AGAIN IN PERIL

Evening Star, Issue 20687, 9 January 1931, Page 10

AGAIN IN PERIL

THRONE OF SPAIN EUROPE'S DWINDLING KINGS WILL ALFONSO SURVIVE? Once more, as the cables have revealed, King Alfonso of Spain is finding his throne in peril. By this time he should be used to the experience. There have been various efforts to.dethrone him; and five times assassins have tried to kill him (says a writer in the ‘Observer’). . . But Alfonso, the longest . reigning king iu the world, and, so it is said, “the only one who really enjoys being 'a king,” goes on serenely enjoying life, with his polo ponies, his swift racing cars, his great Madrid palace, his lovely summer palace on the peak of the peninsula at Santander, his Mediterranean playground at Malaga, his racing stables, his spacious hunting preserve in the Gredos Mountains, and nis immense annual revenue._

The cry of “Down with tbe King ” has been heard many times recently in Europe, which, as a result of the war. dethroned three of its monarchs, and still threatens to dethrone others. These are troublous days, indeed, for Alfonso —but not for him alone. Oilier members of that limited group of individuals who still wear crowns in Europe must have scanned the news from Spain with uneasy minds and wondered just how firmly they were seated on their thrones. DIFFERENT VIEWS.

How firmly arc they seated there? What of the anti-monarchical sentiment in other European kingdoms besides Spain? What likelihood exists that the cry of “ Down with the King” may arise in other kingdoms? There are eleven kings in_ Europe— Alfonso, King George V., Victor Emmanuel of Italy, Albert of Belgium, Haakon of Norway, Christian of Denmark, Gustaf of Sweden, Carol, of Rumania, Alexander of Jugoslavia, Boris of Bulgaria, and Ahmed Zogu of Albania. In addition to the countries of these kings, there are live others in Europe still under a monarchical form of government. Holland, where the reigning Queen’s husband is not called king but prince-consort; Hungary, -whose government is headed by a Regent ; the two principalities of Monaco and Liechtenstein, and the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg. In the eleven countries where there are still kings the popular sentiment regarding the institution of monarchy varies considerably. In Great Britain the desire of the vast majority of the people to remain the subjects of a king is unmistakable. The British have fought their kings at every step of their history, they have so curtailed the royal power that it is no better than a shadow; they have shorn their monarch of practically everything except pomp and pageantry. Yet the fact remains that the British insist upon having a king and are resolved to have one indefinitely, though thrones may crash elsewhere and those who occupy them may fly ignominiously across their frontiers, to live as exiles in foreign parts. This loyalty to the monarchy as an abstract symbol is combined, in pre-sent-day Britain, with widespread and genuine affection for King George \. as an individual. IN ITALY. In Italy—next to Britain the most important monarchy of Europe—there is an extremely interesting clash just now between the monarchical tradition ingrained in the jation and the new governmental theories arising out of the war and the post-war crises. Towering as ho does high over all his fellow-countrymen, Dictator Mussolini has tended to make many forget that Italy has such a thing as a royal throne with a king seated upon it. Yet, despite the spread of the Fascist idea, Victor Emmanuel 111. still commands loyalty from Italians, still keeps from being swallowed up by the Fascist flood.

This is primarily due to the reverence felt by millions of Italians for the House of Savoy. Their affection goes out not so much to the abstract concept of monarchy as to the dynasty to •which Victor Emmanuel 111. belongs.The history of this dynasty is inextricably mixed up with the history of the Italian fight for freedom, with Italy’s long struggle to achieve unity. In many Italian minds the memory of Victor Emmanuel 11. is still green —the King who himself drew his sword against Austrian oppressors and lived to see United Italy. Nor has Italy forgotten his son Humbert, who, in the course of his quiet and unassuming discharge. of royal didies, was murdered by an anarchist. Nevertheless, despite the affection for the Savoy dynasty, there is no denying tli.it royal authority and prestigein the Italian peninsula have receded since the coming II Dace. ALBERT OF BELGIUM.

Across the English Channel, within a few hours of English shores, is another kingdom where the people feel toward their King a deep and abiding affection. This is little Belgium. Albert King of the Belgians, already well liked in the years before the war, inspired in his subjects a mixture of admiration and love unprecedented in our day by the stand he took against the Germans when they demanded his •auction for the march of their armies through Belgian territory, and later when he led his army in the one corner of the country that remained to him. Since the war Albert has conducted liii*self quietly and wisely, going much among his people—often unrecognised, so modest are his ways and garb—listening to their grievances, devising means for bettering their lives. And recently he has improved the chances of his family of continuing to reign in Europe by marrying his son to a royal Princess of Sweden and his daughter to the Crown Prince of Italy. As modest and conscientious as their Royal colleagues of Belgium arc the three Kings of Scandinavia. They occupy thrones in countries which* are essentially democratic and firm believers in constitutional government. In Norway, Denmark, and Sweden monarchs are taught, as in England, that they ape far more ornamental than anything else.

