THE WAIKATO TIMES With which Is Incorporated Tho Waikato Argue. MONDAY, MARCH 31, 1930. CRISIS IN SPAIN.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17983, 31 March 1930, Page 6

THE WAIKATO TIMES With which Is Incorporated Tho Waikato Argue. MONDAY, MARCH 31, 1930. CRISIS IN SPAIN.

.Messages from Spain indicate that though the regime of the Dictator has ended there is a widespread disinclination to settle down to constitutional government. There are three reasons for hesitation: the King, the Prime Minister, and the Minister of the Interior. The King’s action in the present crisis has probably been dictated by a desire to regain his freedom of action, so that he could attempt to institute the form of government he favoured. General Berenguer is not a natural friend to popular rule. He is a soldier by profession who by his action in the 1923 “coup d’etat” has shown that he believes in the soldier invading the politician’s sphere. He is also head of the King’s military household. That constitutional Spaniards do not regard him as a safe head for a legitimate Government is plain from the refusal of most of the outstanding politicians to take office in his Government. It is, however, now clear that elections will be held and that the suspended Constitution of 187 G will automatically come back into force. All may be well if General Berenguer has really taken office only to prepare the way for a return to democratic government. But the necessary condition of such a government is the holding of really free elections. In such a country as Spain the “making” of elections is only too easy. Everything then depends on the scrupulous impartiality of the Minister of the Interior. General Berenguer’s nominee for this post is General Marzo, who was his chief of staff in Morocco. The objection is not to General Marzo personally, but to the fact thal he is a soldier. At this critical juncture a civilian Minister of the Interior would have imynred more confidence in the intentions of the Government. The path which Spain must travel is beset with many dangers. Republicanism, for example, has taken a new lease of life, and by its methods may endanger its own purported object, free government. It is not now a qucs^

tion of rival systems but of the jeopardy in which armed turmoil would necessarily place liberty in Spain. The strength of the demand for an inquisition into past misconduct is illustrated by Senor Unamuno’s insistence that the responsibility even of the King must be thoroughly probed. That is a natural feeling for a man wrongfully exiled to entertain; but, while respecting his motives, one may doubt his judgment. To risk the future for the sake of the past would surely be foolish. Another and perhaps a greater danger lies in a possible revival of Catalan separatism, which again, apart from its merits, would he a disaster at the present moment. With this possibility in the background it is regrettable that Senor Cambo, a very distinguished Catalan, could not be persuaded to accept the Ministry of Finance. But the most serious danger lies in the apathy of the Spanish people themselves. The Dictatorship came about in 1923 because the lack of political interest and sense in the electorate left the way open for inefficiency and faction in the Government. Have the experiences of the last six years, with their enforced abstinence from politics, been sufficient to teach the people to pay the necessary price of freedom? The fact that the Dictatorship survived until it lost the support of the King and the army, although the public had long regarded its existence with apathy, suggests disquieting possibilities. But in a few months’ time the Spanish people will have an opportunity to prove that they value liberty sufficiently to vote, and vote intelligently.