SPAIN: Gay Grandee

Cables from Madrid told one day last week that King Alfonso had decided to command the resignation of Dictator Primo de Rivera, that he would call to the Prime Ministry a grandee whose name and titles cannot be pronounced in less than three deep breaths:

JACOBO MARIA DEL PILAR CARLOS MANUEL STUART FITZ-JAMES. roth DUKE OF BERWICK, 27th DUQUE DE ALBA de Tonnes. Duque de Liria y Xerica, de Arjona, de Montoro y de Huescar, CONDE-DUQUE DE OLIVARES, MARQUES DEL CARPIO. Marques de Coria, de Eliche, de la Mota, de San Leonardo, de Sarria, de Taragona, de Villanueva del Rio. de Villanueva del Fresno, de Barcarrota y de la Algaba, 24th CONDE DE LEMOS, Conde de Lerin, de Monterrey, de Osorno, de Miranda del Castanar, de Andrade, de Fuentes de Valdepero, de Gelves, de Villalba, de San Esteban de Gormaz, de Fuentiduena, de Casarrubios del Monte, de Galve y de Siruela, CONSTABLE OF NAVARRE. 14 times Grandee of Spain.

Even Dictator Primo de Rivera took the story seriously. The King was on a hunting party in Novalera, and Alba was with him. Dictator Primo de Rivera has not forgotten that Alfonso XIII was ostensibly on a motor trip when he summoned General Primo de Rivera to supreme power. It might barely be that the King now fancied he could oust Primo for Alba. After much telegraphing to the Royal Hunting Lodge, the blunt, obese Dictator issued a personal and arrestingly gracious statement:

It is denied that His Majesty has contemplated any change, or asked the Prime Minister to tender his resignation in favor of the Duke of Alba. The great fitness of the Duke to head the Cabinet is acknowledged by all. The present Prime Minister -would never stand in his way.

Debutantes from the U. S. who have wintered in Madrid know Alba as the gay Grandee who owns the flock of brown dachshunds. At all his balls and some-times at the King’s they romp and yap among the dancers’ legs—especially the one called Jimmie. But Alba’s brown dachshunds are much better ball-broken than the two famed black dachshunds of erst Kaiser Wilhelm II, which more than once appalled the Imperial Court at Berlin. With expression meek as mice, the Alba browns have been painted with their master by Spain’s most aristocratic portraitist, Ignacio Zuloaga. Not yapping Jimmie but affectionate, face-licking Gika is the favorite of Alba’s daughter, an important, proud little miss of three, Maria del Rosario Cayetana Stuart Fitz-James.

Dowagers with noses for good blood relish the royal whiff in Alba’s surname of Stuart Fitz-James. England’s witty James II, while Duke of York, amused himself with Arabella Churchill, created their son Duke of Berwick.— A son of Berwick acquired by marriage and heritage the Spanish dukedom of Alba. Except that his lineage and sporting tastes are almost royal. Alba can scarcely claim real ”fit-ness” to be Prime Minister. He is no man of business and great affairs like the Marquis de Urquito. Although he has been a Deputy and Senator in the now defunct Cortes, the Duke has never held states-manly office or high military rank, is primarily a crony of the King and like him addicted to Biarritz, Deauville, St. Moritz. Doubtless Primo was more afraid of offending Alba, last week, than seriously perturbed lest the dilettante Duke seek executive Power.

In any case the important thing is that General Martinez Anido remains Minister of Interior. More and more it is realized that his ruthless, iron hand actually holds the present Spanish regime together. It is he who sees that all the elections and plebiscites come out right, that the sons of useful Jews are exempt from military service, that the Army does not sprout another successful coup.

Savage enemies have tarred Anido with a vile nickname, “The Epileptic Pig,” but he is no porkier than Primo and considerably less epileptic than several members of the Royal House. Just now he is behind a sensible project to alter the Constitution so that, in case of need, one of King Alfonso’s healthy daughters can inherit the Crown. As everyone knows Crown Prince Alfonso is a haemophile,— Prince Jaime deaf and almost dumb, Princes Juan and Gonzalo “mentally under-developed.”

*As a further expression of gratitude, James made Arabella’s brother the first Duke of Marlborough, the line from which offshot England’s present irrepressible Winston Churchill, whilom Chancellor of the Exchequer (TIME, June 17 et ante).

*The blood of a haemophile does not congeal normally upon contact with the air. Thus the slightest wound leads to profuse bleeding, due to retardation of the process called “healing.”