First Week

(See front cover)

Don Niceto Alcala Zamora y Torres. Provisional President of Spain, scratched his unshaven chin and shook his rumpled hair at a group of reporters last week.

"It is terrible!" cried he. "Work, work, work! And even then there are hundreds of visitors I am unable to see. I only sleep three or four hours a night! I have hardly time to snatch a meal at off hours!"

Asked if he was not proud at the alacrity with which Latin American countries had recognized his Government, the sleepless President recovered quickly: "Magnificent! Now we are all Republics together!"

President Alcala Zamora was at least working harder last week than he ever had worked in his life. He is an Andalusian lawyer, and in Andalusia businessmen and lawyers are accustomed to take life easily. As every visitor to Spain knows, one rises about 10 a. m., works till 1 p. m., then there is time out for lunch and siesta. At 3 p. m. shops open again, business proceeds until 7 or 8 P.M. One dines at 9:30. theatres start at 10:30; cafes are open all night. Few Spaniards of importance go to bed before three in the morning.

Intense industry may be a novelty to Don Niceto, but government office is not. As a loyal Monarchist for years, he served as a deputy in the Cortes and as Undersecretary of the Interior. He was a member of two Cabinets: Minister of Public Works (1917-18), Minister of War (1922-23). Said Primo de Rivera before his coup d'etat in 1923:

"The politicians of Spain are factors in political corruption and useless appendages to public life."

Don Niceto took this as a personal insult. He renounced the Dictatorship and King Alfonso to boot, pledged himself and his entire fortune to the Republican cause. Last December he was jailed as an instigator of the abortive Jaca revolution (TIME, Dec. 15). Released late in March, he became Provisional President of Spain three weeks later. World chancellories last week counted up the results of his first ten days in office.

Cabinet, First of all he had a Cabinet. Five of the members had chafed in prison with him after the Jaca insurrection, had sat glumly in a row with him at their trial last month. They were some of the Government's most potent members last week:

Miguel Maura, Minister of the Interior.

Fernando de los Rios, Minister of Justice.

Alvaro Albornoz, Minister of Public Works.

Francisco Largo Caballero, Minister of Labor.

Casares Quiroga, Minister of the Navy.

Also in the Cabinet, but not recently in jail, were Minister of State Alejandro Lerroux (who will hold down Spain's seat on the council of the League of Nations), Minister of War Manuel Azana and Minister of Finance Indalecio Prieto.

One appointment in the Government was particularly important. As a mark of the new freedom which the Republic promises the women of Spain, President Alcala Zamora's Government has not only granted women's suffrage (though they have not yet had a chance to vote about anything) but has appointed the first woman high Government official Minister in Spanish history: Senorita Victoria Kent, half-English lawyer, 35 years old. She it was who ably defended Minister of Public Works Albornoz at his trial in March. Now she has been placed in charge of reforming and improving Spain's prison system, a task in which President Alcala Zamora takes a knowing interest.

Recognition. France, Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, Poland, Austria, Italy, finally the U. S. added themselves to the list of nations that officially recognized the Alcala Zamora Government last week. Only important European nation that still hesitated was Russia. Though Italy gave recognition, correspondents remembered that the de Rivera-Berenguer regimes were supposed to have a secret agreement with Benito Mussolini; the Spanish Republic is generally considered anti-Fascist.

Morgan Loan, The Republican Government made a brave gesture toward re-asserting the independence of the Republic by cancelling the $60,000,000 Morgan Loan (to bolster the Spanish peseta), the arrangement of which was one of King Alfonso's last Royal acts (TIME, April 6). Since the House of Morgan is as jealous of its dignity and prerogatives as the House of Bourbon, foreign correspondents learned from Finance Minister Indalecio Prieto that the loan had been cancelled "by mutual agreement." But Spanish reporters received another Prieto quotation: "There are other bankers in the world beside Morgan."

