SPAIN AND HER KING.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19258, 20 December 1930, Page 17 (Supplement)

SPAIN AND HER KING.

What Does The Future Hold?

week has been marked by further evidence of internal unrest in Spain, where there is a widespread movement against the monarchy. The whole of the agitation centres around King Alfonso, on whom, as Mr Evelyn Graham says in his recently-published book, “The Life Story of King Alfonso XIII.,” the eyes of the world are fixed. What is in store for Alfonso and his throne? “To that question, that all the world is asking, only the future can give a true answer. Of -*■ late Spain has known troubled hours, small parties with big voices have grown clamorous, the national pulse has beaten too fast; but those who know King Alfonso smile to themselves, remembering that it was a Socialist and a revolutionary who said: ‘lf Spain became a republic King Alfonso would be its first President’.” In a final chapter dealing with the King and the Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera. Mr Graham states, “'1 »> an, impartial observer it must be evident that King Alfonso was responsibly for the fall of the Dictatorship. . . 11 is firm, tactful, and always, diplomatic intervention, put an end to a state of affairs he considered was becoming definitely harmful. His presence had prevented the Dictatorship from becoming too personal a power.”

Spain’s Future. The book tells the story of a man who was born a king, his Koval father having died before his birth, ot the careful training of the high-spirited and mischievous boy by his mother, , the Queen Regent. “Spain, dreaming i of her past grandeurs, is inclined to j look back. Her King has spent the best years of his life and devoted the whcle of his energies to an endeavour to force her think of the future, to look forward and to regain for herself her rightful place in the scale oi nations. “To his people, inclined to indolence and that dolce far niente suited to a more leisurely day. King Alfonso’s activity is the cause of boundless surprise and admiration.” By Tram to Theatre. There is an amusing story of King Alfonso’s first attendance at the Old Vic. when on a visit to London. An Englishman told him as a joke that the best way to go to the theatre was by tram from the Embnkment. The King went by tram, and afterwards told the story of how ‘‘a fine old labourer, in his working clothes, insisted on getting out with me and walking along the narrow road, with its don't le line of stalls, until he took me to the very door of the theatre. ‘lt’s all right,* lie said, as I thanked him for his help; ‘I alius feel as if it belonged to me a bit’.”