Evening star., 1931-12-13

n HADRID-AlfonSo, former King
M OF Spain, has been declared an
| vi outlaw, his properties ordered
' i conflscated and every Spaniard
Is empowered TO arrest him at
sight should he ever again set foot on
the soil OF Spain. From the proudest
throne in Europe, the last of the Bour-
bons has tumbled to the low estate of
an ordinary fugitive, with a price upon
his head. That is the decision of the
Cortes, and from now on the Cortes,
which Alfonso despised, is supreme in
Spain. AS the last Of the oldest line of
hereditary monarchS in Europe-the
HapSburgs, Bourbons and Lorraines-
Alfonso Is now not only a former king
without throne, but a man without
a country.
Behind the dramatic sentence imposed
upon Alfonso, however, lies an even
more dramatic story. 1t will be remem-
bered that 1t was a soldier, Gen. San
Jurgo, commander of the Civil Guard.
who almost Singlehandedly checkmated
the former Kings trump card when he
was preparing TO plunge the country
into bloodshed in last effort to keep
his throne; it. was the ghosts of two
ether soldiers, Capts. Firmin Galan and
Garcia Hernandez, for whose executions
King Alfonso is held responsible. which
placed the once proud and vengeful
Castlllian beyond the pale of Spanish
law.
There were many crimes with which
the Republican Tribunal could have
charged Alfonso. The former King had
caused the deaths Of many men. not the
least of whom were the thousands who
fell in the futile campaign against
Abdul-el-Krim in the Rifian Wars
These sacrifices, however we're more or
less within the law" Alfonso was then
recognized as King of Spain, ruling un-
der the constitution Of 1873. The ex-
Cesses Of the monarchy after the coup
of Primo de Rivera. whom Alfonso used
as a tool for overriding the constitu-
tional rights or the people, were the
ones which the Cortes consider unfor-
givable.
Officers Loyal.
Capts. Galan and Hernandez. although
officers in the army, were loyal to their
oaths under constitutional Spain when
they sought to overthrow an Illegally
constituted dictatorship. Theirs was a
loyalty far greater than allegiance to a
King who had broken faith with his
subjects. Gen. Primo de Rivera's court
martial, which tried the former mon
archist premier. Sanchez Guerra. ad-
mitted that fact when it discharged the
leader of the abortiye Valencia and Cui-
dad Real rebellion even after he had
confessed that he sought to overthrow
the existing government.
AlfonSoS bloodthirSty demand for the
lives OF the two popular officers has now
been legally defined in republican Spain
as murder" Germany's Judgment
tl,L. II
severe. Today, and probably down
through the new republics history. Ga
Ian and Hernandez will rank as mar
tyrs, former King Alfonso as the de-
spised sovereign who was first a Bourbon
and then Spaniard, and who put his
dynasty above his country.
Capts. Galan and Hernandez fret
appeared in the public eye largely aS
result of the tragic Jaca rebellion
tragic because the impetuous oriners
could not wait for the zero bonr'
when two-thirdS of the garrisons II,
Spain and the Republicans, Socialists
and Workers organizations were fo
have driven Alfonso from the land last
December. When the Jaca troops found
that something had again gone wrong
! and that they were not supported bv
other garrisons, Galan and Hernands7
| voluntarily surrendered to the civil
authorities, naturally expecting co,,A
alteration as political offenders
! Gen. Damasco Berenguer was tAen