ROUGE ET NOIR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14809, 12 October 1911, Page 7

ROUGE ET NOIR.

, ■ ■«*. ALLEGED CARD SHARPING. J..-' • ' * ~ '• '■' ; v' • • A COUNT ON TRIAL, By Telegraph.— Association;— Copyright ' (Received October' 12,; 12.5 a.m.), ; . Berlin, October 11.: The trial of Count Wolff Metternich for card sharping has . commenced., The. accused created : several scenes 7 in Court, and was sentenced to 48 hours' on bread and water for charging the judges with partiality. Medical evidence was given that the prisoner is mentally stunted, and other witnesses stated that his, recklessness had been due to family wrangles. • '

alleged gambling SWINDLE. . High play at rouge et. noir in a Londoil hotel , led to the arrest in - Vienna 'of the young Count Gisbevt Wolff Metternich, aged 24, a nephew of . the German Ambassador in London. Count Metternich, who was engaged as secretary to a motorcar factory, recently married a favourite Viennese musical-comedy actress.; He was arrested in bed at eight o'clock on • the morning of December 15, and'," as a Prussian subject, was transferred, into they charge of the German police. The charge * against him was complicity in a gambling swindle, laid by a German artillery officer named Backhaus. Lieutenant alleges • that while on leave in London he made the acquaintance of the count, together with two other men. Accompanied by his new friends, Lieutenant Backhaus? visited the " sights" of London. They dined at an hotel, and after dinner played " at rouge et noir, using matches as coun- : ters. At first the lieutenant won. It was then agreed, he says, that ho and ; Count Metternich should hold the bank together. They lost £700. .f-- Lieutenant' ; Backhaus, having no money to pay his share, the count handed a cheque for the whole sum to their - opponents. Lieutenant Backhaus saw little more of his companions, ...and ; shortly , afterwards re- ■ turned to his garrison at Metz. On . re- : ceiving later an : emphatic request from Count Metternich for the repayment of the £350 advanced to him he conceived certain suspicions, and informed the police.' The count's own statement is that both ha and Lieutenant ' Backhaus were ° duped by : the other two players. - t- .. '