DICTATORSHIP IN SPAIN.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 11 January 1926, Page 7

DICTATORSHIP IN SPAIN.

OUTLOOK AFTER TWO YEARS

A PACIFIC REVOLUTION. Ii is lwo years since t. lit? Spanish Diiectory was established. under General Primo de Rivera, superseding the Pin iinmentaiy system. Jn the iol'ow...g article in the 'Observer’ Dr. E. ). Dillon, the famous authority on loieign allairs. describes ihe work accomplished hy thy Directory in reestahljsliing authority and suppressing anaichisiu, anti in infusing a new pint into public ailairs. \\ hen Spain two year.-, ago abruptly exchanged Par 1 in menta ry Government for a dictatorship she w as on the brink or irretrievable disaster. It was touch-and-go. To save her from anarchic • lissolutiiiii a numhe.i of military ollicers risked their career and tin ir liberty. set aside tlie Cabinet, and got togetlier a body of men able and willing to stem the tide of anarchy and govern the realm in accordance with its needs. Probably no country in Europe has! been soi woefully misgoverned as the Iberian Peninsula. Seldom bad the central power there been wielded lor the (-0111111011 good. It had crushed out the municipalities which hade fair to develop on lines similar to those of Italy—after which the nation lived by habit, moved in grooves, and was never seif-conscious for long. Spain’s isolation and decline, however. I am disposed to ascribe, almost exclusively, to the shitting* of the cent re of gravity >1 Europe's cultural interest from the sphere of religion to other domain*. But of all her regimes. the most repugnant to. the national temperament was the British Parliamentary system imported at the restoration in IP7-3. whereby reai and sham .Monarchists undertook to play the battledore and shuttlecock game of party 'Government without ideals. The people, ignoring them-, refused to go to the polls, and elections were 'eft to “( ncipnes," or rural bosses, who.raised Government majorities by vote-rigging, defeated the ends of justice, poisoned the streams of municipal life, and thwarted every reform scheme. The deputies consisted largely of parasites for whom the main attractions were the emoluments of office which the two oarties shared in rotation. That such a regime should have lasted forty-eight years is a high tribute to the patience of the Spanish people.

THE REVOLT OF THE ARMY. During ali those years or national decav only two party chiefs reached one of litem outstripping-- the scant insight of the groups to which they belonged. The endeavours of the statesman, Antonio Maura, to deliver the country from the fate that was fast overcoming it were systematic and well-timed. The thwarting oi his plans hy his political friends and antagonists whose party interests ran counter to those of the nation, const rained the country to choose between rum or an appeal to violence. And as the people were too listless and disorganised to rise up in amis, the only chance o! salvation my with the army, -which had special motives of its own for intervention. Parliament, which ill ten years tripled the pay o; its own members, persistently grudged Ibe money needed lor the training and equipment of the troops, who were defrauded over and above oi a considerable part of the insufficient sums allotted them. So stinted were they that the average officer could not a fiord leather hoots, decent clothing, or a sanitary dwelling, while the rank and file were badly fed. shockingly housed, and sent to light without adequate means or training. And when, despite those conditions, they acquitted themselves creditably in Morocco, rewards were lavished on the military drones, while no mention was made of those who had borne the brunt oi the battle.

Against these abuses a mililar,' junta in Barcelona raised its voice, de manding rewards for the deserving mid funds lor the equipment of the troops. The War Minister, by way ol response, had the members arrested, but as tbe hulk of the army made common cause with its spokesman, he was forced to set the prisoners free. Thenceforward Spain was governed by a Parliament tempered with a military dictatorship on tlie* one hand and with syndicalist terrorism on the other hand. THE MARCH OF ANARCHISM.

Owing to the politicians the campaign in .Morocco kept draining the country of its manhood and its wealth, sapping the'moral of the army, and tarnishing the prestige ol the nation. For tliev were incapable of abandoning or bringing it to a sa list actory issue. At home they tolerated disorder and allowed the law to he set at naught. The extreme Labour Part.v a mi-os'need its resolve 10 seize power bv sudden and prolonged strikes. Between capital and Labour the chasm was vv'dcning. Syndicalism ensconced itself in centres of indnstiy and inaugurated a reign or terror. Assassination became a recognised means o' propaganda, and blood flowed freely in lhe streets of Barcelona. A band oi thug-; would select its victims, and by n rehneinoiil of cruelty until v them of their approaching doom, after which its agents" would carry out the sentence ill broad daylight without fear d legal nuitishmen c or nimal censure. I n on - year the number ol these murders in tlie capital o' Catalonia totalled ’273. Communism, sepaiaiisin. anarchism were ail making headway, while I lie authorities looked supinely on. Even into the army the poison of disaffection was being infiltrated In a word. Spain, become a lie! in tin* hands of an anarchist caucus, was at her last gasp. \t ibis juncture Primo do Rivera, aided by his comrades, dismissed the Cabinet, proclaimed the Directory, relieved the Governors of their posts, and "Doned what ho termed "a brie! parenthesis in Spains constitutional march.” These significant words mark mi essential dilierence between Spain's present regime and that ol Italy: tbe one is a transitional Government, tlie other a definite regime.

