The Star. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1920. MYSTERIOUS SPAIN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19879, 21 February 1920, Page 8

The Star. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1920. MYSTERIOUS SPAIN.

i- V; T ■Alijreek ago a cable message was reLondon stating that “ sng- ; giest'ivb messages aro arriving from - Spain;:'' alluding to important affairs. ... Apparently grave disorders have again (Occurred, but the news is of the scantiest nature. Probably a censorship is in operation.” Since then nothing furWier has been heard on the subject, and .this may bo due to one of two causes—either there were no disorders, or the. !■■ y-7censorship lias been of a most drastic W 'description. During the war, as a r'r neutral. country. Spam had a golden ■ ■ Opportunity for commercial and indus- ' (rial development which was denied any ■ fther European country- But its politi- - ,|nl weakness was so pronounced that : comparative freedom from . anxiety such as should have been at- :. the country was constantly in the throes of internal trouble. Matters > reached such a serious pass, the story |(tas, that" King Alfonso issued a separ- | I:. -i|e * inyitption to each of the loading u rroembors ,<>{; the several political parties : ■ to dipo’-tyith him, and by the adoption i of, thi§: means ho was enabled to bring together at the same tabic bitter pou litical opponents whose principal object •Jiad iecn to politically min each other, s quite possible that had they been . -iiware of the royal subterfuge many V tbf them .would have devised some means •'•■••'•'’of'.escaping the invitation, but having jgot them together Alfonso, with that B -tifot whicli is a distinguishing character- . Istlcj appealed to them as honourable '‘ . r gentlemen- to sink their political differ- . hnces and give their country the benefit ■ v '.ofatheir knowledge and experience. The >■ result' was what we would call a Coafi- •• tihh'Government. Everyone agreed to ■v. .Accept -owhatevor position was allotted Jlo'him,’ and to honestly and faithfully ■■■', ' dp his-best for bis country during the F . crisis with which it was faced. Great V ; changes r camo about. The unrest in ■ > ~ the army was stilled by the payment ■■ pay, the Civil Service was pacin' 1 fieri by a sympathetic hearing of griev- <. finces, and industrially many evils wore . rectified. For a (time things worked smoothly, and there appeared to bo «yefy prospect of a thorough internal ■ /cleansing. The Socialists camo to light Well-defined programme, and the jnore advanced ‘members became open Bolshevism. Newspapers ■/■i'Sprang into existence whose chief aim ..Mfd'.business was to support Bolshevism, Ii ■ ■ 'cnmo the demands of the Oatsi lonlans. Tor separation from Spain, the \ Carlist.-party began to raise its head, j industrial troubles broke out in various of the country, and conditions I foil, hack to the state they were in when • ( Alfonso first made his appeal to the L'fcaders to -sink their individual inter- , r fsts and pnll together for the general j welfare of their country. Riots, nc- . j companied by bloodshed, have been refrom time .to time, and there is ■ : [HO doubt that outwardly appearances . 'indicate that at any moment a troraenupheaval may occur in the land Perhaps it may oven be Jiow, tor tiiough nothing ; /las . come forth since the significant y message of a week ago, the silence;may he attributable to the comsuppression of all news except , .that permitted to drift through care- . fully censored channels.