ATTACK RENEWED.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 3 July 1925, Page 10

ATTACK RENEWED.

IBANEZ AND THE KING OF ,-PAIN

ALFONSO ACCUSED OF CATSENG RIFFIAN WAR.

V. Blasco Ibanez resumed his attack on the King or Spain recently, says the New York Times, calling for ti.e oxerthrow of the monarchy and the establishment or a Spanish Republic along American or French lines. The attack was issued by the novelist’s American representatives, who issued excerpts from a pamphlet published recently. The agents said the circular was called ■•What the Spanish Republic Will Be,” and in it Ibanez promised the reorganisation of the army and ‘•reforms in finance, taxation, land ownership, and labour laws.” He favoured autonomy for Catalonia, preservation of the concordat with the Catholic Church, but with tolerance for Protestants and, after accusing King Alfonso’s generals of supplying money and munitions to the Riffs, repudiated the charges of Bolshevism made against himself. Meeting the report that he was interested in establishing a Spanish Republic only that he might become President, Ibanez, in the statement of his American agents, said:

‘‘Those who know me cannot lend credence to such ’.suppositions. I desire a Spanish Republic because f am more of a Spaniard than Alfonso XIII. I am disposed to do whatever 1 i•• s in my power in order that Spain may be freed of royalty; but once the Republic lias triumphed I desire to see new men joining with the older patriots to govern the young Republic; and shall be glad to be left to one side to enjoy in silence the moral satisfaction of having accomplished a great task for the good of my country. It would not be fitting, however, that I should abandon the Republic in the first moment of its triumph. I will serve as long as the Republic needs me. and in whatever capacity she desires.” in his allegations .against the generals of Primo de Rivera, accusing them of responsibility for ‘new outbreaks in North Africa, Ibanez says: “Miguelito de Jerez, the grand captain of Alfonso’s reign, has invented a new kind of tactic. He lias given money to the Moo' s so that they will a Mow him to fall back unmolested, and he has presented them with rifles and all kinds of material with wbHi they may later continue their attacks.”

The author reiterated his charge, first made in a book published in January, that the war in North Africa was r

, personal one, inspired bv King Alfonso • “for me pleasure of posing before the Spanish people as a Napoleon.” “The army of Spain,” said Ibanez, “is only a crowd in uniform, a mob of officers without training or discipline.” The present financial policy of the Spanish Directorate, according to the novelist, is “ruinous,” and consists of “increasing taxes on the one hand and inflating currency on the other,” with the middle class suffering most. l“It would be absurd,” he writes, “tr expect a Spanish Republic to solve al! social problems within twenty-four hours. The most progressive nations o! the globe, nations who have outstripped us by a century of progress, have not yet found definite solutions for these questions. This must be the work of education, of evolution of gradual understanding. But a Spanish Republic, by admitting labouring men to a share in' the government, will do more in a short time for the wellbeing and dignity of labour than the monarchy Uas done in centuries.” Ibanez said that if there were any ! danger of Communism in Spain it would be found in the rural districts, where, bo alleged, peasants were working under an agrarian system “identical with that in Russia of the Tsars.” “Under a Republican form of O-overn- , merit.” he said, at one point, “there may be fewer bull lights, but thousands' of Spaniards who now live like beggars will be cultivators of their own land.' After saying that the Republic would revive Spanish business through a “mild protectionist ta: iff,’’ Ibanez concluded: “Every day my mail brim s me threats of death, grossly abusive letters, or anonv nious communications filled wjith insults and .slanders. Scarce- * ly four months ago before my pamph'et against the tvranny of the Directorate was published, the monarchist newspapers of Madrid treated me as a great novelist and a national glory, commenting with satisfaction on my successes in foreign lands. Now they deride ine as a contemptible scribbler and a nobody. However, if Kiev hope to wear me out or frighten me tliev are wasting their time. Never Jmve I fell: better. Never have I. been more satisfied with my work nor enjoyed in .such la rye measure the inner tranpni'itv 'which comes from a sense of diitv done.” ' i