THE KING OF SPAIN

Southland Times, Issue 19458, 24 January 1925, Page 5

THE KING OF SPAIN

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS. IBANEZ RETURNS TO THE ATTACK. PERSECUTION BY ALFONSO. (By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright). (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) LONDON, January 22. (Received January 24, 1 a.m.). A Madrid message states that King Alfonso was proclaimed honorary Mayor of all towns in the country. He said the spirit manifested by the people was that of a people who loved work and peace and were animated by a desire to co-oper-ate in the progress of humanity. It was necessary that this fact should be known outside Spain. The Daily Express correspondent at Nice states that Ibanez, the author, in an interview, attributed his wife’s death to shock caused by the sequestration of his estates. “Although King Alfonso stopped prosecuting me, in effect he has seized everything I possess in Spain, burned my books and is tyrannising over my friends and relations. I suppose I cannot even send a wreath; they would burn it. King Alfonso is a hypocrite. He stopped my prosecution, not because of his liberalism, but because he was frightened of the opinion of the world. It would have been his trial, not mine.” "MUCH TOO GAY.” AN ATTACK ON ALFONSO. The cables have busily ticked messages, of recent months, concerning Blasco Vincente Ibanez’s attack upon King Alfonso of Spain, and the Spanish Directory. Ibanez’s book has arrived in Paris and the French correspondent of an American paper has forwarded extracts, together with a little personal history—some of it too personal to appear in our columns. Below is an “expurgated edition” of the sensational charges made against the Spanish King. King Alfonso of Spain is being taken to task for amusing himself indiscreetly at Parks and Deauville. Many thrones already have been upset in Europe, and those who still wear crowns must exercise the utmost circumspection. A modern monarch with questionable habits is in a perilous position. King Alfonso has been publicly cartooned for his indiscretions, and it has been alleged that the proprietor of the notorious gambling resort at Deauville had him as an advertising card, and furnished him with every kind of entertainment without cost to the King. » While the King has been amusing himself, Spain has been in the toils of ruin, revolution, and anarchy. Thousands of Spanish soldiers have through bad leadership, been slain by the wild Riff tribesmen of Morocco. An adventurer has thrown the Prime Minister out of office and taken his place. One government warned King Alfonso that he must stop his dissipation in France. But another Government has taken its place, and King Alfonso feels that he can do just as he pleases. Meanwhile affairs in Spain have gone from bad to worse. Indeed, revolutionary outbreaks have already taken place, and wholesale arrests have been made of some of the best known Opposition leaders in Spanish politics. Meetings have been broken up, and Spanish newspapers are arriving in Paris with many columns printed blank, where the Government censorship has been at work. But the iron hand of Government suppression has stirred animosities still deeper, and the overthrow of Dictator Primo de Rivera and, perhaps, Alfonso himself, may come at any time. Vicente Blasco Ibanez, author of “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” the most sucessful of all Spanish writers, has voiced the demand that Alfonso must go. in a manifesto of tremendous force. Ibanez whose readers are largely Spanish, would not dare to use such language unless he were certain of finding a considerable portion of the Spanish people behind him. “It is not the military directory, but the ‘degenerate Alfonso,’ who is mainly responsible for the troubles in Spain and the catastrophe in Morocco,” declares Ibanez in the first manifesto of his campaign for the inauguration of a Spanish Republic. “Never has history shown a monarch more deceitful and less powerful than the cruel and faithless puppet of the Spanish throne,” he continues. With Alfonso and de Rivera in power Ibanez declares, Spain groans under pitiless tyranny. “The time has come to put an end to the new era of the inquisition, and for that accomplishment Alfonso must go. I will know no rest until the country is free. I know the dangers I run. My family will be persecuted and my property seized, but I shall not falter. Whatever reputation I have acquired in literature, and all my strength are at the service and for the deliverance of Spain.” Several years ago Ibanez wrot a remarkable book on Mexico, condemning the Mexican military leaders for the bloodshed they caused to their country. To-day he apologises to the Mexican generals, saying that they had the grace to shoot one another, while the Spanish generals only sacrifice their soldiers. Alfonso’s visit to Deauville in the summer of 1922 was the most cynical exhibition ■®f his method of discharging the duties of a king. Deauville is the gayest resort in Europe, and derives its vast revenues from the gambling casino, and the presence of an army of alluring sirens. Alfonso naturally went to Deauville without his Queen, who has six children to care for. He astonished even Deauville by the recklessness with which he threw himself into the gaieties of the place. In the afternoon he would sit at a table in the casino sipping drinks with one or two or three of the celebrated sirens who make up Deauville; all about him was a mixed crowd of men and women from all parts of the world, who could hear every word that dropped from the royal lips. Alfonso’s favourite dance partner was the beautiful Mademoiselle Marthe Chenal, the Paris opera singer. He danced the tango with her twenty time in one evening. Mlle Chenal, by the way, is noted for the enthusiasm with which she welcomes distinguished foreigners, and the French Government has recognised her patriotic services in this direction. .4s a result of Alfonso’s presence at Deauville and free circulation among the clientele the receipts were more than double those of Monte Carlo in its best days. This was splendid for the gambling establishment, but no benefit to Spain whatever. Rebellious Spanish politicians began to murmur at Alfonso's Deauville escapades, and then one of them announced that all his lavish entertainments had been furnished free on account of the advertisement his Majesty’s presence gave the gay resort. Further, it was said that the King had a large number of shares in the gambling establishment, presented to him for the same reason. During the autumn and winter, following Alfonso’s Deauville escapades, the vaudeville theatres of Paris presented many amusing and daring sketches based on the King’s experiences. They were conceived in a good-natured spirit, since the King’s acts testified to the overwhelming attraction of France and Frenchwomen, but they had serious consequences for him in Spain. In one Parisian vaudeville sketch the scene represented King Alfonso seated at a table at the Deauville Casino, surrounded by demi-mondaines and gamblers, while on the stage Raquel Meller, the popular Spanish singer, “La Belle Otero,” the dancer who was much admired by the King years ago, and other artists with whom his name had been associated gave performances.

