Decadent?

His Excellency Alfonso, Marques de Merry del Val,* Spanish Ambassador to the Court of St. James's, Chamberlain to King Alfonso of Spain, irate, took up his pen, wrote to the Sphere, London illustrated weekly, denied that Spain is decadent; answered an "arrant tissue of airy inventions" made previously in that periodical by one Mme. Bordeux on behalf of Vincente Blasco Ibanez, "notorious" Spanish novelist.

The Marques de Merry del Val, white-haired and aristocratic, took umbrage at certain statements made by the "disreputable politician and brilliant novelist," one of which was that: "Spain is exactly as it has been for over three years, there is no outward change of any kind . . . it deteriorates." Penning beneath the sun at San Sebastian, popular Spanish watering place where he was spending a vacation from his diplomatic duties (he has been Ambassador in London since 1913), he wrote the following list of changes that had been effected since 1923, year of the Primo de Rivera revolution (TIME, Sept. 24, 1923):

1) Social disturbance and murder until then rife at Barcelona, Valencia and Zaragoza have been absolutely quelled, peace and prosperity restored to those towns and in every part of the Peninsula where the rot was spreading.

2) The Spanish zone in Morocco has been completely pacified, 600 miles of roads built in the Rif alone ....

3) Spain's Floating Debt was last year canceled by her able Minister of Finance ... so that having already bought up and liquidated her Exterior Debt, and possessing the third largest gold deposit in Europe, her financial situation is one of the strongest in the world.

4) Spain's adverse trade-balance has been reduced by two-thirds since 1923.

5) Her budgetary deficit, which figured that year at -L-40,000,000 [about $200,000,000], has been brought down to some -L-8,000,000 [about $40,000,000], and is rapidly dwindling to vanishing point ....

6) All communications have been reformed. The railways have been put on a paying and efficient footing, the roads repaired, widened and increased. . . .

7) The whole of the country's social, industrial and financial legislation has been or is being revised and brought up to date.

8) Fifteen hundred elementary schools have been opened since 1923. Secondary and university education has been radically transformed. A new university town is arising outside Madrid.

9) Last, but not least, discipline and efficiency have been restored in every branch of the administration, a new spirit of enterprise, hope and confidence has been unchained in the whole country. Great economies have been realized. Fifty per cent of all vacancies in the Army, Navy and Civil Services have been amortized.

Attacking the character of Blasco Ibanez, the Spanish Ambassador told how the novelist had started a Republican newspaper at Valencia; how it had proved a failure; how, to save himself from bankruptcy, he had turned the newspaper over to his employes without informing them of the true state of affairs; how, after the enterprise had been put on its feet, Blasco Ibanez had disavowed his gift, reclaimed ownership.

Other charges made by the Ambassador: organization of "murderous nocturnal combats" to further his political ambitions: "shameful" desertion of a group of "honest, sturdy peasants" in Argentina, whence he had taken them, and the failure of a bank that guaranteed his emigration scheme. Continued the Marques:

"Blasco Ibanez, none the poorer, absconded from Buenos Aires, and now no more dares show his face there than in Mexico. In both places, far from 'founding schools and colleges,' he has left outstand ing a long and painful score."

Proud of his master, King Al fonso, the Ambassador waxed indignant in answering the charges that his monarch had become the "slave of a dictator [Primo de Rivera]." Wrote he:

"If ever a man and a King was born into the world it is His Majesty Alfonso XIII. English men do not require to be told this. They know it, for they know him. The King's ascendancy over his subjects, the mastery of his statesmanship, have been shown at every stage of his reign. They explain how the country is held together in progress and prosperity through a thousand political vicissitudes. Elaboration is needless here."

Another charge made on behalf of Senor Blasco Ibanez was that "with the exception of a few petty professors from the grammar schools, all the Ministerial posts are filled by generals." To this assertion the Ambassador countered by giving a complete list of the present Cabinet with the origin and profession of each member. Snappishly he concluded: "Total, nine Ministers, of whom three are generals [Primo de Rivera, Duke of Tetuan, Martinez Anido], and no one of them is a professor from the grammar schools."

Then, finally, he denied that Spain had placed a general ban on the books of Blasco Ibanez and had denied his authorship of Mare Nostrum. With a seeming pat on the back and a left hook to the jaw, the Ambassador concluded:

"His only forbidden work is the seditious Alfonso XIII Unmasked?. As for Mare Nostrum, all Spain knows the author. To hide his name is impossible. . . .

"All Spain recognizes in her greatest best seller, Vincente Blasco Ibanez, a natural genius of vivid, soaring imagination, of exceptional descriptive talent, albeit unreliable in history, while his loose, inaccurate style has prevented him, in spite of all good will (I write advisedly), from admission to the Spanish Academy of Letters.

"As a politician he is of no account. His lack of authority is such that one marvels how the Sphere, a responsible publication, if a periodical de luxe, has found space for this scurrilous travesty of a country whose dynasty is closely related to that of Great Britain, whose governments, even during the most trying period of the Great War, behaved loyally and nobly to your nation, whose people are as sincerely attached to yours as any on earth."

*Brother of Raphael Cardinal Merry del Val, onetime Pontifical Secretary of State (1903-14). Sons of the late Don Rafael Merry del Val, famed Spanish diplomat, both Alfonso & Raphael were educated partly in England.