SPAIN'S NEXT KING?

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 September 1945, Page 6

SPAIN'S NEXT KING?

DON JUAN’S CAREER If the monarchy is restored in Spain, as General Franco wishes, the new King will be Don Juan, Prince of the Asturias, whom King Alfonso formally named on his deathbed in 1941 as heir to the throne. He would take the title of King J.uan HI. King Alfonso, last King of Spain, went into voluntary exile in 1931 when the municipal elections showed a considerable vote for republicanism. He explicitly refused, however, to renounce his monarchical rights. On April 14, 1931, the Second Republic was proclaimed in Spain (the First Republic lasted from 1873 to 1875), but in the bloody civil war five years later the Republicans were defeated by Franco’s “Nationalists,” and in 1938 a new civil Government was proclaimed with General Franco, possessing dictatorial powers, at its head. As early as 1936 there was persistent talk of Don Juan being recalled to the throne of Spain. Genera] Franco was believed to approve of the idea then. It was said that when the Prince wished to return to Spain to fight on the Nationalists’ side in the civil war Franco refused, and wrote to him; “You are reserved for greater things.” In 1935 the Prince married his second cousin, Princess Marie of Bour-bon-Sicily, thus finally healing an ancient succession feud between the Carlist and Legitimist factions. lie is the only one of King Alfonso’s four sons who escaped the dread family disease haemophilia. The eldest son died in 1938, the second, who renounced his claim to succession in 1933. was born deaf and dumb, the youngest died of injuries received in a car accident in 1934.

Don Juan, born on June 20, 1913, is slender, strong, tough, athletic and good-looking. He had an English “nanny” as a baby. then an English tutor. Ho speaks English perfectly, and lias always been pro-British. A.s a great-grandson, through his mother, of Queen Victoria, ho is closely related to the British Royal Family. He has been a “sailor prince.” He entered the Spanish Navy at the age of 16, and when his father went into exile ho joined the British Navy, which he left when he was married with the honorary rank of lieutenant. He has four children. His present homo is in Switzerland.