CONFLICTING FORCES IN SPAIN

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5302, 15 January 1947, Page 2

CONFLICTING FORCES IN SPAIN

1 ■ ■ DOiN JUAN IN RUNNING - FOR THRONE 4 ESTORIL, Portugal Have the Spanish monarchists "missed the bus.'*'' Was there ever a bus to catch? Has Don Juan lost liis chance of becomirig King of Spain? Did he ever have a chance? For many months he has - ,heen livinjg in this arti'ficial fbut agreeable seaside villa-colony with his wife and children 'and he appears to bg no nearer, politically, to MadriI than he was during the years he lived in Lausanne following his designation by Alfonso XIII, hil father, as the heir to the Fpanish thrbne. j With General Franco's power unshaken after repeated condemnation j by the states which refuse to forget that Hitler and1 Mussolini helped him 1 overthrow the republic, and with the j republicans at home and in exile as determined as ever to re-establish the ' republic, what chances has Don Juan 1 of sitting again on the thrbne of his ' father, ahandoned by him in 4931 be1 cauise Spain refused to he ruTed by him any longer? j In fact of the confiicting forces struggling over Spain, there is some ( reason to think that Don Juan has more chances than might appear to exist. I Part of "Spanish Question" | The conflict, in fact, has given him , his opportunity. Don Juan is part of • the "Spanish question" now before the "Aissembly of the United Nations, ' even though unmentioned. Everything j affecting Spain is inevitably part of the problem presented by what the i government-controlled newspapers in Spain call the "so-called Spanish quiestion." j There is, of course, nothing "so called1" about the Spanish question. It has been one of the most troubling questions for the 10 years since all ,be European countries -set up a committee to prevent intervention in 1 Spain — at a time when Germany and Italy were actively intervening on one side and, to some extent, F'rance ind the Soviets on the other. i Spain sees the Spanish question, ! naturallyi, from. its own angle, which is that of the former victini of all this attention. i To-day, instead of the old tiight >ver Spain, there is a new one before I the Aissembly of the United Nations, oetween a group of democratically1 ninded nations on one side and a Communist-minded giroup on the ' other. From thle Span|ish point "of '■ -new there is a certain similarity be--iween the Situation to-day and that | of 10 years ago. Change in Circumstances ! Neither Don Juan nor his father, , .he former King Alfonso XIII, had iny part in all this 10 years and ' more of hrouble. But the Spanish dynasty was in power not so very 'ong ago, near enough in time so -hat all grown Spaniards remember J rhose "good old times." J With the oonstantly recurringSpanish question they recall that in he days of the monarchy they lived at home in their own house and, howcver badly the country may at times have been govemed, it was all in the hands of Spaniards, without any inerference from outside. Spain was Lheir house into which no outsider Jared intrude, J So far all Doh Juan Has done I of a public nature is to let his pro- ' gramme be fenown, and he has not i even done that formally. But it is generally believed that he wamits to be a constitutional monarch, with the powers of the monarch limited by the constitution and the I affairs of the country run by the ; nationally elected Cortes. i Don Juan is a large, patient man, t hut wit'h a shrewd eye and an easy- ' going manner. He gives the impres:ion of knowing how to wait. j