SPANISH UNREST.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 81, 7 April 1931, Page 9

SPANISH UNREST.

INDEPENDENCE DECLARED.

INDICTMENT OF THE MONARCHY.

APPEAL FOR REPUBLIC.

(From Our Special Correspondents)'

MADRID, Feb. 22.

How long the present Monarchical Coalition Cabinet will continue to funotion is the paramount question in Spain to-day. No one outside of the country can appreciate the determination of the great mass of Spaniards to establish a parliamentary government.

The Spanish "Declaration of Independence" has already been written. It is in the form of a manifesto recently issued; by Senores Greggorio Maranon, Perez de Ayala and Jose Ortega y Gasset,

These men are in no sense ordinary political leaders. They are among the most eminent citizens of Spain. Senor Maranon for years has been personal physician to the Royal Family. Senor de Ayala is a distinguished author, and Senor Ortega y Gasset is recognised as Spain's greatest living philosopher.

The manifesto they have written presents the troubles of Spain as seen by the leaders in literature, science and art, as well as_ in the social life of the country. While the document, issued by " The Society of Service to the Republic," was immediately suppressed, the fact that it had been written spread throughout Spain, and the announcement that it had been " censored" greatly increased interest in it. From all sections of the country came demands for copies of the document.

The only way it was possible to comply with these demands was through copying the manifesto on the type- 1 writer or mimeographing it. Thousands' volunteered to do this work, and the copies thus made have been and still aro being handed about, more or less surreptitiously, in all sections of Spain.

The Manifesto. Here are the. salient features of. the manifesto:—To the Spanish People. By the Society of Service to the Republic.—When a nation proceeds with its accustomed normality, it seems right that everyone should keep to his own business and devotedly follow his vocation. But when a profound crisis arises, in which normality disappears, new national destinies begin to coalesce and new forms come into being. Therefore, it becomes compulsory for each to subordinate his own affairs to the good of the State.

It is so evident that Spain now finds itself in such an extreme situation that it would be redundant to try to emphasise this manifestation with inopportune grandiloquence.

In the months—we could almost say weeks —that are coming, every Spaniard must shoulder, whether he wants to 01 not, the responsibility of making one of those great collective decisions in which a people irrevocably createes its own ; future. -

This conviction moves us.to address our fellow citizens, especially those devoted to professions such as ours. Never have we been in politics, but we have participated in public struggles whenever danger to the' State made it imperative. Our traditional State is coming to the very last stage of decay. It is not because we are faced with hostile, strong forces, but because the State is being undermined by the corruption of its own inherent vices. "The Monarchy of Sagunto" (Alfonso Xm.'s father, Alfonso XII., was made King at Sagunto) was restored by dissatisfied soldiers after a period of stress and storm that followed the short-lived installation of Amadeo de Saboya, an Italian, as King of Spain.

Those were tragic years for the country. It struggled with a corrupt BourbonHapsburg house unfit to rule, an insignificant [Republican movement and the vacillations of political parties that wanted a king but did not know where to find one.

Demand for Republic. Spain did • not know how to turn itself into a nationalised institution that could control the exigencies of the nation, but adopted a Government conducted by private groups which lived parasitically upon the national organism, using power for enriching the private interests that the groups represented.

This organisation has never served the people or considered the people's vital needs. On the contrary, it has retarded the natural course of the nation along historical paths, fomented inveterate defects and discouraged every honest intention.

Day by day, the monarchy has shown its deficiencies until now it discloses its true character —not that of a national State, but of a cabal using national power fraudulently, partially and selfishly. We believe that this State, already decrepit, must be supplemented by another, honestly national and not Fascistic or Communistic, for these lead to blind alleys and suffer from lack of clear perspectives. i

It is an illusion to suppose that the present monarchy is going to give way gallantly to a public order now opposed to its selfish ways, its privileges and its egotisms. It will bow only to the formidable pressure of public opinion. It is, therefore, urgent to organise this pressure so that monarchical caprice may give way to the will of the people.

Such a magnificent prospect should delight and . animate every Spanish patriot, for its realisation means the liberation of the soul of Spain from tho vile existence in which the monarchy has kept it, making the nation incapable of 'great enterprise and pf building an order that would dignify it among the nations of the world.

The establishment of a Republic will be the announcement to the world that Spaniards, at last, resolved to take vigorously into their own hands their .inalienable destiny.— (N.A.KA. and j" Star" Copyright.)