Melancholy King

So many Spanish kings of the present Bourbon line have suffered from melancholia that last week Grandees of the Spanish Court evinced some uneasiness as King Alfonso XIII continued sunk in brooding, introspective grief for his late mother, Queen Maria Christina, who died just one month ago.

Guardedly whispered was a bit of palace gossip that the youngest of the Royal Infantas, Princess Maria Christina--17 and high strung--almost fainted when her father, the King, invoked an old Spanish custom and bade her assist him to prepare for burial the corpse of Queen Maria Christina, after whom the Princess was named.

The preparation was of the simplest, involving only the removal of Queen Maria Christina's secular garments and the robing of her corpse in the habit of a nun, for King Alfonso absolutely forbade that the body should be embalmed. He also refused to permit the taking of the usual state photograph of the corpse.

For nine days after laying his mother to rest, His Majesty remained in his personal suite at the Palacio Real in Madrid, and would not allow any member of the Royal Family to leave the palace. Since he has emerged from these days of meditation and prayer, Alfonso de Bourbon has seemed listless and melancholic. Last week it was thought that General Don Miguel Primo de Rivera has found this royal mood a favorable one in which to induce the King to sign several more decrees strengthening the Rivera grip of iron on Spain.

Presently the Government announced that His Most Catholic Majesty had decreed the dissolution of the whole Artillery Corps and the closing of the Royal Artillery Academy, What this means can only be appreciated by recalling that Spain's richest and most potent families have been accustomed to send at least one son to the Artillery Academy, that he might graduate into the Corps, which has been the privileged and aristocratic flower of the whole Army.

Eighteen artillery garrisons recently showed signs of mutiny against the Dictator (TIME, Feb. n). The dissolution decrees of last week were Primo de Rivera's swift revenge. No less than 2,000 artillery officers--comparable in the U. S. to 2,000 West Pointers--were thus booted out of their jobs.

Another significant development of last week was King Alfonso's flat refusal to receive a deputation of three former Prime Ministers,* who asked for an audience in order that they might jointly urge upon His Majesty "the imperative need for some modification of the dictatorship." They were informed by the palace majordomo, the Duque de Miranda, that "the King is loath to intervene in the present situation."

With the dickering for an audience with His Majesty going on, Dictator Primo de Rivera again showed his power by peremptorily dismissing without explanation the Governor of Seville, Jose Cruz Conde, whom General Primo de Rivera himself appointed four years ago.

*Conde de Romanones (Liberal), Joquin Sanchez Toca (Conservative), and the Marques de Ahumcemas (Liberal).