I TH‘K.I WOHiK Ob’ TH K l>l IM‘X TORY. J>m*itij£ the two years that have elapsed since then the Directory has efleeted a noteworthy change for the Letter. Syiidiioali‘-m and separatism are ‘■ ■'tolled, if not killed. The laws are enforced. Morocco, which for a lona while yet will be a grave problem, has eased considerably. The anti-Mouarch-ist onslaught directed from Paris, with its .aeroplanes. leaflets. hooks and hands of filibusters, was succevslully cnmute: ed. and the dynasty is now in a stionger position than beloio. (tainblingr which was emiching a group o! foreign blood-suckers and theii Spanish Tin federates, has been suppressed. Justice, which was not above vulgar temptations, has been to some extent purged. A fresh impulse lias been given to elementary instruction. The educational budget has been increased by over twelve million pesetas. New schools ate being built, more teachers are being recruited, and their pay has been raised by JO per cent. Labour

f legislation lias been taken in band. ! The financial difficulties were grapi pled with in a similar spirit. Waste 1 Iw as penalised and rotienehment en- ! Pared. The “I’ai liamculiirjan* ’ bud I left a deficit of a thoin-und million | pesetas, which was .growing at the iate of two bundled millions a year. L\ dint of thrift and without lresh legislation the Biieeimy had reduced this si,image to -3d- millions within fi I teen i iis. ar/l has continued to lessen j it ever since. ■ Those lesnlls Slicing! hened the puoli: confidence which bad a: conyianied the IT uviisionul Government Jiom tile out set and when'the time came for the renewal of the HUH loan the nation. despite intense piopaganda I ion, Paiis. readme.l Ihe operation very successful; out of 120,3 million pesetas hardly two millions were withdrawn by the creditors ol the State. AROUSING THIS JII’NK I PAL. SIM R'i i Side hy side with those achievements' was the utter collapse ol the “Parliamentarians." in whom the ingrained national dislike of team-work i- manifesting it*elf. For. although both parties aio in opposition, they seem incapable of joining forces. Lack ol colies•veuess in the nation is a grave defect. I>\ wav of remedying it the Directory is awakening in the people an ctliracioiis desire to take tip the threads ot municipal history wheie they were severed in the sixteenth century. This was a national craving which the Parliament could not satisfy. 1* or fortyseven years it strove in vain to pass a Rill on the * object. Twenty-two times the attempt was made and tailed. Ihe Diiectory solved the problem hy lie-towing upon the municipalities a larger scope and stiongei stimulus tor -eii-governing activity than they enjoyed in the haleyon days of the 'burghers. Another statute a large measure of isell-guvei nnient on each “t the provinces goes far to complete tbe change of era. In the saane order of idea* was the fomnation of a kind of national militia, whose function in troblous moments i- to help to maintain public order, and in humdrum times to keep alive the spTit of civic virtue. The moment this law was promulgated a stream of enthusiastic young men alien from politics applcd for adm.i,ssiou. and to-day cvcty province has its corps of “Soniateiiis." who display an intelligent interest in the welfare of the larger as well as of tilt 1 lesser coniiminity. A section of the nation still more numerous was reached when the Directory ca I led into being a non-political class from whom future administrators of the realm will be selected when the present •T a ren I bisis” i.s closed. It is a lelUowLip ol' all Spaniards of good-will desirous of working for the welfare ol the whole community on the basis of monarchic principles and genuine molality. The Patriotic Union, a.s it is termed. must have corresponded to a real want, for it became popular at once, and in a lew months totalled a million and a quarter members, which is an nnhe.ard-of number tor Spain. A PACIFIC; REVOLUTION. In those two veai*. then, much has been effected by the Directory, out it is nl\ the first furrow in the eiust of a fertile soil. Taxation, nowise oppie—sive, is made ruinous by the modes ol a-sevdiig and collecting it. The udniiiiis'u atiou of ju.-tiee and the procedure ol the C u-toni hiMi*cs need to be radically overhauled. But. despite sins of omission and commission, it seems certain that Spain is at last awakening from the secular coma in which she lies for centuries been plunged, and that the Directoiy has menU-iL-woH ol the nation.

Before the Moroccan problem i* temporarily solved, no change is likely to occur in the present political Iramew< rk. And even then the military inlets will in no case reinstate the partie- which they ousted two years ago. For the fact is that Spain is. undergoing a pacific revolution which the army seems resolved to work out to a siitisfactoi v issue.