ACTION BY THE AMERICAN LEGATION IN BELGIUM ON
             BEHALF OF MISS EDITH CAVELL

362.412 C31/1
  The Minister in Belgium' (Whitlock) to the Secretary of State

No. 186                           BRUSSELS, October 19, 1915.
                                         [Received November 5.]
  Sm: I have the honor to transmit herewith enclosed for the in-
formation 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 correspond-
ence itself.'
  I have [etc.]                                BRAND WHITLOCK

                       [Enclosure 1-Translation]
The Minister in Belgium' (Whitlock) to the Chief of the Political
  Department of the German General Government in Belgium     (Von
  der Lancken)

No. 6377                              BRUssELs, August 31, 1915.
  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 fur-
nish the Legation with the requisite authorization of the German

'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 Brit-
ain, 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, Miscellane-
ous No. 17 (1915) : Correspondence with the United States Ambassador respect-
ing the Execution of Miss Cavell at Brussels.
     48