DUELLING.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XL, Issue 7092, 28 August 1901, Page 4

DUELLING.

Although the Germans are a practical and commercial people, yet the silly custom of duelling remains a ■social institution. The absurdity of it was shown in Saxony not longago. A young - lieutenant, .when drunk, struck an officer belonging to the same regiment. The following .day the latter sent, another officer to ask why the blow had bean struck. The young lieutenant, who remembered nothing of the incident, tendered his apologies, which . were" accepted. Nevertheless, the matter was referred to.the decision of the officers of another regiment, composing a court of honour. They dismissed from the army, not the drunken lieutenant, who insulted his'friend, but the officer who was struck and accepted the apologies: offeredj on the ground that he had sent a comrade to the offender, with an intimation that a peaceful settlement would be welcome. The colonel .of the regiment, in announcing the decision of ihe court to the officers, said: "I can only advise you, gentlemen, in all cases to challenge, at any rate, to a duel with swords." The Raiser, the -supreme head of the Germany Army, has.condemned duelling, and yet, apparently;, has sanctioned the " sacking " of one of his officers for facilitating the amicable settlement of a petty messroom squabble.. The Catholic Union has begun a crusade against duelling, and has induced over -four hundred members of the German nobility and gentry to sign a protest condemning the practice of duelling. But "the four hundred reserve :to themselves the right' to fight duels when their honour is involved. As duels are only fought ■whe'h -the honour of one party or the other is supposed to be at stake, the protest is absurd.