AMAZING DUEL

Evening Star, Issue 16050, 29 February 1916, Page 3

AMAZING DUEL

SHEER RECKLESSNESS OF THE A USTRALIAN SOLDIER. As an example of sheer recklessness Captain C. E. W. Beau, offlcial Press 'representative with the forces in tho Dardanelles, describes an amazing duel in which an Australian soldier was one of the principals. He writes:-—You do occasionally come across men of tho madly daring sort? of -whom any story might be true. For example, some two months ago an officer was going along iris section of fire trench when he found a man standing up a head and shoulders above the parapet and blazing at something over it, and then calmlv lowering his rifle and standing there looking over the parapet with a trench of the enemy’s not 3Coyds away. It turned out that he W'as having a duel wnth a Turk. I do not know by what quaint system of mutual signalling they arranged it, but each one was having one shot at tho other, and then standing up there for the other to have next shot at him. So they blazed at one another while the men along that section of the trenches looked on through their periscopes and loopholes, and no doubt the Turks were looking through theirs also. The officer told the man to stand down at once, and not to be a fool. The duellist stepped down when lie w-ns ordered to, but the moment the officer had passed he jumped up again and went on with the game. His rival's shots had almost grazed his ear—both sides were eagerly looking on, and observing quite honorably the rules of this extraordinary game, when the Australian foil back into tho trench shot through the temple. The shot came not from the Turk opposite, but from a, distance to the south. While the Australian was shooting some other Turk had shot him. The Turk who shot him was not necessarily a bad sportsman—certainly not a bad soldier. Probably ho did not know that any duel was proceeding, and lie was not hound to honor it if he did.