SPANISH AFFAIRS

Hokitika Guardian, 14 September 1926, Page 2

SPANISH AFFAIRS

NEW CONSTITUTION FOlt SPAIN. [Australia & N.Z. Cable Assoc ation. PARIS, Sept. 12. General Prime dc Rivera, Director of Spain, in an interview, outlined tho proposed constitution for the Parliament of Spain, which ho is inaugurating after a national plebiscite is taken. The Director claimed that lie is creating an entirely new constitutional model. The chief element of the new constitution will be that of professional competency in the legislators. Iho Parliament is to consist of three hundred deputies, who will be elected every three years, and will include all the trades and tho professions, and also women members, chiefly teachers. The Parliament will l>e essentially a democratic one. Tt will wield, legislative power, anil will enjoy freedom of speech, although phrases which are judged to he dangerous to the country’s interest if they were circulated abroad would, he said, be censored •from the printed reports of tho Parliamentary proceedings.

PLEBISCITE A SURPRISE. At ADR ID, Sept. 13

Within a week Spain has had a grnvo army revolt with martini law, and a rigorous censorship. This is now followed, however, by the spectacle of the Military Dictator (General De Rivera) seeking a vote of-confidence by a national plebiscite, as a preliminary to creating a new Spanish Parliament (one of a type unknown in Europe) in a country where women are not yet enfranchised. General De Rivera has given votes to everyone over eighteen years of age. The organisation of the poll is left to the Union Patriotica, which is a. Spanishi equivalent to Mussolini’s Blackshirts.

The new system is simplicity itself. Everyone is asked to record approval of General De Rivera’s regime. If they disapprove, they aro asked to stay away. There is no provision for anything but “yes” votes.