" '29 to the Devil!"

Traditionally, a Dictator is a strong silent man who never complains. More sensitive than most is His Excellency General Don Miguel Primo de Rivera. Marques de Estella, Dictator of Spain.

"The year 1929 has been a disastrous one," said he last week. "Let it go to the devil! I hope 1930 will be easier and enable me to retire and rest in peace."

In Madrid's official La Nacion, His Excellency indulged in further fretfulness:

"The aristocrats are objecting [to the Dictatorship]. . . . The Conservatives are opposed. . . . Those closest to the church refrain from applauding. . . . The press, for reasons everybody knows, all join the others who are against the Dictatorship and say it has lasted too long.

"This would be all right if it brought a solution instead of returning to the point from which we started. I hope God will prevent a general mistake."

The paunchy Dictator indeed had reason to worry last week. Unmentioned in his catalog of opponents was the not inconsiderable figure of King Alfonso. For years the King has been less than lukewarm to the dictatorship, continually giving awkward hints of a return to parliamentary government "as soon as conditions warrant." A month ago Madrid cafes buzzed with gossip that the King was about to demand the resignation of Dictator Primo de Rivera as Prime Minister and appoint that elegant grandee, the Duke of Alba, in his place (TIME, Dec. 2). Dictator Primo de Rivera quashed the rumor, sternly announced that the present dictatorship would continue "indefinitely." King Alfonso was not amused. Fortnight ago when the Prime Minister presented his Cabinet's program for the coming year, King Alfonso astounded observers by refusing to ratify it at once, said that he would "think it over."

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