Plebiscite, Mutiny

"We have put ourselves into the hands of the Lord, who I hope will bestow only good upon Spain."

Thus with pious invocation Dictator Premier Primo de Rivera formally proclaimed last week that a plebiscite would at once be held throughout Spain to determine whether the people desire to elect a Cortes* (Parliament) or to continue under the De Rivera dictature. Despatches gave the impression that the whole machinery of the Patriotic Union, a party formed by the Dictator, will be used to drum up plebiscite votes for the continuance of the present regime.

No sooner was this stratagem for maintaining the Dictator in power announced than the artillery officer's clique (whose prerogatives he has curtailed) fomented mutinies at Segovia and Valladolid.

King Alfonso returned hastily to Madrid from the summer capital at San Sebastian to assist the Premier in dealing with this situation.

Martial law was proclaimed by royal decree and all artillery officers were suspended ad interim from their commands, deprived of their pay, and forbidden to wear their uniforms. Exceptions to this order were made only in the case of artillery officers on active service in Morocco.

Subsequently official communiques announced that order had been restored and the mutineers confined under arrest in their own barracks.

* The Cortes were dissolved by a Royal Decree after General de Rivera sprang the Coup which placed him in control of Spain (TIME, Sept. 24, 1923).