Alfonso's Luck

Spanish readers of La, Nation* of Buenos Aires, Argentina, scanned with interest a "scoop" carried by that famed news organ last week after its publisher Don Jorge Mitre obtained the first audience granted by King Alfonso XIII of Spain to a news-gatherer since the recent artillery officers' mutiny (TIME, Sept. 13).

"It was not I who put down the mutiny!" cried His Majesty. "All was accomplished by General Primo de Rivera."

None the less Publisher Mitre attributed the suppression of the mutiny very largely to the King's dash by motor in six hours from San Sebastian to Madrid where he lent the support of royal prestige to the drastic acts of Primo de Rivera in suppressing the mutiny.

Don Jorge Mitre wrote with perhaps excessive fervor :

"There have been many royal rides famed in verse and story but never one to compare with this mad dash through the darkness. . . .

"It was after midnight when King Alfonso, enjoying a quiet game of bridge in the Miramar Palace at San Sebastian, was called to the telephone by an urgent summons from Premier de Rivera, who explained that twelve regiments of artillery were in mutiny and that the King's presence in Madrid was imperative.

"There was no hesitation. The fastest royal automobile was ordered out with the greatest secrecy and about two o'clock, when all but a few in the palace were asleep, the car rolled out of the palace courtyard with the King himself at the wheel accompanied by the Duke of Miranda and a chauffeur. . . .

"Three hundred miles over hill and dale, over muddy country roads and terrible cobbled pavements, the King drove. Frequently he sent the car along faster than 70 miles an hour to make up for time lost on the worst stretches. When the King reached Tolosa, he entered upon the mountain passes, a nerve racking drive even in full daylight. But there was not even moonlight for the royal driver as heavy clouds obscured the sky and at Burgos, across the mountains, heavy rains greeted him.*

"The King's only anxiety was that the motor should not fail, but as His Majesty said to me: 'It responded as though made human by the necessity.' And he never lost a tire on the way. Luck was with him. . . ."

* La Nacion, founded in 1870, is well called "the [London] Times of Argentina" in contradistinction to the equally famed La Prensa, "the paper of the working classes," founded in 1869

* The London Daily Express carried a lurid "scoop" last week purporting to describe how a group of mutinous artillery officers held up His Majesty's car at Del Leon and forced him to promise to support their cause. Arrived at Madrid, Alfonso was declared to have repeated his conversation with the mutineers to Dictator Premier Primo de Rivera, who allegedly remarked: "If your Majesty yields to the officers, I will proclaim a republic with myself as President."