PROSPECT OF ABDICATION

Hawera Star, Volume L, 17 February 1931, Page 5

PROSPECT OF ABDICATION

POSITION OF SPANISH KINO LIBERAL. LEADER SUMMONED DECIDES TO REMAIN IN PARIS. I (United Press Association —By Electric TelegrapU Uopynjftn.j MADRID, Feb. 15. After consultation with General Berenguer, with whom he discussed • conversations with various leaders, jiving Alfonso decided to telegraph summoning to Aladrid Senor Alba, the I Liberal leader, who is living in virI tual exile at Paris. The King will invite Senor Alba to form a Government, which will be a strange development after the many years of political persecution which King Alfonso permitted. . ! The King’s next step is to decide whether he will accept the proposals of the extreme Constitutionalists, who want him to stand aside while the nation elects a .constituent assembly empowered to reduce him to a mere figurehead, or to choose a policy based on the suggestion of Count Romanones, whereby he will lose only certain Royal ■ prerogatives. But the popular demand for a complete revision is so strong that it is believed that King Alfonso is willing to .surrender. As Senor Alba cannot get back to Madrid until Monday night the crisis is marking time. If he arrives as expected the King will ask him to form a Cabinet of dynastic but extreme Constitutionalists by which Parliametn will be convoked, hut'with which the King cannot interfere. Senor Don Jose Sanchez-Guerra, as leader of the Alonarchical Conservatives, is the outstanding personality of the crisis. He is a man of great energy and a vigorous thinker who is an upholder of the monarchy, but is radically hostile to King Alfonso. The fact that lie was called in to advise the Throne shows how far against the Crown the movement has gone. Paris messages, however, suggest it is doubtful whether Senor Alba will return to Madrid unless he receives an undertaking that King Alfonso is ready to abandon the traditional policy of the Spanish monarchy. Unbiassed judges of the situation believe King Alfonso is unlikely to. proceed to extremists in order to save the Throne, hut will accept the situation: if overwhelming public opinion is evidenced in favour of abdication. The King is personally popular owing to his manifest courage, his sporting proclivities and happy, unceremonious manners.

Curiously enough, on Sunday, the first day of the carnival, no stranger would ever have believed the country was facing its most critical time in 50 years—thousands paraded the streets of Madrid in fancy dress and laughter and merriment were general. “Reality is more powerful than Royalty,’’ was the remark of Senor Sanchez-Guerra, leader of the Valencia revolt against General de Rivera, made to King Alfonso during the discussions in which the King engaged. The constitutional problem has been racking Spain since the Napoleonic invasion, was shelved in 1876, when King Alfonso’s father ascended the Throne, and is again a burning question owing to King Alfonso’s support of a dictatorship. It was Count Romanones, a staunch Royalist reputed to be the most astute of the old' school of politicians, who put the match to the powder. His l agreement to enter candidates at the elections encouraged General Berenguer to persist in a .policy which the Constitutionalists opposed, after which Count Romanones with an ally in tlic former Prime Minister, the Marquis Alhucemas (nicknamed “the. Undertaker of the Constitution” owing to his pusillanimity when General _ de Rivera seized the dictatorship) decided indirectly to join the Constitutionalists by demanding new elections immediately, though the general election is next month. .Senor Cortes, elected bv the Constitutionalists, objected to that, declaring a double election was wasting time. A solution is handias the King is consulting politicians whose heyday has passed inasmuch as it is eight years since last election. The result is that the new Spain at present emerging has not recognised spokesmen. Count Romanones, in reply to criticisms, declares the elimination of General Berenguer alone has greatly served the nation.

Following a long telephone conversation with Count Romanones, Senor Alba issued a statement _ announcing his determination to remain in Paris.