New Cabinet

Two trembling candles on a table. Between them Christ upon the Cross. Against the wall in the uniform of an Admiral a man of shadows with a long blue jaw sits, almost invisible, upon the Throne of Spain. Palace guards in costumes that have not changed since the 16th Century usher into the shadowy Throne Room a pack of gentlemen, most of them incongruous in 20th Century boiled shirts. Their leader, the Captain-General of Spain's Navy, a man with close-cropped hair and clipped mustache who does not look his 70 years, advances, and humbly bows to the Admiral upon the Throne. His Most Catholic Majesty* is about to hear the oaths of allegiance which will bind to him the bodies, minds and souls of his new Cabinet. Beneath the crucifix lies a Bible. Upon it swear Prime Minister Admiral Juan Bautista Aznar y Cabanas and, one by one, all the rest. Thus last week King Alfonso XIII, last absolute monarch in western Europe, switched back into the vein of dictatorship--this time with a salt-sea flavor. In receiving the oaths of his two military dictators (the late General Primo de Rivera and his successor General Berenguer), blue-jawed Alfonso always wore the uniform of a field marshal. Smart King. Soon all around King Alfonso rose, denser than usual, the heady perfume of praise. All his courtiers told His Majesty that he had just played superlatively well a most difficult hand at statecraft, finessing the Republican parties, easing out that old rebel Jose Sanchez Guerra whom he had "cleverly" called as Prime Minister (TIME, Feb. 23), consolidating the Monarchist parties, and finally setting up under Admiral Aznar the most thoroughly aristocratic Cabinet which even Spain has had in years.

Courtiers were sure that Spanish laboring men will feel that their interests are in safe hands with the Duke of Maura as Minister of Labor. Justice will be done with the Marques de Alhucemas, rich landed proprietor, as Minister of Justice. And it is nice to have Capitalist Juan de la Cierva (whose son invented the autogiro) as Minister of Public Works. When Queen Victoria Eugenie of Spain returned to Madrid last week (from the English bedside of her invalid mother Princess Beatrice) the engineer who drove Her Majesty's special train was, just to be on the safe side, the Duke of Zaragoza. Tears, Tears, Tears. When King Al fonso yielded fortnight ago to popular demands for a Prime Minister who would convene a Cortes Constituyente* or "Constitutional Congress" and called in Rebel Sanchez Guerra, His Majesty seemingly did not realize how much a rebel the weepy old man is. Senor Sanchez Guerra wept in H. M.'s arms, and his effusions were mistaken for tears of loyalty. But from the Palace, and possessed of the royal mandate to form a Cabinet, Senor Sanchez Guerra went straight to Madrid's "Model Jail," wept again as he conferred with Republican Leader Niceto Alcala Zamora Torres who calls himself "The President of the Spanish Republic." This act was quite too much for King Alfonso. Was he, the last of the Bourbons, to have a Cabinet dictated from a jail? Next afternoon, when patriarchal Sanchez Guerra tottered in with his Cabinet list, he and Alfonso XIII did not get on. After the old rebel's tearful departure, according to some reports, "the King went all to pieces." But by this time the Monarchist parties, previously divided among themselves, had been frightened by the jail incident into unity. His Majesty, assured of their solid support (which he had not always had under the two military dictatorships), could see no reason why he should not again defy the Republicans (as he has for the past seven years). He sent a message to his Senior Captain-General, that officer came as commanded, the new Cabinet was sworn--and all the underlying causes which have provoked revolution after unsuccessful revolution in Spain continued to exist. New Cabinet. Interviewed by correspondents, Prime Minister Admiral Aznar said that he remembered when his ship went down under him in the Spanish-American War and he became a U. S. prisoner. "I like Americans," he said, "except that they are so brusque. . . . And how they do slave to support their women--Ha, Ha!" Foreign Minister Count de Romanones, gnarled old Liberal, said that the Cabinet will call (and this was most important) a two-chamber Cortes to revise the Constitution. This means that King Alfonso will retain his power while the Cortes sits, and, by means of his traditional right to appoint many members of the upper chamber, can probably prevent a Republican Constitution from being drawn. Count de Romanones was juggling with words to say the least when he declared: "We shall hold fair elections first. . . . If the Monarchists win, we shall continue to have a monarchy. If the Republicans win we shall have a republic." Important: The new Finance Minister, Juan Ventosa Calvel, is a close friend of Tycoon Francisco Cambo, the great Catalonian: 1) Financier; 2) Regionalist. This fact caused the Spanish peseta to rally sharply last week, caused exciting conjecture as to the possibility that Catalonia, "The Industrial Heart of Spain," may be given, as is Senor Cambo's dearest wish, a regional status under the Crown similar to "dominion status." The Idea: Catalonia is "progressive," the rest of Spain "backward." Catalonia in the best interests of Spain as a whole should be allowed to make 20th Century economic speed while Spain's 16th Century royalty, dukes and weeping oldsters take their gentlemanly ease.

*In the special language of Papal diplomacy "His Most Catholic Majesty" means the King of Spain; "His Most Apostolic Majesty" meant the Austrian Emperor. *While a C. C. sits its power is supreme, the King of Spain is "on vacation," and may or may not resume his reign according to the new Constitution drawn up by the C. C.

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