ITALIAN PEASANT WOMEN AS FARM HELPERS] 



In the midst of mobilization, in the summer, in spite of various classes having 

 been recalled, the harvest was gathered in without great difficulty, and was generally 

 abundant; when the men were wanting, the women were ready to work, those wonderful 

 Italian peasant-women, prodigal of children, and desirous of taking the place of their 

 husbands in all the labours of the field. The Valley of Aosta, scantily populated, has 

 given all its valid men to the Alpini; the women have reaped, threshed, and garnered 

 the grain; they have attended to the vintage, and now are digging and ploughing the 

 earth. 



EDITH CAVELL— TWO OPINIONS 



The Official Defence by Dr. Alfred F. M. Zimmermann, German Under 

 Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Oct. 24th, 1915 



"I see from the English and American Press that the shooting of an 

 Englishwoman and the condemnation of several other women in Brussels 

 for treason has caused a sensation, and capital against us is being 

 made out of the fact. It is undoubtedly a terrible thing that the 

 woman has been executed; but consider what would happen to a State, 

 particularly in war, if it left crimes aimed at the safety of its armies to go 

 unpunished because committed by women. No criminal code in the world — 

 least of all the laws of war — make such a distinction; and the feminine 

 sex has but one preference, according to legal usages, namely, that women 

 in a delicate condition may not be executed. Otherwise man and woman 

 are equal before the law, and only the degree of guilt makes a difference in 

 the sentence for the crime and its consequences. 1 * 



"It was a pity that Miss Cavell had to be executed, but it was necessary. 

 She was judged justly. We hope it will not be necessary to have anymore 

 executions." 



The Opinion of James M. Beck, Late Assistant Attorney General of the United 



States 



"And you, women of America! Will you not honour the memory of this martyr 

 of your sex, who for all time will be mourned as was the noblest Greek maiden, Antigone, 

 who also gave her life that her brother might have the rites of sepulture? Will you not 

 carry on in her name and for her memory those sacred ministrations of mercy which 

 were her lifework? Make her cause — the cause of mercy — your ownl" 



213 



