DICTATORSHIP TO END

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 623, 27 March 1929, Page 9

DICTATORSHIP TO END

DE RIVERA ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT SPAIN’S CHANGE OF REGIME Times Cable LONDON, Tuesday. The Madrid correspondent of “The Times” says the Prime Minister of Spain, General Primo de Rivera, was delighted with the popular receptions accorded to him on his provincial tour. Suddenly, however, he has foreshadowed his retirement in a public manifesto. In this the Dictator says: “If I believed my physical strength would hold out for another five years against exhausting tasks like those of the last five years X would not hesitate to appeal to the King and to the country for their further confidence. However, I am not young, nor am I strong enough. “Therefore I must hasten the preliminaries for my withdrawal, because the worst thing from the point of view of the nation would be sudden intestacy. Ido not wish to prolong the present system. I believe it should be abolished. “All sound Spanish opinion trembles at the thought of a premature change of regime, but it cannot be eternal, and it becomes necessary to provide serenely for the change-over.”