Haakon of Norway, more than 611 tall, goes about his capital, Oslo, almost as unostentatiously as liis humblest subject. Gustaf of Sweden now 70. is an _ enthusiastic tennis player, and Christian of Denmark is the tallest King in Europe. UNSAFE. The position of the Royal Family is none too secure in Rumania, amid all the political turmoil into which the country has been cast. lilt the other three Eastern monarchies of Europe—Jugo-Slavia, Bulgaria, and Albania—give an impression of instability beside which the situation in Rumania seems firmness itself.

In Jugo-Slavia affairs grew so critical recently that King Alexander, following the example set by Mussolini in Italy. Pilsndski in Poland, and the late Piimo Do Rivera in Spain, placed himself at the head of a dictatorship.

lu Bulgaria King Boris manages to stay on the throne, but his position is sometimes precarious.

The most precarious of all thrones in Europe, however, is that of ATv bania. When Ahmed Zoga won his way to the head of the Government there a few years ago ho styled himself president. Gaining confidence as the months went by and ho found himself stdl in power and, moreover, still unwounded by bullet or knife, lie declared himself King. And King he still is.

But no matter what the head of the Albanian Government calls himself, he is unable to exert anything like the authority of other European rulers. Albania is peopled by some of the most unruly tribes in the world. They have little idea of solidarity among themselves ami a great aversion to obeying anybody. There is no particular point in discussing whether, at bottom, they are inclined towards democracy or monarchy; they simply go ou their way, giving a measure of obedience to local chieftains, hardly bothering their heads .as to whether President Zoga or King Zoga holds sway at Tirana, the Albanian capital. No ono knows iiow long King Zoga will continue to reign. Alfonso knows full well how fho swing of popular opinion iu Europe has been against monarchy; and he knows the perils that beset his throne in Spain. But, as he said some time ago, he will not abdicate; ‘a king who abdicates is a deserter.”

And if it come to a fight—well, Alfonso is no coward. “If necessary, I will perish on the quarter-deck,” he says. Perhaps the danger that he will lose his throne is nob so great as it scorns. In past centuries the throne of Spain has been in danger many times, hut always in the end the people have once more acclaimed their king. MANY TIMES. “ The throne ” (said an American writer recently) “ was in peril when Alfonso, wrapped in cotton wool and lying on ft silver salver, was handed to the Councillors of State a few hours after his bortii on May 17, 1886. “ It was in peril when, a f rail and melancholy boy, he drove out with Jiis mother and was greeted by the scowls of the populace. “It was in deadly pen! on thai, May day in 1906 when he drove through the gaily bcflagged streets of Madrid with his bride. Princess Victoria Eugenic, grand-daughter of Queen Victoria of England, and an assassin threw a bomb which killed twelve people around the royal carriage. . , “ It was iu peril three years alter the Great War, when 10,000 Spanish soldiers, the cream of the army, wore massacred by Ahd-el-Krim’s Riffs in the savage waste of Spanish Morocco; and, when the news became known in Spain, Alfonso was discovered to he absent, amusing himself at Deauville, that seaside paradise of Europe’s rich. “ It was in peril again when the politicians were accusing the generals of incompetence in 1922 and 1923, and the generals were accusing the politicians of treachery and corruption; and Prinio de Rivera staged his army revolt and sent the government of the politicians scuttling from Madrid—and Alfonso got the news at San Sebastian and drove a racing car all night over the mountain roads and got to the capital in time to sign the decree proclaiming martial law. “It is worth remembering that, apart from the fact that five assassins have tried to kill him and have. failed, Alfonso has been astutely playing his cards for at least twenty of_ his fortyfour years of life and kingship in order to retain his throne. STRANGE MUSEUM.

“In In’s Madrid palace he treasures one of the world’s queerest collections of mementoes; a stone on which he once cracked his head in a fall; the rusty knife with which the assassin tried to stab him as a hoy; the skeleton of the horse killed by, a bomb hurled at him as he drove with President Loubct iu state through bedecked Paris in 1905; the poisoned feeding bottle through which ho nearly sucked death before ho was a year old; fragments of the steel bomb thrown at him and his bride just after their marriage twenty-four years ago in Madrid (the young Queen reached the palace with her white satin wedding shoos splashed with the blood of the killed and iniured bystanders) ; tho revolver which Sanchez Alegre fired repeatedly at him in the open street (Alfonso saved himself by spurring his horse on tho assassin and riding him down with a shout).” No doubt Alfonso regards the collection at times with a rather grim smile. He might have been just a little bit less lucky. Perhaps, some day, be will be. But meanwhile, for as long as ho can, ho intends to go on being a king if patience, tact, adroitness, quick action, and an audacious courage can preserve his balance on tho monarchial tightrope.