Trouble in Spain.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18228, 12 November 1924, Page 8

Trouble in Spain.

It is not clear from the cable messages whether the trouble in Spain is'revolutionary or reactionary—whether the Radicals tire in revolt against the military party, or the military party against the supposed desire of the Dictator to withdraw from Morocco. The situation of Spain is so ridiculous internally and externallytihat one explanation is as probable as another. It is a little more than a year now since General Prrmo de Rivera chased out the politicians and established a military Directorate, and there does not seem to be much doubt that the first step at least was a good one, ' There can hardly have been an Administration outside China, Abyssinia, or the Hedjaz so incompetent, spineless, and corrupt, and if the Dictator has any political sense at all he must be doing better for the people than the sorry crowd he displaced. But political sense ia that quality precisely which military dictators seldom possess: they demand obedience, and they secure it by turning the country into a barracks or a gaol—with the cemetery always in sight through the iron bars. One of the Radical papers of Madrid said the other day that the people live under "a tyranny worse "than the worst times of Russia under "its Czars," while such a eareful observer even as the Paris correspondent of "The Times" expressed the opinion recently that there is no hope for Spain while Primo de Rivera's is the first and last word. The fact of the matter probably is that the Dictator is in no particular hurry to trust the people again; Like.Mussolini, he says that he desires nothing so much as to be able ta /(estore representative cpvernment,

and it is not necessarily the ease that this is humbug: it was probably the simple truth to begin with, and if he seems less inclined as the days pass to believe that his 'work is finished, that is a peculiarity that history lias revealed before. And so far as foreign policy is concerned, or semi-foreign, the key is the situation in Morocco. In one of our cable messages to-day the Tangier correspondent of "The Times" foreshadows a French campaign, not directly in support of the Spaniards, but to clear the situation of "menacing " possibilities" on the borders of French territory. This may mean much or nothing, hub it is admitted that the Directory's intention a year ago was to end the war on the best terms possible, and leave the general situation to France and Britain- It is known that General de Rivera went so far as to sound Downing street about an exchange of Ceuta for Gibraltar, and it is believed that he offered the rest of the Spanish Zone to France if she would guarantee the safety of Tetuan and Melilla. Perhaps something of the kind has been discussed again, with results that justify the Tangier regort to "The Times." The Spanish army is now 150,000 strong, and yet so far from being strong enough that it is in constant danger and difficulty; and it is just possible that Prance, though she cannot be anxious to 'risk trouble in her own territory, is willing to restore order at a price. In any case, it is certain that the "moral support "of both France and England" will be given to the present or any other Administration that undertakes to end the anarchy in Morocco. Neither France nor England loves a Dictator; but neither France nor England can afford to have Africa take fire again, and if Primo de Rivera can prevent that, the revolutionaries will get no assistance over the Spanish border.