THE CRISIS IN SPAIN.

Shannon News, 18 March 1924, Page 4

THE CRISIS IN SPAIN.

A NEW FASCISM. AFTERjSI th gf wak. ,So tangled ; are lor issues ;and *°.obscure her current history that it would perhaps be easier to foretell the course of events in any. country than in {Spain writes. Mr. Percival Landon, the noted journalist. It would .certainly be easier to trace the causes. At this moment it is almost impossible to estimate the responsibility that the recent trouble in Morocco must accept :for the • military coup d’etat, which; seems for the moment -to have been as successful as the apparently similar Fascist movement in Italy. That the matter has come to a head as a result of the general indignation, with the - methods of the home government and the ill-success

the military authorities at Melilla is probably true; out nowhere is an, observer more apt to mistake opportunities for causes than in Spain. So far as the information at present, -available throws any light on the situation, the outstanding f apts are that the movement is in no way directed against, the King, and that its immediate aim is to sweep from power, a Cabinet which, however recently formed, was believed to represent in scarcely altered forpa the policy, or want of policy, that had brought about’ the trouble in Africa, it is not, however, impossible. that the real' answer to the \ problem is. rathpr to be found in another question: For how long have the forces of national impatience been gathering such weight that the recent Moroccan trouble haja been ; sufficipnt to release them? Was Tifaruin only .the .last straw of a burden that was only or chiefly.■ African!. . That tTO 4 real disaster •in 1921 -has played a large part in this business is probable; it is, mot so probable that the recent temporary setback has beep anything like the same influence. The threatened capture of Tlfaruin- —whicih indeed, had it taken place, might, haye brought about just such a .national rising as seems to exist today—was averted in circumstances which did n,o little honour to the relieving force. And though profound disappointment lias been, caused by General Weyler,s unconcealed, criticisms ; of ,the military dispositions in -the Melilla district, it l 3 not to.be credited that the Barcelona coup has directly been .dup to. any -pu4den resentment, against the, men who are •, upholding the honour of Spain across the Straits. It is. ,on the other hand, directed against the . pplitician class now in power, whose inability to direct the ship of state ...either steadily or well has been held to be responsible fora certain accumulation of disap-r pointnients in ’ many fields—disappointments which have. helped to embitter Spanish ; ppiitics in* recent yearp. An important point to note is that, at last , the military authorities have a common ground of complaint wip. those, who have for half a generation made.it their business in life to attack the existing order in Spain. Some such reason lies, no doubt, behind the outbreak, and the outside observer is inclined to see in the direction of the revolt by the army the best possible guarantee that hep at least there will be none of the Communistic excesses which have at times marked other popular protests against established regimes. •.. • iyjSsJj&iijS