SWEDEN: King to King

The ominous, grey shape of the Spanish armored cruiser Principe Alfonso was silhouetted, last week, against the white buildings and brown or reddish towers of Stockholm, famed “Venice of the North.”

As the Principe Alfonso steamed slowly in, King Gustaf V of Sweden watched from a balcony of his immense, square palace, commanding the lagoon. Came the slow thunder of a royal salute and its return. Then the King of All the Swedes and many a Lapp* descended to greet a tanned and sprightly Monarch, who soon landed from the Principe Alfonso. Naturally the royal visitor was His Most Catholic Majesty Alfonso XIII, King of Spain.

At the ensuing State Banquet a toast was proposed by His Most Protestant Majesty Gustaf V to “The first King of Spain ever to visit Sweden!”

In response, the Spaniard raised his glass first to Their Swedish Majesties and then to his own Queen Victoria Eugenie, who, explained he, was not present, solely because of ill health. Since Queen Victoria of Sweden is nearly always indisposed, the monarchs have that bond in common. They cemented cordial relations, later in the week, by indulging together in the “Royal Sport of Scandinavia,” slaying moose.

Meanwhile in Spain there stirred the embers of revolution which always blaze up when His Majesty leaves the country. The latest previous outburst was during Alfonso XIII’s visit to George V (TIME, July 23). Last week stern Dictator of Spain Primo de Rivera caused the arrest of 4,000 persons, many prominent, and the revolt guttered. Imperturbable, the Dictator prepared to attend maneuvers of the Spanish Grand Fleet, off the Mediterranean coast of Spain, a coast which is notoriously the hotbed of Spanish revolutionaries.

* The King of the rest of the Lapps is Norway’s Haakon VII.