SPAIN'S WORRIES

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 95, 23 April 1931, Page 7

SPAIN'S WORRIES

Flight of Capital Causes Alarm. MOVE TO PUNISH ALFONSO. (Received 12.30 p.m.) MADRID, April 22. The United States Government has presented its official recognition to the new Spanish Government. The Republican Socialists suggest the accumulation of arms for issue to 1.30,000 workmen in the event of an emergency. General Mola, the former Chief of Police, has been arrested in connection with the action of the police in the recent riots in which students were killed.

The flight of capital continues. The banks are being overwhelmed with applications to transfer stocks and shares and mortgages of property. The Minister of Finance, Senor I. Prieto, has appealed to the banks to advise their customers to "go slow," and he threatens severe penalties if capital is exported.

Several serious bankruptcies are reported in Barcelona, where the falling in the exchange is worrying business men. Everywhere enterprise is at a standstill, pending the stabilisation of the peseta, which cannot be achieved until Parliament meets.

The Republican Socialist organisation has issued a manifesto, demanding the inexorable punishment of members of the old regime, not excepting King Alfonso. It is contended that he Is under grave suspicion of having committed political offences and also misdemeanours under the common code by illegal transactions during the three dictatorships.

King Alfonso, who spent the day in London shopping and paying personal calls, is expected to visit Princess Beatrice at Torquay this week.