Election

A pudgy gentleman with sparse unruly white hair and a toothbrush mustache stood patiently in line for nearly an hour under the dusty pepper trees by a Madrid polling place last week before he was recognized: Alcala Zamora, Provisional President of Spain.

The election last week for the first Spanish Parliament in seven years returned President Alcala Zamora (as a Deputy from Saragossa) and every member of his Cabinet. Numerous parties entered candidates, but as foreseen, conservative Republicans and moderate Socialists swept the boards. Communists made no progress. The only districts that showed Royalist strength were medieval Navarre, whose sympathies are not for Alfonso but his 60-year-old cousin, the Carlist Pretender Don Jaime; and Guadelajara, pocket borough of wrinkled canny Count de Romanones who used to dandle Alfonso XIII on his knee. Enthusiasti- cally returned was Foreign Minister Alejandro Lerroux, whose power in the Government has been growing daily, who seemed certain to be Premier when a permanent Cabinet is chosen in July.

Two personalities were elected: Novelist Vicente Blasco Ibanez' son from Valencia, and that plump aerial cutup, Major Ramon Franco, who broke his leg last week when a campaign platform collapsed under him, from Barcelona.

Most important news of the week was the spread of the "home rule" movement from Catalonia to Andalusia, the Basque Provinces, and Galicia, traditional home of Spanish politicians. In Catalonia white- haired, white-toothed "President" Francisco Macia won an overwhelming victory.

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