GENERAL DE RIVERA PASSES ON IN PARIS

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 7170, 18 March 1930, Page 7

GENERAL DE RIVERA PASSES ON IN PARIS

Ex-Dictator of Spain REMARKABLE MILITARY AND POLITICAL CAREER “SPAIN KILLED HIM” SAYS SON. United Press Association.—By Electris Telegraph.—Copyright. PARIS, March 16. Tho death has occurred of General Primo de Rivera, until recently Dictator of Spain. Though General do Rivera suffered from diabetes, ho was in his usual health, apart from weakness following influenza. Ho breakfasted in bed, and told his daughter that ho had had an excellent night, and never felt better. Soon, however, ho experienced difficulty in breathing and died of heart failure before tho arrival of tho doctor. The immediate cause of death was cmbol-

His son declared that Spain killed de Rivera, meaning that tho severe and continuous strain of the Dictatorship shortened his life.

Story of His Life General Primo do Rivera, Spanish soldier and statesman, was born on January 8, 1870. At an early age he entered" the Madrid Military School, and from then on until tho time of his death, ho had an exceptionally line military career. After four years in Toledo he was ordered to Morocco in 1893 as lieutenant of the Infantry Regiment of Extremadura, and in October of the same year was promoted to the grade of captain for extraordinary personal bravery. In 1895 he was adjutant to General Martinez Campos, in Cuba and roso to be major commanding tho infantry battalion in Zamora.

Pine Military Career. He served in the Philippines in 1597, and negotiated the Treaty of Baignabato in the same year, whereby the insurgents and their leader Aguinaldo surrendered and retired to Hong Ivong. Returning from the Philippines in 1900 ho commanded a battalion in Barcelona for a year and a half, after which ho was transferred to the general staff. In 1915 he was appointed Governor of Cadiz, and spent a month at tho French Front during the World War. His speech advocating the exchange of Gibraltar for a North African territory, and his criticism of tho Government’s policy in Morocco, resulted in his being relieved of the Governorship of Cadiz. His exceptional military talents, his brilliant exploits, his unaffected simplicity, and straightforwardness, his sympathy with tho feelings and interests of the army and nation, won for him tho confidence of the King, and tho general staff and public, so that despite his outspokenness, he was soon afterwards promoted to be general and chief of the First Infantry Division in Madrid.

In 1921 de Rivera was elected Senator for Cadiz, and delivered a powerful speech reaffirming in emphatic terms the views he had already put forward respecting Morocco. Through this speech ho once again lost his post. Easy and generous to the point of familiarity in his private life , de Rivera was punctilious and exacting in matters affecting the nation, the army, and the monarch, and his integrity was proverbial.

A Difficult Post. After the loss of his last post he was entreated to undertake the most dangerous and difficult post in Spain that of Captain-General of Catalonia—with a view to ending the reign of terror there. Accepting the invidious task, the new captain-general soon reaped a measure of success fully proportionate to his chivalrous character. I-Io soon recognised the chaos in Catalonia for what it was—one of the indirect consequences of the breakdown of the Parliamentary regime. This was also responsible for the mismanagement of the Morocco campaign, as well as for the ferment in the army brought about by niggardliness and the favouritism and criminal recklessness of the central Government. The Cortes, which in a decade had trebled the pay of its members, refused the money needed for the training and equipment of the rank and file of the army, while the average officer was so badly paid that he could not afford a sanitary dwelling, decent clothing, or even a pair of leather boots. Although the evil had long been diagnosed nobody had the courage to uproot it, until de Rivera surprised the world by his manifesto suspending the Constitution and proclaiming in its place a directorate consisting of military and naval officers. He further announced that this arrangement was but a bridge leading to a future system of Government better suited to Spain’s needs than that which he abolished. This military coupe was carried out without bloodshed. Upon his accesion to power de Rivera’s views on the Morocco problem underwent a complete transformation, which he frankly proclaimed with-

out apologies but not without explanation. History, he held, constantly modifies political situations, and methods must bo adjusted to current events. Of this the Moroccan imbroglio was an illustration. By the year 1923 it had ceased to be purely a Moroccan struggle on the part of Abdel Krim for homo rule, and had become an international enterprise.

Voice From the Dead DID NOT GO TO PARIS TO FIGHT A DUEL. Received Monday, 7.40 p.m. LONDON, March 17. The Daily News prints a letter just received from the late General de Rivera denying the report that he went to Paris in order to fight a duel. The letter adds: “I come to Paris to think out calmly, quietly and restfully, the best way in which I can servo my country. ’ ’ According to Spanish custom, General de Rivera’s body will be clothed in a white woollen robe, which is worn in Spain by members of the Carmelites. The feet will be enclosed in sandals and the hands will clasp a rosary of black beads.