SPAIN: Shrewd Primo

“Gross extravagance!” grumbled Spanish critics of Dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera, when with lavish banquets, balls and fêtes he entertained the Council of the League of Nations at Madrid (TIME, June 17 et seq.).

Only last week did secretive Dictator Primo de Rivera reveal how he had staged the whole diplomatic orgy without cost to the Spanish Treasury. At the time of the League session, he reminded, the Spanish Post Office had issued a special, limited series of “commemorative stamps. Up to last week, he declared, the sale of these bits of paper to philatelists abroad has already brought in more money than it cost to champagne and caviar thoroughly the statesmen of the League.