The San Francisco call., 1896-04-20
England's Action Against the
TranSvaal Comes Next to
Importance.
CAN SHE CONDUCT TWO WARS ?
Hostile Criticism of American Inter.
vention in Behalf of the
Cubans.

BERLIN, GERMANY, April 19.-The time
OF the introduction in the Reichstag of
the Centrist Interpolation in opposition to
the practice of dueling has been fixed for
Tuesday next, and if the Government
should fail to make a satisfactory state
ment in regard to the matter the Centrists
will either offer motions demanding the
suppression of dueling or support the res
olution of the Freisinnjge demanding that
the chief authorities of the respective fed
eral States shall exert all their powers to
put stop to this custom, especially in the
army.
The debate upon this matter will afford
the Freisinnlge and Socialists splendid
opportunity to assail the Emperor's re-
peated remissions of sentence imposed
upon duelists after they had spent brief
and easy terms of confinement in a fort
ress.
The Government will find it peculiarly
difficult to answer the Centriot interpeila-
tion in terms which will be sufficiently
satisfactory to obviate the introduction of
motion calling for the total suppression
of the practice of dueiing. Both the Gen.
ter and the Freisinnig parties are desirous
that the Government shall issue an edict
of such character as will absolutely
prevent recourse to dueling with out refer
ence to military court of honor, whose
decisions have frequently rendered duels
imperative.
1t was the action of the military court
in expelling Lieberecht Won Kotze from
his rank as an officer for neglecting
to challenge Baron Won Schraeder and
suing him in a civil suit instead, that
eventually caused the fatal encounter be-
tween the two men. The Emperor him.
self thought that Kotze ought to fight,
and consequently quashed the decision of
the military court, thus enabling Kotze to
regain his position as an officer and fulfill
the requirements of the military code by
sending Schraeder challenge.
1t is not expected therefore that the
Emperor will instruct the Ministers to
promise what the Centrists and Freisin-
nige demand.
The utmost that can be hoped for from
the debate is an abatement, but not the
extinction, OF the evil. The Kaiser's pre-
rogative of extending clemency is abso-
lutte and cannot be controlled by the
Reichstag, but the aim of the Centrists is
to make the Ministry so far responsible for
the remission of sentence imposed upon
duelists as to enable the Reichstag to de-
mand explanations in cases where SEN
tences are remitted. This will act as a
partial check to dueling if the Government
assents to the Centrists' demand.
Next to dueling the leading cause of
popular excitement is the preparation
which England is making for action
against the Transvaal.
All of the Austrian and Italian infiu-
ences in the councils of the Dreibund
which have been thrown on the side of
England will become paralyzed if events
shall confirm the suspicious entertained by
Germany that Great Britain intends to CO.
cree the Beers. The peaceful assurances
given by the British Ministers and the
British Parliament are distrusted here.
The North German Gazette cautiously
advises delay in the dispatch of English
troops to South Africa in Difference to
President Kruger's peace policy, but the
unofficial and more outspoken Tageblatt
sees plan on the part of Great Britain to
use the Matabele rising as a pretext for
sending forces to the Cape Colony.
The Vossische Zeitung approves the ac-
tion of the Beers in arming themselves to
protect their independence and predicts
another Maiuba Hill disaster to England.
The Boersen Zeitung declares that the
British army is wholly inadequate to the
task of conducting two wars at the same
time-one in the Soudan and the other
against the Beers. Ii England refuses an
entente with Germany, through jealousy
of the growth of German influence in
South Africa, the paper adds, the loss will
not be Germany's.
Although the report that President
Cleveland has offered the friendly services
OF the United States in settling the Cuban
troubles is not confirmed the North Ger
man Gazette, in an intensely hostile criti-
cism thereon, written upon the assump-
ton that the report is true, tells Spain to
decline positively to admit that the Presi.
dent of the United States has any right to
tender his advice in the Cuban matter, or
rather to tell the American Government
to mind its own business.
The Vossische Zeitung SAYS: If the
United States Government gives effect to
the resolution passed by the two houses
OF Congress recognizing the Cubans as
belligerents Spain must tolerate the act.
She cannot go to war with the United
States, but America cannot expect any
European State, however weak or dis
trested, to submit without protest to such
interference.
The United Press finds excellent reasons
for stating that the views expressed by
tho two newspapers above quoted do not
represent the opinion of the Kaiser, who
thinks that Spain ought not to reject the
friendly diplomacy of the President of the
United States, but rather should show
Willingness to negotiate with and assist
the Government at Washington to find q
way to settle the CUBAN question.
Professor Eulenburg, the eminent Ger
man physician and assistant to the clinic
OF the University OF Berlin, has written a
letter to the Medical Gazette in which he
declares that there is no cause for hostile
paign against DR.. Behring's diph-
liberia serum, which, if properly injected,
he says, is perfectly safe. Even if it were
not quite safe, he continues, it would not
cause death with such rapidity as in the
case of the infant son of DIR. Langerhaus.
the medical director OF the Moabite Hos.