Tiny Republic’s Call to Arms

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 224, 10 December 1927, Page 26 (Supplement)

Tiny Republic’s Call to Arms

HE plotting of Catalan V ' Separatist Republicans /Hi ■? have exiled themselves to France—| « ji „ ' prominent among whom is Senor Blasco Ibanez, f the author of “The Fc4lr Horsemen of the Apocalypse”—has nearly involved the independent moun- | tain State of Andorra in a foreign war. ! Andorra, perched high in the Pyrenees astride the frontier line between France and Spain, is still a feudal State whose 6,000 inhabitants are tremendously jealous of their independence. Every fit man in the 175 square miles of Andorran territory capable of bearing arms, is liable to be called up for military service to maintain order, but the Constitution BK,. stipulates that the 600 men composing I

j called upon to engage in an armed conI flict with a foreign State. | The privileges of the State of An- | dorra have remained intact since 1278, | the sovereignty of the district being j equally divided between France and | Spain. The latest plotting, however, ! compelled the tiny State to mobilise I the whole of her man-power and ocj eupy all the mountain passes from France into Andorra and from Andorra i into Spain to prevent the country ! from becoming involved in an attempt :of Spanish revolutionaries to invade Spain. The Viguier (or Government repre- ; sentative) nominated by France and the Viguier appointed by the Bishop of Urgel, the Spanish representative, have taken over command of the Army, and they believe they have crushed the attempt to Invade Spain from AnJ dorra and start a revolution in Cata-

lonia with the object of setting up a Separatist Republican Government at Barcelona.

One of the first steps taken by the Andorra Government has been the trial in the “House of the Valley,” which is the seat of Government, of an Andorran schoolmaster named Armengol, suspected of being the agent of the insurgents. Police raided his home amid the mountains and found letters from insurgent leaders. Arms and ammunition were also found. The schoolmaster was taken before the High Court of Justice, and in accordance with the centuries-old custom of the mountaineers was sentenced to perpetual banishment and to the loss of all advantages of Andorran citizenship. Andorra, incidentally, is the taxpayer's paradise, for the expenses of the Government amount to only a few pounds per head every year. Among the biggest items in the Budget are the tribute of £4O annually to France and to Spain.