Evening Post. FRIDAY, MAY 2, 1930. A FULL MEAL

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 102, 2 May 1930, Page 8

Evening Post. FRIDAY, MAY 2, 1930. A FULL MEAL

The hopes which the Spanish Royalists were reported yesterday to be building on the, prosecution of the Socialist leader, Idalecio Prieto,' con j firm previous indications of the difficulty and danger of King Alfonso's position. The charge against Prieto js that he has accused the King and the Royal Family of "engaging in financial transactions." Evidence clearing the King's narno will, says our report, bo most welcome to his supporters, owing to the.prevalence- of stories of. this character. It is highly improbable that the King would have consented to the institution of these proceedings if-- he had not felt confident of the result. It is, however, also hnprqbable that, had his popularity been what it was a year ago, he would have condescended to treat political abuse so seriously, unless it was of an exceptionally gross and specific .character. But the fall of the Dictator, who with his acquiescence, if not with his'connivance or at his instigation, seized the reins of Government six years ago, has released forces which it will require all his courage and adroitness to master or conciliate. The Throne had shared in the progressive decline of the Dictatorship in power and popularity throughout 1929, but it made a considerable recovery when on the 28th January last Alfonso took advantage of the blunder made by Primo de Rivera in his feeble appeal to the military chiefs for, a vote of confidence, and demanded liis resignation. So Primo de Rivera disappeared, General Berenguer, head of the military household of the King, formed a stop-gap Government, and for the moment the King was strengthened by the credit which he received for his able handling of the crisis., '•■'.■■.:. But Alfonso's services in getting rid of-the Dictator have since been obscured by the demand for an inquiry into his responsibility for putting the Dictator into power, and whether the partial restoration-, of the. nation's liberties which has since been effected will be pushed forward till a reasonably stable Government has been established on constitutional lines, or whether a reaction in favour of another military regime, or a .revolution which will upset the Throne itself, will be'''the,' ultimate outcome, are questions which nobody can answer. "One thing alone seems certain, namely, that.a nation, which for the greater part of the previous six years had treated politics to a very large extent as a joke, has since the fall of the Dictator reversed the attitude and seems disposed to make up for lost time by an undue vehemence. There is something explosive in the energy with which the fine mixed fighting is now being carried on by all parties, so much so that it seems-as though at any time its explosiveness might cease at any moment to be a mere figure of speech. On the authority of the Madrid correspondent of the "Daily News" we were told on Tuesday that , renewed, attack's on.. King Alfonso and. rioting in Barcelona, in which thirty were injured in a demonstration following the release of a Catalan agitator, indicate increased unrest, threatening tho security of the Crown. It is true that Barcelona as a great industrial- seaport town, and to a smaller extent the province of Catalonia,. of which It is the chief city, have been accustomed to play in Spain the part that the Balkans have played in Europe as centres of ■perpetual' unrest. But though the rioting mentioned by this correspondent was confined to Barcelona, the renewed attacks on the King, of which he also speaks, do' not appear to have been so limited, and the Comedia Theatre, in which Senor Alvarez's scathing indictment of him was presented, is presumably in Madrid; This ex-Minister and ex-chairman of the Chamber of Deputies charged the King in the plainest possible terms with complicity in Primo de Rivera's coup d'etat. Ho declared that the English doctrine that the King could do no wrong applied to the British monarch, who respected the Constitution. King Alfonso, 'however, in an hour of suicidal folly and ambition for power; trampled tho Spanish Constitution' underfoot, breaking his coronation oath and throwing- overboa.rd tho safeguards of his crown..- , ■ Such plain speaking is obviously treason, and Alfonso would more effectively retrieve his reputation by a successful prosecution of the offender than by the libel proceedings. But as the question whether he himself had not been .guilty of treason to ,the Constitution would be tried at the same time, the risk would obviously be too great. According to the "Manchester Guardian," Alfonso's responsibility in the matter went a good deal further tjian mere complicity. In its obituary article on Primo de Rivera, which may be considered to be based upon the reports of, if not written by, its exceptionally well-informed Madrid correspondent, the "Guardian" says:— It was the! King who was. tho real inspiration of tho coup d'etat; he shrived his General's first' view that three months of his rule -would suffice, and when the General felt that lie needed more time Alfonso spent all f.he remaining' years of the dictatorship trying to get rid of the dictator who had forgotten his role, which was to be the simple agent of tho Crown according to tho conception that rules in Belgrade in less subtle form.' Primo do Rivera's

attempt to bo the .Spanish Mussolini, an attempt perhaps forced on him by the royal hostility, Alfonso never- forgave, and with reason, since tho first task of a really efficient dictatorship would havo been fo reduce the Crown to its proper constitutional place in the national life. Senor Alvarez is described in our cabled report as a ''reformist," and it is easy to understand that Reformers, Liberals, and Reds are united in their opposition to the King and in large part to the Monarchy. But the strange spectacle of Conservatives in ihe same galley, justifies a very serious view' of the King's difficulties. One of the worst of the blunders that sealed Primo de Rivera's fate was the imprisonment and unsuccessful' prosecution of Sanchez Giierra, exPremier and leader of the Lett Wing Conservatives, who are said to be the largest political parly in Spain. The attitude of this Conservative leader to the King and the Throne may be Inferred from the report of one of his speeches as quoted from the "New York Herald Tribune" by die."Literary Digest" of ihe 15th March:— . He declared that do Eivera's successor immediately must convoke a free arid constitutional Parliament which would ascertain the,will of the nation, but said it grieved him to sco Republican, propaganda carried on when it was more important first to get a ■ legitimate constitutional assembly. Then ho asserted: "I am not a Republican, but I havo lost confidence 'ill this monarchy, and I recognise the right the nation has to establish a republic if that; is its will." These words wore received: with loud applause. He stated that the dictatorship was not sanguinary but cruel, aud added that King Alfonso was responsible for dictatorships, past and present. When a Conservative ex-Premier'can talk in this way, it is time for a King, even though his army is still loyal, to take heed. Alfonso, who has been described as "the doyen of kings and probably the only one left who thoroughly enjoys being a king." has escaped from many a. light corner before now, and may do so again. But even if his appetite for danger is as eager as that of Hotspur, his present trouble promises to provide him with a full meal.