MUSSOLINI’S DUEL.

Putaruru Press, Volume VI, Issue 231, 5 April 1928, Page 3

MUSSOLINI’S DUEL.

SHIRT OF MAIL WORN. A strange story of a duel alleged to have been fought by Signor Mussolini, the Italian Dictator, has caused excited comment in Vienna. According to Croate newspapers, great secrecy is being observed in Rome concerning the duel, which was fought in the capital between Mussolini and Count Calvi di Bergolo, son-in-law of the King. The circumstances of the duel are stated by the newspaper ' Kroatsky Narodni Glas, says the Central News, to be as follows: The Council of Ministers recently decided to issue a new coinage. On the two-lire piece was to appear the head of Mussolini. Mussolini submitted the proposal to the King for his approval and requested Mussolini to confer on the matter with the Crown Prince.

It is notorious that relations between the Duce and Prince Umberto are very strained, the heir to the throne being anxious to restore the ■waning prestige of the Royal House, did not, therefore, feel well disposed to Mussolini. The Prince called in his brother-in-law, Count Calvi, the husband of Princess Yolanda, to a joint consultation, in the course of which Mussolini was betrayed into some impolite expressions. Thereupon the Prince left the room, while Count Calvi threw his glove at Mussolini in token of challenge to mortal combat. On the same day the seconds of the Count and Mussolini met and it was decided that a duel should be fought until blood was drawn. The following day the two principals met in a little wood near the Zoological Gardens in Rome.

Calvi is one of the best swordsmen in the Italian Army and the danger to the life of Mussolini was considerable. Mussolini (the newspaper declares) wore under his vest the shirt of mail which he has always worn since the first attack on his life. When Count Calvi, with some preliminary fencing succeeded in forcing a hit on Mussolini’s left breast, his sword broke in two, the haft remaining in his hand. It was clear what had happened. Count Calvi threw the broken half of his weapon at Mussolini’s face contemptuously exclaiming “Coward!”

The haft wounded Mussolini slightly on the throat and chin, and he was afterwards confined to Chigi Palace. No news of the duel has been allowed to appear in the Italian Press. Count Calvi, member of an ancient Italian family, is acknowledged to be one of the finest horsemen in the (Continued in Next Column)

world. He won several prizes in past years in the Olympia Horse Show, and was once an instructor at the famous Italian riding school of Tor di Quinto, near Rome. When he married the beautiful Princess Yolanda in 1923 the late Queen Milena, widow of King Nicholas of Montenegro, sent a message to the Princess, “You might have been a queen, but you prefer to marry for love.”