Curse, Last week President Alcala Zamora's Government sent a sharp rebuke to the Archbishop of Toledo who was reported to have said from his pulpit: "May the Republic be cursed." Otherwise the Republic made no effort to touch the highly dangerous problems of the separation of Church & State, and the recapture of the Grandees' estates. Observers guessed last week that these problems would not be handled until after the parliamentary elections in June. The Republic did struggle last week with two other vital problems.

Army. General Mola, hated Royalist, former national director of police, gave himself up at the Ministry of War, was promptly clapped into jail. An order was issued that all officers who wished to remain in the army must sign written "articles of allegiance" to the Republic. First generals to sign were none other than Spain's last Dictator, Damaso Berenguer, for whose head Madrid crowds were shouting fortnight ago, and his brother, Federico. Suspecting trickery, an evening newspaper acidly commented:

"The hero of Anual* has acted as one might expect. If he had joined in the shout 'One! Two! Three! Death to Berenguer!' we would have been even more conscious of his loyalty."

Next move was to announce that any of Spain's 22,219 officers (including 258 generals) who wished to, might retire to the second reserve immediately, on full pay. No more cadets will be admitted to the Saragossa Military Academy. As soon as the 525 embryo officers there now are hatched, the institution will close.

Catalonia. The Government attempted to minimize its difficulties with the rambunctious Catalan Republic by announcing that Luis Companys, a Catalan, had been appointed Civil Governor of Barcelona and accepted as such by the Catalan Government. Canny reporters doubted that swashbuckling Colonel Macia, "President of the Catalan Republic," would give up his hopes of complete independence as easily as Madrid wanted the world to believe. They were right. On Sunday, President Alcala Zamora was scheduled to radiorate to the U. S. and Latin America. He considered the affair highly important, planned for it carefully. At the last moment, however, the speech was cancelled; urgent messages had sent worried President Alcala Zamora hurrying to Barcelona. There he was publicly kissed by Colonel Macia. He drove through flag-draped streets, attended an Irish-Spanish football game in which the Irishmen tied, showered the crowd with the sort of verbal bouquets that once won him the title of Grand Master of Spanish Oratory. Then Presidents Alcala Zamora and Macia retired to have their differences out privately. Chief problem: Must Catalonia continue to pay taxes to Madrid? Commented U. S. Correspondent Frank L Kluckhohn:

"For years a separate Republic for Catalonia has been Colonel Macia's dream. . . . This correspondent was with him once when he was arrested in the frontier hills of Catalonia by 50 French police. Although he was accompanied by only ten men and the police were armed, Colonel Macia turned to his followers and commanded: 'Fire on these men!'

"They replied: 'We haven't any ammunition.' This incident is illustrative of Colonel Macia's character."

Diplomats. Small, dapper Irwin Boyle Laughlin of Pittsburgh, U. S. Ambassador, was reported in Madrid to have said that the new Spanish Cabinet "looked like a gallery of jailbirds." The incident was reported in El Crisol which followed it up with a rabid editorial entitled "Another Man Who Is Undesirable in Spain." Ambassador Laughlin, President Alcala Zamora and a half-dozen officials hastily denied the canard. The story persisted over cafe tables. Intentionally or not, President Alcala Zamora turned a neat trick of diplomatic repartee by appointing as Ambassador to the U. S. lean-jawed, quick-witted Salvador de Madariaga, one of the most brilliant of Spanish writers, onetime Chief of the Disarmament Section of the League of Nations. A frequent contributor to U. S. magazines, his opinions of U. S. foreign policy are blunt. In 1929 he wrote in The Forum:

"By asserting the unilateral character of the Monroe Doctrine the United States has at one stroke--a stroke of sheer force --beheaded all the South American countries and reduced them to the status of protectorates. It is doubtful whether so far-reaching an operation of imperialism has ever before been known in history."

*At Anual, Morocco, in 1921, while General Berenguer was High Commissioner and Commander-in-Chief of Spanish forces, 10,000 Spanish soldiers were slaughtered in one battle by Moorish tribesmen.

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