Evening Star Newspaper, March 2, 1930, Page 85

reen | The Sundiy Star Magasine WASHINGTON, D. C., SUNDAY, MARCH 2, 1930. PART SEVEN. 24 PAGES. ey e Governments May Come and Governments May Go, but Alfonso of Spain Reign; On. The Recent Unseating of Premier de Rivera Has Again Placed the Throne “in Peril,” but This Doyen of European Rulers Only Smiles Confidently and Goes on Enjoying Life. cxetusive group phutugrupi't [ * EN. PRIMO DE RIVERA, Marquis ‘7 d’Estella, has fallen; his rival, Gen. Berenguer, chief of King Alfonso’s I Practorian Guard, heads the new ministry, which promises to restore to Spain the dubious blessings of democracy (in the Spanish manner)—and the throne of Spain is, of course, in peril. I say “of course” advisedly. For the throne of Spain has been in peril for so many cen- turics and in so many varied circumstances that it long ago attained the status of a wonder of the world. - It was in peril when its present tenant, wrapped in cotton wool and lying on a silver salver, was handed to the councilors of state a few hours after his birth on May 17, 1886. It was in peril when, a frail and melancholy boy, he drove out with his mother and was greeted by the scowls of the populace. It was in deadly peril on that May day in 1906 when he drove through the gayly beflagged streets of Madrid with his bride, Princess Victoria Eu- genie, granddaughter of Queen Victoria of Eng- land, and an assassin heaved a bomb which killed 12 persons around the royal carriage. -9 in peril three years after the Great War, n 10,000 Spanish soldiers, the cream of iho army, were massacred by Abd-el-Krim's Riffs in the savage wastes of Spanish Morocco; and when the news broke in Spain Alfonso was discovered to be absent, amusing himself in Deauville, that little Babylon-by-the-sea, which Cornuche made out of a Norman fishing vil- f the Spanish royal family, recently posed in the royal palace. Left to vight: Prince Jamie, his majesty King Alfonso, Prince of the Asturias (crown prince and heir to the throne By C. Patrick Thompson. It was in peril again when the politicians were accusing the generals of incompetence in 1922 and 1923, and the generals were accusing the politicians of treachery and corruption, and Primo de Rivera staged his army revolt and sent the government of the politicos scuttling from Madrid—and Alfonso got the news at San Sebastian and drove a racing car all night over the mountain roads and got to the capMal in time to sign the decree proclaiming martial law, And in past centuries, how many times has not that sacred throne been in danger! No nation in the history of the world has suffered sovereigns so unworthy and so incompetent as Alfonso’s predecessors. These sovereigns lost for Spain first her great empire, won by the lavish expenditure of blood, money and high courage, and then in leisurely progression nearly all her many colonial possessions. They could have retained Cuba, but they lost even that last considerable overseas colony. And still the Spanish nation acclaimed not only a King, but our King. Marvelous! LL things considered, one would be safe in betting 50 to 1 that much more will hap- pen in Spain than has happened or appears likely to happen before Don Alfonso—doyen of the Kings and probably the only one left who thoroughly enjoys being a King—surrenders his great Madrid palace that looks out to the ruggad Guadarrama Mountains, his lovely Summer pal- ace on the peak of the peninsular at Santander, his Mediterranean playground at Malaga, his racing stables, his fleet of high-powered auto- mobiles, his polo ponies, his spacious hunting preserve in the Gredos Mountains, his royal state, not to mention an immense annual rev- enue, and retires to kill time as a private gen- tleman after the manner of the former King of Greece and ex-King Manuel of Portugal. There is a widespread idea that he is an easy- going monarch, who does not take the business of kingship too seriously, and that his house, like that of several other ancient European dynasties, is in the twilight of its long life. The late Blasco Tbanez, that tempestuous re- publican and tireless detractor of the Spanish monarchy, and Don Alfonso’s own llaneza— which does not exactly mean familiarity, but a blending of that and good humor and sin- cerity and frankness—added to his determina- tion to enjoy all the good things of life within reach and grasp and a few out of reach, are mainly responsible for these popular impres- sions. But the impressions are not altogether ac curate and complete. Play polo with him, rush into the hills with him in & high-powered His~ , Princess Beatrice and Prince Juan. Princess Christina, Prince Gonzale, ! Photo by Acme. v r pano (Alfonso at the sprung wheel), hunt with him, dine with him and a diplomatic companion in a corner table at a restaurant overlooking a Summer sea, meet him at a house party in the Duke of Sutherland's Scottish castle and go deer stalking with him next day—race, shoot; ride, hunt, laugh and go bull fighting with him, and you may think you know him. But you will have seen only facets of a remarkable char- acter. He has other facets. He displays one in the midst of his court, stiff with the splendor and etiquette of ancient tradition—a more vigorous and vital man, you would say, than any of those around him, not excepting the portly Primo or the hard veteran Berenguer. He'will show you another in the course of & talk in his small study in the great granite palace in Madrid—he is a most accessible King, when it suits his purpose to be so, and will sit you on the divan beside him and chat frankly (but with smiling reservations) for an hour, t MEN who have sat thus, smoking one of his oval cork-tipped cigarettes, glancing in the meditative silences out of the opposite window which looks out over the Manzanares to the far Guadarrama ranges, have qualified their prejudices about the Bourbon breed and the Hapsburg strain; discovering that there is & certain formidable character about the blended blood—that behind the Bourbon charm these is the Bourbon pride, that the long iniiing