Evening star., 1916-01-02
dispatch from Madrid the e3d of
December announced that King Alfonso

A dispatch from Madrid the o3d OF
December announced that King Alfonso
had dissolved the
Symntoms of cortez that day. and
that the elections
Preparedness. would be held in
March: a dispatch from Rome reported
that Don Jaime. pretender to the Span
ish throne. was held a prisoner in Aus
tria; a dispatch from Gibraltar reported
that the arms of the Spanish carabi-
niers were being exchanged for new
ones. fact which was taken to indi-
cate policy of preparedness.
Madrid journals of recent date re-
port the admirable solicitude of King
Alfonso for the French and English
prisoners in Austria and Germany
whose correspondence with their fami-
mediary of the Spanish embassy at
Vienna. 1t should be mentioned. to
show the generosity of the Spanish
king. that from the commencement of
the war a special service in favor
of the prisoners was established at the
palace in Madrid. These letters. for the
most part addressed the king. entail
arduous labor. not only on the secre-
tariat. but on the king himself The
number has already exceeded more than
100000. The latters are opened. read
to the king, and response made imme-
diately.
NJ. Dato. president of the council, re-
plying to the orators of the minority
in the cortes, concerning the military
projects of the government. denied the
possibility Of spain's intervention in
Spaniards. who take pleasure in at
tempting to provoke complications
I'm case Spain." said he, Should be
obliged to interfere, the government
had prepared reforms which would
give the army the means to defend all
her national interests
The Spanish question is, indeed, very
complex, a delicate synthesis of pas
sions not easily under
A Complex stood by the native and
n,..4; quite beyond the com
pre- h ensio on of the
stranger. writer without name in
summoning up Spanish contradictions
declares that Spain is Don Quixote,
but Spain is also Sancho Panza''
This unknown writer believes that
Spain's attitude is largely due to the
Spaniard's lack of contact even with
his neighbors. He asserts with other
things that few Frenchmen reside in
Spain, that there are fewer English
men. while there are $4,000 Germans,
principally commercial agents of their
country. who on occasions become
political agents. The same writer. who
appears to have studied Spain closely.
declares that only short time ago
France and England were complete
strangers until book was written
under the title of the Unknown Is
land. since when the French and
English have become fast friends and
he suggests to the same end a book or
books should be written-namely: I'm
known France" and Unknown Spain"
1t is unfortunate that the suggestion
is tardy. for at the present the
said to no longer exist between
France and Spain, not only exist
again, but have never appeared so
high.
We are told that the principal rea-
sons for the apparent misunderstand-
ing between the French and the Span
lard. first. is the deep difference in
character-even of race; next. the
clumsiness of French writers. the sus-
ceptibility of the Spanish and perhaps
the souvenirs of the war of independ-
ence." Spain is said to be the Latin
sister of France. But this is contested.
because of the strong fusion with the
invading Visigoths. Mozarabs. Jews.
1berianS, so much, indeed, that no
Latin blood remains.
There has been fusion in France, but
the fusion has been largely Latin
One author of the seventeenth century,
Carlos Garcia. declares that the dis
putes between France and Spain are
not due to race opposition. but oppo-
sition of character-that "the antipathy
between the French and Spanish is the
work of the demon" Garcia further
esta blishes the difference between
duced to misery begs proudly in the
name of his past brilliant fortune,
which he exaRgerates by enormous
lies. The Frenchman, in the same sit
those of whom he begs. exaggerating
dramatically and with forced tears
his present plight: the Spaniard COM
mences by selling his shirt. retaining
only his cape to preserve the decorum
of his appearance: the Frenchman
commences by selling his cape, reserv
ing for the last his shirt"
There has never been Spanish unity.
There is religious unity against Prot
estantism and
Snain Il Tinted Fr e m a sonry.
:, The contradic-
Only Religiously. ton exists in the
recent spirit of sympathy awakened
for Protestant Germany. There is only
one united Spain, l repeat, a religious
Spain. and it is that Spain that France
offended when she drove out the con-
greRations and Spain holds that offense
in mind.
Le Sage, author of Gil Bias" lie
Diable Coiteux," etc. and Caron de
Beaumarchais, in turn of all French
writer's have perhaps best understood
Spanish character. Beaumarchais said:
THE mockine and cutting tone of most
French writer's toward Spain contrib
utes to keep up hate: it is bitterness
which repays mockery." If one re-
proaches the Spanish with the inqusi-
ton, which was much moderated in
Beaumarchais' time, they may reply,
and your letters de cachet?"
1t is not necessary to attempt to
crowd the history of France. Spain,
Austria and Germany on the canvas of
history Charles V. King of Spain and
Emperor of Germany U519). the same
who dreamed of universal domination,
is an interesting study. whose history
may furnish the student with certain
Charles V and Philippe III raigned
in the name of ''old Christianity" and
with its pretentions and jealousies
that existed between the two sides of
the Pyrenees, there were rivalries near
tho pope and competitions for the