Page:Alfonso Xiii Unmasked (IA in.ernet.dli.2015.179988).pdf/14



PAIN is today a nation under the yoke. She cannot speak out, she is gagged; she cannot write, her hands are bound. You may wonder why the Spanish people do not rush down into the street to protest against this enforced slavery. Only a very natural instinct of self-preservation prevents them from doing so. The boot-heel that is crushing the Spanish nation is the boot-heel of the Army. Rifles and machine-guns can always reduce a defenceless crowd to silence.

For years I have kept out of politics at home. Long ago I gave up fighting for a cause which it seemed others could serve as well as I. Selfishly perhaps I indulged my liking for seclusion and the tranquility that is so necessary to the writer.

But I cannot longer remain silent. The militarist forces of Spain believe themselves securely entrenched in the controlling positions