The Savannah morning news., 1902-01-21

the case of this kind 1t ought to be
possible to come to an arrangement. 1t
has been ascertained that Lieut. Bias
kowitz had no recollection Of the incl
dent, and that he was no longer aware
that during the night he had insulted
his comrades. Moreover. he declared
that he was ready TO ask pardon. (Sen-
sation) The regulations We're COM
piled with when the court of honor ill.,
tewened and took the matter In hand
fter Lieut. Blaskowitz's declaration, a
basis had been furnished for demand
handing of him that ne should ask the
pardon of the comrades he had insult
ed He had, of colrse, offended against
the canons OF the honor of his class
(Standesehre), and it was inevitable
that proceedings should be taken.
MY own personal view continued
the war minister. would be of COM
paratively little consequence IL it had
not distinctly been decided in the high
| est authoritative quarter, by the SUI
| preme head of the army, who has min
utely Informed himself of the details
of this case, that the sense and the in
tent!ons of His Majesty's order on
dueling had not in this case been COM
piled with (Hear, heard His Majesty
has given expression to this opinion in
in the most emphatic form and has
commanded me TO give full effect to
the cabinet order OF 1897. ] am not go
ing to give all the details of this ex-
preston of His Majesty's will, since
this is a matter which concerns the
supreme military command. But we
can only be grateful to His Majesty
for having interviewed in this case"
Gen. Won Gossler could not recon-
mend the adoption of any fresh meas
ures for the suppression of dueling in
q n
was now a criminal offense. Officers,
like other citizens, were subject to the
penalties of that law, but there was
no reason why officers should be more
severely punished than other citizens.
1t was certainly not the case that the
army was nursery of dueling. In
1898 there were only three duels fought
i'm the army, in 1899 eight, in 1900 four
and 1901 five. In proportion to the
number of officers, this was a very
small ratio. He strongly felt that the
officers of the German army manifested
great dignity and selfrcontrol in the
way in which they took insults di-
rected against them in the press, and
he hoped that the debate would be
conducted in calm and reasonable
manner, so as not to intensity those
Feelings which had already been ex-
cited.
On behalf of the clericals. DR.. Ba-
chem stated that they went further
than the national liberals and con-
delnned the duel altogether on grounds
OF justice and morality. He urgently
requested the war minister to invite
the Emperor to go even beyond the
cabinet order of 1897 The duel had
ben abolished in Ihe English army, and
what was possible in England must
also be possible i'm Germany. Unter-
ruption and laughter on the right) In
the army that spirit must be COM
bated which regarded the duel as per-
MISSILE. For the rest, he could say
from his experience as an officer of the
reserve that he had never seen single
case of extreme drunkenness among Of
hcers; he had only seen exhilaration.
In reply to the Socialist. Herr Haase,
Maj. Krug Won Nidda, the Saxon mill
tary plenipotentiary, gave an account
of a case in Metz in which an officer
of the Saxon contingent had been dis
missed from the service, not, as the |
Socialists alleged. for declining to fight
a duel, but for having effected direct |
reconciliation with his insulter without
first submitting the affair, as was his
duty, to the court of honor. It was not
true TO say that the cashiereJ officer
I'm this case had merely accepted the
hand offered him in reconciliation. on
the contrary Ga nice Distinction he
had sent to the lodgings of the COM
rade who in drunkenness had struck
him the night before and had invited
that young comrade to come to his own
house and ask pardon, which was done
This was not in accordance with strict
procedure. There was such difference
of opinion in the regimental court of
honor which first heard the case. that
IL was referred to the court Of another
regiment, which decided that the off,
Ger. who, of his own initiative, had sent
to his lnsulter and proposed a recon-
Citation. should be dismissed from the
army.
The well-known radical lawyer, Herr
Munckel expressed dissatisfaction
with the explanations Of the Saxon
military plenipotentiary, and stated
that in the Metz case small majority
of the first court OF honor had been
In favor OF reconciliation, but the
commander had carried the matter fur
Their. and the man who was willing
20 be recunciled was simply dismissed
from the service. Herr Munckel crt-
iciscd in the Imperial order Df 1897 the
words "a reconciliation is only per-
mieslhle for officers when the honor
Of their class tstandesehrc) and good