KING ALPHONSO AND THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2612, 6 November 1915, Page 13

KING ALPHONSO AND THE WAR

"NATIONS WILL ARM MORE THAN EVER," _ The Paris "Journal" recently published a conversation between King Alplionso of Spain and an Argentine journalist. Speaking of the European war, His Majesty said it was impossible to predict the date of a return to normal conditions. In reply to a remark that, if the result of the war was general disarmament, one might foresee progress for all humanity, the King said:—

"After the war the nations will arm more than ever. When it is seen that a country like Belgium, neutralised by tho consent of all the nations, finally found no other defence than by tho force of arms, it is easy to understand that other countries, large and small, consider that in order to exist it ia indispensable to work in time of peace to surround themselves with tho most positive guarantees." The journalist asked the King if he believed that the lower social strata would exercise sufficient pressure on tho Governments to prevent them from imposing now burdens to maintain an armed peace. The King replied: "I believe, and you may repeat it, that Socialism will become daily more Governmental. The Socialists will attain the satisfaction of their most just aspirations by legal methods alone, without having recourse to violence;*but I also believe that they will evolve, and that thoy will recognise, after the war, that bo long as humanity does not modify its instincts there will be no better way to safeguard their rlgEta than by foresight and force. Besides, I believe that after the war there will bo no stoppage of labour, but that work for everybody will continue to bo what it is to-day. In 10 or 12 years \ye shall be surprised, and shall ask ourselves what has happened'."