous correspondence in regard to the case of Miss Edith Cavell, I regret to be obliged to inform you, in confirmation of my telegram of yesterday morning that the death sentence recommended by the Prosecuting Attorney was imposed by the Court Martial and that Miss Cavell was executed early yesterday morning.
I enclose herewith for your information copies of all the correspondence which I have had with the German Authorities in regard to this case, together with copies of previous letters addressed to you on the subject.
I know that you will understand without my telling you that we exhausted every possible effort to prevent the infliction of the death penalty and that our failure has been felt by us as a very severe blow. I am convinced however that no step was neglected which could have had any effect. From the date we first learned of Miss Cavell’s imprisonment, we made frequent inquiries of the German Authorities and reminded them of their promise that we should be fully informed as to developments.
They were under no misapprehension as to our interest in the matter. Although the German Authorities did not inform me when the sentence had actually been passed I learned through an unofficial source that judgment had been delivered and that Miss Cavell was to be executed during the night. I immediately sent Mr. Gibson, the Secretary of Legation, to present to Baron von der Lancken my appeal that execution of the sentence should be deferred until the Governor could consider my plea for clemency. Mr. Gibson was accompanied by Maître de Leval, Legal Counselor of the Legation, who had worked from the beginning upon the legal aspect of the case. Mr. Gibson was fortunate enough to find the Spanish Minister, and got him to accompany him on his visit to Baron von der Lancken. The details of the visit you will find in Mr. Gibson’s report to me. The other papers which are attached speak for themselves and require no further comment from me.
I have [etc.]
-
The enclosures and subenclosures accompanying this despatch have been rearranged so as to appear in more nearly chronological order.
Correspondence between Walter H. Page, American Ambassador in Great Britain, and Sir Edward Grey, British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, on the subject of the Cavell case will be found in Great Britain, Cmd. 8013, Miscellaneous No. 17 (1915): Correspondence with the United States Ambassador respecting the Execution of Miss Cavell at Brussels.
↩ - M. Gaston de Leval, legal adviser to the American Legation in Belgium.↩
- No copy enclosed with this despatch.↩
- No copy enclosed with this despatch.↩
- Supra.↩
- No copy enclosed with this despatch.↩
- No copy enclosed with this despatch.↩
- Subenclosures 1 and 2, infra.↩
- This parenthetical note appears in the copy accompanying Minister Whitlock’s despatch.↩
- No copy enclosed with this despatch.↩
- Minister Whitlock states in his book Belgium Under the German Occupation (London, 1919), vol. II, p. 24, “I was mistaken in supposing that the execution had taken place at two o’clock.”↩
- Printed as enclosure 1, p. 48.↩
- See enclosure 2.↩
- Enclosure 3.↩
- See subenclosure, infra.↩
- See enclosure 7, p. 51.↩
- No copy enclosed with this despatch.↩