Bissing, and after half an hour he
returned with the statement that not only would von Bissing decline to
revoke the sentence of death, but "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."

Thereupon Baron von der Lancken insisted that Mr. Brand Whitlock's
representative (Mr. Hugh Gibson, Secretary of the Legation) should take
back the formal appeal for clemency addressed both to him and to von
Bissing, and as both German officials had been fully advised as to the
nature of the plea, Mr. Gibson finally consented. Baron von der Lancken
assured Mr. Gibson that under the circumstances "even the Emperor
himself could not intervene," a statement that was very quickly refuted
when the Emperor--aroused by the world-wide condemnation of Miss
Cavell's execution--did commute the sentences imposed upon six of the
seven persons who were condemned to death with Miss Cavell.

During the earnest conversation which took place in this last attempt to
save Miss Cavell's life, the American representative took occasion to
remind Baron von der Lancken's official associates--although it should
not have been necessary--of the great services rendered by the United
States, and especially by Mr. Brand Whitlock, in the earlier period of
the German occupation, and this was urged as a reason why as a matter of
courtesy to the United States Government some more courteous
consideration should be accorded to its request. At the outbreak of the
war, thousands of German residents in Belgium returned to their country
in such haste that they left their families behind them. Mr. Whitlock
gathered these women and children--numbering, it is said, over
10,000--and provided them with the necessaries of life, and ultimately
with safe transportation into Germany, and having thus placed this
inestimable service to thousands of German civilians in one scale, the
American representative simply asked, as "the only request" made by the
United States upon grounds of reciprocal generosity, that some clemency
should be given to Miss Cavell. The refusal to give this clemency or
even to accept in a formal way the plea for clemency, is one of the
blackest cases of ingratitude in the history of diplomacy.

On October 22nd there was issued from Brussels a "semi-official" but
_anonymous_ statement, charging that in the reports of the Secretary of
the American Embassy, from which