UNREST IN SPAIN.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 4 October 1917, Page 2

UNREST IN SPAIN.

DEAR LIVING AMONG CAUSES. ACTIVITY OF GERMAN AGENTS. The conditions in Spain were recently analysed by a correspondent of the London Times. He wrote that the nation as a whole appear to feel a dark foreboding of untoward events. Causes of unrest may, inaeed, be found all over the country and in every class of the people. The, example set by the' army in forming Committees of Defence has not been lost upon the civil population. Committees of defence are being formed by various classes of Civil servants, such as the employees ,df provincial treasuries and local administrations; their example has been followed by the professors, the police, the telegraphists, and certain classes of journalists and the process threatens to continue definitely. The most immediate source of danger, however, is the discontent among the working classes caused by the dearness of living. There has been an epidemic of local strikes, which some regard as a mere prelude to a general strike decreed by the Socialists andHrade unions. It is true that, according to statistics recently published, the prices of articles of prime necessity, such as wheat, meat ? sugar, etc., are considerably cheaper in Spain than in other countries in Europe. Gold has flowed into the country in a constant stream, and the result was seen in the fact that the loan issued on March 31 was covered 22 times over in the space of 24 hours. But if the property classes have on the whole gained by the war, the labouring have undoubtedly suffered, and the millions who may be described in normal times as living on the verge of hunger are now living on the brink of starvation. The cost of living has risen less in Spain than in other countries; but it has risen nevertheless, and wages have not risen with it.

The Syndicalists and Anarchists of Barcelona, who have never been in sympathy with the workmen of the rest of Spain, are reported to "be subject to the influence of German agents and to be in receipt of some £SOOO a month from German sources. These are dangerous and disorderly elements capable, under German direction, of a good deal of mischief. Another unknown factor is the army. The Corps of Officers is known to bo divided both regard to the internal situation and with regard to the European War. The non-commissioned officers have views of their own, in all probability quite unrelated to those of their officers, while the rank and file are naturally guided by a different order of considerations. The Germans may be expected to promote all forms of public disorder, from Carlism, on the one hand, to anarchism, on the other, for the simple reason that a revolution would entail temporary dislocation of all industrial interests which, besides damaging large investments of allied capital, might interrupt those exports of war material and foodstuffs which both France and England require. One form of German propaganda is the suggestion recently put forward in the Spanish Germanophile press that theprevailing unrest in Spain is being formented by English gold. The folly of such a suggestion has repeatedly been exposed in the more respectable Spanish organs, but the legend is carefully nourished and will die hard.

The chief source of the present movement must be sought in the prevalent desire for the reform of Spanish institutions that has seized upon the whole nation. It i s this that lends to the movement its real force and its undoubted gravity.