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Show SITS SHOOTING OF MISS CAVELL IS JUSTIFIES Warranted by Laws of Civilized Warfare, Bar Association Body Reports. 1 Recommendations Made in i Probe of Procedure in Trials by Army Courts. BALTIMORE, Aug. 27. Execution by the Germans of Miss Edith Cavell, the English nurse, which aroused the indignation indig-nation of the allied world, was in accordance accord-ance with the laws of "civilized warfare.'' according to a minority report of the committee on military law of the American Ameri-can Bar association, made public today. Both majority and minority reports were prepared by the committee, which was appointed to investigate courts martial and suggest reforms in military law. The reference to the case of Miss Cavell Ca-vell was made by S. S. Gregory of Chicago, Chi-cago, chairman of the committee, and was concurred in by Judge William P. Bynum of Greensboro, N. C, 'the other minority member, in advocating abolition of the death penalty for women convicted of infringing military laws. In his report Mr. Gregory said: "A careful consideration of the case of Miss Edith Cavell has led me to the conclusion that she was executed in accordance ac-cordance with the laws and usages of what we are pleased commonly to refer to as civilized warfare. Gregory's Conclusions. "This being so, it has seemed to me quite inconsistent with our condemnation condemna-tion of those who thus took her life to retain in our own system of military justice those provisions of Jaw which were relied upon by the German military authorities. The fact that her trial was attended by brutality and duplicity does not alter this aspect of the case." The majority members of the committee, commit-tee, Andrew A. Bruse of Minneapolis. Martin Conboy of New York and John Hinkley of Baltimore, declared they could not "concur in the suggestion of Mr. Gregory that there should be a provision pro-vision prohibiting the death penalty in the case of women spies." "It would certainly be inadvisable unless un-less such a provision were in the codes of all the nations with whom we would be likely to be at war," they said. "We agrte thoroughly that the penalty should not be inflicted except in the most extreme ex-treme cases, but that it should be abolished abol-ished entirely we cannot agree. Experience Experi-ence has shown that, on account of the sex lure, women are the most dangerous of all spies, and our chivalry toward some should not allow us to jeopardize the national cause or the lives of thousands thou-sands of the sons of others." Changes Suggested. The majority also declined to concur In recommendations of the minority that enlisted en-listed men sit on courts martial and that special courts be abandoned. The majority report asserted that, although "we believe 3ome changes should lie made, we are satisfied that the errors committed during the recent war and the excessive penalties which were no doubt often Imposed were due largely to the inexperience in-experience of those in control and to the fact not only that we had of necessity to, train an officer clnss overnight for our volunteer army, but tiiat our practice in the past of scattering our regular army, divided into battalions, companies and even smaller units, over the country had made it impossible to train properly even our West point officers." "We are thoroughly in accord," the majority report continued, "with the idea that there should be with each division, brigade, and perhaps regiment, a thoroughly thor-oughly trained military lawyer, with the rank, perhaps, of a lieutenant-colonel, who should serve either as a presiding Judge or as adviser at all courts martial." |