NEUTRALITY OF SLAIN.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1641, 23 November 1916, Page 2

NEUTRALITY OF SLAIN.

TO nobody in the world is it a secret that Don Alfonso, or “El Rev,’ as he is usually called by all Spaniards, directed Spanish policy in a, sense that was incontestably Anglophile. and that, later on, he consolidated that direction in a sense favourable to the Allies, says Senor Leopold Romeo, a member of the Spanish Cories. But the war came and when Spanish opinion showed that it was (dearly opposed to taking part in it, and declared itself to be in favour of a loyal and correct neutrality, it found in Don Alfonso the most perfect of neutrals, devoted body and sold to the task oL en-

suring, by such means as the royal dignity places within his power, that (lie rigours of the conflict should be softened as far as possible. To such an extreme has he carried the outward manifestations of bis neutrality that one day, asked by souu' personal friends, who on that occasion forgot the rules of etiquette, whether be was pro-ally or pro-German, he replied in precise words and with something like a. frown of displeasure: I am neither the one nor the other; I am proSpanish." With this rebuke, which quickly became widely known, ho desired to say, and said in effect: The King of Spain longs and could long for nothing but what is desired by the people he governs. Nobody, Spaniards or foreigner, can say that Don Alfonso has committed a single act that was contrary to neutrality, and so vigorously has he exerted himself to ensure (hat his Ministers should follow a, similar line of conduct that at the present moment it can be aflirmed (hat Spain, carrying on a policy of the strictest neutrality is in the good grace of all the belligerents, not one of whom can reproach her with a single act of incorrect partiality.