DUELLING IN AUSTRIA.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XXXXI, Issue 7052, 23 October 1900, Page 2

DUELLING IN AUSTRIA.

The Vienna correspondent of the Morning Post gives some interesting details on the duelling controversy now proceeding in Austria. The dismissal of the Marquis Taki from the army has been followed by the degradation of another Austrian officer, Captain Ledonowski. The Marquis Taki was in the company of several officers, when one of them'uttered insulting remarks about a lady of high birth and blameless character known to them all. The Marquis Taki strongly protested against the utterance of such insults, whereupon the officer who had uttered them turned on the marquis and showered the coarsest abusive epithets on him. Military etiquette required that the marquis should challenge his insulter, but tie refused to do bo, giving two reasons. Firstly, he said, no gentlemen was called on to fight a slanderer ; secondly, he, as a devout Catholic, objected to "duelling on principle. The officers' court of honor met to consider the point, and unanimously condemned the marquis as guilty of cowardice. On the recommendation of the court of honor, the Minister of War cancelled his commission. In the course of the inquiry before the court of honor the marquis mentioned that he had received a letter from a distinguished officer of high rank, saying : " You are quite right in your attitude. It is intolerable that a man should be terrorised into duelling against his own religious convictions. If I had been in your place I should also have refused to fight." When the marquis had been disposed of the court of honor set to work to ascertain who had written this letter. The writer turned out to be Captain Ledonowski, of the headquarters staff, a young officer of great distinction. Captain Ledonowski was likewise convicted of cowardice, and the Minister of War promptly cancelled his commission. Duelling is prohibited by Austrian law as a criminal offence. Officers, however, are thus driven by a brutal terrorism to become criminals, if not to become murderers, at least to sacrifice their lives in a criminal cause.