One of them began to sing a lively song, entitled “Oh, How I Love France!”

whereupon one of the artists interrupted and said, “The King ought to show us how to sing that.” Then the actor, dressed as Alfonso, climbed up on the stage and sang the song in the King’s own manner. The French Government sent for the manager of the show, and asked him to suppress the act. The manager, pointing out that he had broken no law, refused to do so. Radical Spanish newspapers and political parties used all these episodes as material for a bitter, though veiled campaign against Alfonso. They insinuated that he was making Spain contemptible in the eyes of Europe by acting as advertising agent for a gambling resort. It was then that the Spanish Cabinet warned King Alfonso that there would be a revolution in Spain if he spent another vacation in France. In response to this broad hint the King spent his next vacation at the watering place San Sebastian, in Spain. The good effect of this proceeding was considerably spoiled when it was declared that Alfonso owned shares in the gambling establishment at San Sebastian. Then rude and radical political agitators began to unearth facts about the King’s interests in all kinds of financial enterprises. It was shown that he owned large quantities of shares in munitions works, mines, and railroads, which were in a position to benefit from Government orders. Soon after his marriage Alfonso became notorious for his attentions to beautiful women. For a little while he was devoted to Tortola Valencia, the remarkably handsome Spanish dancer, but it was a momentary attachment, only. Alfonso has now established a reputation as the gayest king in Europe has ever known, surpassing all his ancestors of the famous Bourbon family. The Marquis Boni de Castelldhe, who has had a great deal of experience in the same line himself, and believes that kings have a divine right to behave differently from ordinary men, said: “Really, I think King Alfonso is doing some things he ought not to do.” Alfonso was naturally popular with foreigners, because he has a pleasant word, a smile and a handsome present for every woman who pleases his fancy. Leonora Hughes, the American dancer, has described Alfonso’s pleasing manner. “The King started in with a wonderful dinner,” she said. “After that he gave me a grand rush—flowers every day, dancing every night, motor rides, boxes at the polo matches, dinners —and this!” Miss Hughes held up her right hand. On one finger glittered an enormous diamond —18 carats and a full one inch square 1 General Primo de Rivera and the King have agreed splendidly together by a policy of non-interference. The King has spent all the money he wished to spend, and the dictator has conducted the details of Government in the spirit of an old-time buc- , canner.