The Dominion WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25, 1917. GERMANY AND SPAIN

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3062, 25 April 1917, Page 4

The Dominion WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25, 1917. GERMANY AND SPAIN

The accepted explanation of the recent change of Government in Spain is that Sbnok Komanones, the leader of the late Ministry, resigned rather than take further responsibility for a policy of neutrality under which it is impossible to defend the lives., and interests of Spaniards. The incoming" Government has an-, nojvnced that it will maintain the policy of neutrality—which is tantamount to saying that it will submit to whateveroutrages Germany may inflict. But it is expected that the term of office of the stop-gap Ministry will be short, and that Senor Romanones /will shortly return to power, and that £pain will then fall into line with the Entente in resisting. Gorman aggression. Enemy influence is, or has been, so firmly established in Spain that these anticipations can as yet be only,tenta- . tivcly accepted, but the weight of evidence certainly is that Germany has presumed too far upon Spanish forbearance, and is about to reap an appropriate reward. Probably no question- will arise of Spain taking any'very serious part in the war. By the standards that have been established/her army and navy are both negligible' factors. The question to Ije determined is rather whether;/the national sentiment in Spain which has'been deeply stirred by Germany's recent outrages is sufficiently .powerful to establish a patriotio Government in office,- and enable it to crush the German conspiracy and intrigue, which, in Spain, have been carried to unexampled lengths. The immediate task by which Spanish patriots arc faced is.tha.t of rooting out the German influences which have so extensively permeated the national life of their country that it has all but lost the right to be regarded as an independent State. Until this has been accomplished,. Spain cannot even begin to take purposeful action towards defending, the lives and property of her citizens at sea. It must be confessed that Germany has turned her opportunities in Spain most, enterprisingly to account. •• The outbreak o'f' war found Spain in a state of divided sympathies which extended to the Court. King Alphonso is, on his father's side, a French Bourbon, and he has an English wife. Being, on the dther hand, a Hapsburg. on, his mother's side, he is an Austrian archduke, and has many relatives in the Austrian army. It is said that the war is a forbidden tqpic of discussion at the Spaliish Court, No such reticence has been observed in the country at large. From the outset the German cause was championed by an influential body of politicians and a, strong section of the Press. In addition, there are. some fifty thousand! Germans in .Spain, and these were formed into an army of propagandists, under the direction of their ' consular and diplomatic corps. Individual Spaniards and Spanish newspapers were liberally bribed, and in the early months of the war the Spanish people wore unsettled with promises regarding ■ Gibraltar, Tangier, and Portugal. For a long time the idea prevailed in Spain that Germany was destined to triumph in the war,, and it was only towards the end of last year,, when the'prospects of the Central Powers had unmistakably declined, that Spanish sympathisers with the Allies, always a fairly numerous body, began to make themselves heard with effect. •

The success of the German propaganda during the first eighteen months of the war has left Spain, a legacy of problems. The country has been wrapped by German ,and pro-German plotters, in such a network of intrigue that it is a question whether even the gross provocation offered in the' later_ activities of the German submarines will awake.n its dortnant patriotism and self-resp'ect.' Nothing could more clearly illustrate the dentil to which Spain has sunk than the fact that the piratical submarines which have lately been showing redoubled vigour in torpedoing her shins and sometimes murdering their crews havo undoubtedly been assisted by an extensive organisation on the Spanish mainland. If Spain desires to strike a heavy blow at German submarine piracy she is in a position to do so without acting beyond her own frontiers. The state of affairs that exists is indicated in the following extract from an article, published by a Spanish newspaper (the Liberal) subsequent to the German announcement of a. campaign of unrestricted piracy and murder:

All we have asked, and shall continue to ask, is this: First, that the use of wireless telegraphy should bo forbidden to those who make use of it to inform submarines of. the movements of Spanish shipping. Secondly, that the Germans who are openly acting as spies in Spain should be kept under observation. Thirdly, that the 92 German and Austrian ships should be removed to two or three securo ports where they, could bo easily watched so that they shall no longer prolit by their clever distribution to "form a girdlo of foreign fortresse.-; round our coasts. Fourthly, lh;it tlio bridges and tunuels pa the frontier

should bo hatched to provent nay outrage) having for its object the cutting of our communications with France. Fifthly, thai there should be established along tin} frontiers of Portugal and Franco, as well as round the coast, a zone of 50 kilonietres (31 miles) in which Germans should not bo allowed to reside without sufficient reason. Sixthly, that the German chibs should be kept under observation.

It is obvious that if Senoe Romanones is returned with a mandate to pursue a national and anti-German policy, he will find his work cut out for him, biit well-informed observers hold the opinion that if the German power in Spain were boldly attacked it would be speedily overthrown. The recent political changes indicate that the question will soon be put to the test.