NOT CRIMINAL

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 20, 16 September 1931, Page 4

NOT CRIMINAL

SWISS ACTION TAKEN AGAINST OLD CUSTOM. DUELLING AS A CRIME. * Fof so long have members of Swiss universities Settled th'eii* differences by duelling -that the practice has become sanctioned by custom, if not by actual law. But now the Swiss Parliament! is trying to introduce a Bill that will make duelling one of the eriminal offences of that country, ahd the universities are rigorously opposing this, holding that whatever pehalty may be ipflicted for it, duelling should not be classed as eriminal. The duel has been a means of settlirig disputes throughout the ages, and in many eountries it is still used as a means of reparation for per sonal insult and injury. . Since Prince Albert peksuaded the War Office to put a stop to English duelling in 1844, it has been forbidden by law. The English law makes no distihbtion between different methods of taking another's life. Ih Ffancb whefe duelling is not prohibited by law, fencing is part of the general education of public men and journalists and thought nowadays there are seldom any fatalities through this, the most pbplar form of French duelling, it is still in fairly conimon use betwCen enemies. Duels are most often fought with sword or pistol. In Germany the ;students' duels, which were at one time mostly a form of sport, were treated as only "disciplinary offences" until public ffeeling turned against them and a penalty of fortress imprisonment was imposed varying in length according to the seriousness of thb offeiiee.