Naval Ensign Hiisner, who recently stabbed a private soldier named
Hartmann at Essen because, being drunk, he omitted to salute him, has been sentenced to degradation and four years' imprisonment. The outrage was, it appears, contrary to regulations, as Ensign Hi:1=er should not have interfered with a drunken man, or have used his sword to correct his ideas of etiquette. As the Ensign must serve the rest of his term as a common sailor and has his career broken, the sentence, if carried out, is regarded in Germany as adequate ; but severe comments are made on a system of instruction which inspires officers with the feeling that the slightest offence is mutiny, and may loci punished with death at the discretion of a single angry officer. Such comments have been made before, but even when made by officers in high command—as in the recent case of the Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Meiningen—they never seem to lead. to any practical result.
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