Society in Berlin is excited over what is believed to
be the dismissal of the Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Meiningen from the command of the Sixth Army Corps. The Prince, who married the Emperor's eldest sister, being, it is said, moved by some recent instances of the maltreatment of soldiers by their officers, issued a General Order in which he declared that complaint in such circumstances was a duty, as " to sub- mit to maltreatment is a disgrace and humiliation for a soldier." The private should complain to the General com- manding, who can, if necessary, remove him to another com- pany, where he would not be persecuted for complaining. The Order is in full accord with the Regulations ; but the Emperor either considered it an infringement of his own prerogative, or an indiscreet admission that maltreatment was common, for the Hereditary Prince received a letter from headquarters inviting him to resign, and his General Order has since been withdrawn. It is said that the reduction of the term of service in the German Army has increased the number of the cases of maltreatment, the officers, commissioned and non-com- missioned, finding it more difficult to " form" the more stupid among recruits. They become irritated, discipline grows " intense," and the result is visible in collisions which frequently, especially in Saxony, end in suicide. Grave cases of oppression are occasionally recorded, and though they are punished, the temptation to beat down resistance is with some natures irresistible. You may see the same thing occasionally in schools, where it is found that the only pre- ventive is to restrict corporal punishment exclusively to the head-master.
