avoiding the strike, which began on the 10th. On the 12th, a general strike was suddenly launched in the whole country. It was clearly revolutionary, and aimed at the overthrow of the The General Strike monarchical system and its replacement by a more or less socialistic republic. The country was de- clared in a state of war. Riots of a grave character took place in nearly every important town and in- dustrial district of the country, and the military, which had been entrusted with the situation, crushed the rebellion with a ruthless hand. This revolutionary onslaught was some- what aimless and impulsive, yet the period of street fighting lasted a whole week. By Aug. 9 the situation was well in hand. The net result was to prove that the only real force in the country was the Army Committee system.
On Aug. 10, the Council of Ministers passed a special credit for military expenses, implying an extension and renovation of
Power of the Committees several important services. The Juntas, conscious of their strength, encroached further and further upon the administration of the War Office, and even asserted themselves in the field of civil politics. Their first victim was Marshal Primo de Rivera, whom they practically forced to leave the War Office. Then the scandal became public, on the Government having lifted the censor- ship. The Committees attempted to deliver a message into the hands of the King, and a period of intense political excite- ment ended in the fall of Señor Dato, who had to resign on a " perfectly constitutional " hint by the King. In point of fact Señor Dato was expelled by the Army Committees. The crisis was long and laborious, and in the midst of it, the Parliamentary Assembly met in Madrid (Oct. 30) in order to hear the reports prepared by the three commissions appointed in its first sitting. Speeches were pronounced by Señor Cambó and Señor Alvarez, which were addressed rather to the King, then in consultation with political leaders, than to the Assembly. Both leaders declared that they would not accept office in a Government which would not be ready to adopt the conclusions of the Assem- bly, involving some democratic changes in the Constitution. But while Señor Alvarez held fast by this declaration, Señor Cambó
Garcia Prieto Coalition Government
allowed two of his followers to enter the Cabinet Garcia which was at last formed by Señor García Prieto. This Cabinet was a Coalition ministry in which, in order to give satisfaction to the new demand for an impartial general election, a non-political judge was given the post of Home Secretary. It was composed of Maurists, Liberals and Catalanists. Señor La Cierva, who took the War Office, was the real head of the Cabinet. His policy consisted in ingratiating himself with the Committees of De- fence, so as to become their leader and representative.
An incident which occurred early in the year (Jan. 3) showed the extent to which the revolutionary action of the Juntas had affected the army. The N.C.O.'s, it was suddenly found out, had formed a Committee of Defence and were threatening to take action unless their claims were satisfied. Senor La Cierva had no difficulty in applying to them, with the blessing of the Officers' Committees, those drastic measures which the Officers' Committees had themselves deserved. Nor was the system of Committees of Defence limited to the army. Juntas were soon formed by the civil servants of nearly all Government depart- ments, and on Jan. 12 1918, on the occasion of a difference be- tween the Postmaster-General and his subordinates, an agita- tion began which was ultimately to cause the downfall of the Government. On Feb. 21 the telegraph officers went on strike by meticulously carrying out official regulations.
On Feb. 24 the general election took place in these abnormal conditions. For the first time a Coalition Government pre- sided over an election, and great hopes were enter- tained as to the result. The new Chamber, however,
Señor La Cierva and the Committees
was but an average of the preceding ones, different only in that no party in it had a clear majority. Señor La Cierva began then to act as the self-appointed leader of the Committees. He first provoked a crisis (Feb. 27) so as to get rid of his Catalanist colleagues, Senores Ventosa and Rodés, who would have been obstacles to his plans, and hav- ing accepted their replacement by two second-rank men he faced the Government with a demand that a programme of extensive military reform be enacted by Royal Decree, without submitting it to Parliament. This provoked a second crisis, Señor Gimeno, Count Romanones' representative in the Cabinet, having stood firm against such an insult to Parliament. The crisis, however, was settled on the secret understanding that the decree would be granted while Señor La Cierva would negotiate the self- dissolution of the Juntas. Then the conflict was suddenly aggra- vated on its civil side, the Government having decided to be as firm with the civil Juntas as it had been weak with the military ones. At the instigation of Señor La Cierva, the telegraphs were put under War Office authority and all civil Juntas were declared officially dissolved (March 14), while Señor La Cierva obtained from the military officers an apparent submission under the form of a reduction of their own Juntas to the status of "Committees of Technical Studies." On Feb. 17 the postal services declared a strike. Señor La Cierva's efforts to cope with this by means of military improvisations ended in utter failure, and at the very first sitting of the Cortes (March 18) the Government fell. All possible combinations were tried and failed, until on March 21 at midnight, at a meeting
Ministry of "All Talents."
of ex-prime ministers called by the King in his study, after, it is said, having threatened his abdication, King Alphonso succeeded in forming a " ministry of all the talents," composed as follows: Maura (Premier), Dato (Foreign Office), Besada (Finances), Cambó (Public Works), Alba (Edu- cation), Marina (War), Pidal (Navy). The solution given to the crisis produced an outburst of popular enthusiasm due mostly to the downfall of Señor La Cierva. This Government had agreed on a concrete programme: reform of the standing rules of the Cortes, amnesty, military reforms, budget. The Government carried them all but the fourth, Señor Alba having left the Cabinet on their refusal to pass his education plans (Oct. 8), which ultimately brought the Cabinet to its end on Nov. 6.
The new Government had to be formed amid the sensation caused by the arrival in Madrid of the news of the Kaiser's flight, and great changes were expected as the result of this. The Reformists having refused to cooperate on
Liberal Government of Garcia prieto.
the conditions offered them, the changes were limited Govern- to the appointment of a Liberal Ministry, on Nov. 9, with Señor García Prieto as prime minister. The Prieto. world being full of the idea that the triumph of the Allies meant that of democracy, the Government published an "advanced" manifesto. Other signs of the Zeitgeist were a bold Land Bill, introduced by Señor Alba, a series of telegrams of congratulations sent by King Alphonso to all the Allied chiefs of state, a meeting of the Conservative party, where a reform of the Constitution was seriously mooted, the waiving by the Government of their right to appoint the Mayor of Madrid, and a revival of the Catalanist question as manifested in a message to the Government addressed by the Mancomunidod. This last message produced a split in the Cabinet, Count Romanones, its
Romanes Ministy.
Foreign Secretary, being in favour of Home Rule. The ministry thus fell on Dec. 3 1918, and it was de- cided that Count Romanones would form a stop-gap Ministry. cabinet so as to pass the budget and leave the King free for a change of policy. The first important act of Count Romanones was his visit to President Wilson, then in Paris.
It is clear that from the middle of 1917 on, home problems occupied the Spanish mind more than the war. The incidents of the submarine campaign had to be handled by Govern- ments which knew the country to be resolved not to fight, di- vided as to its sympathies, and rent by revolutionary and con- stitutional crises. It is to the credit of the successive Govern- ments which ruled Spain during this period that they succeeded in steering clear of all obstacles, home and foreign, overburdened as they were with home problems and foreign advice not always disinterested. On June 29 1917 a German submarine, " UC52," arrived in Cadiz for repairs. Señor Dato allowed its arrival and
