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To combat this vicious system, Dictator Primo de Rivera has been attempting since his triumph in capturing Ajdir, the capital of Abdel-Krim (TIME, Oct. 12, FRANCE), to institute a system of rapid promotion for meritorious young officers. Against this the "junta generals" have fought tooth and nail, which makes probable the reported participation of so many of them in the uprising of last week. The officially censored version of the revolt was that the Government's secret police discovered the plans of the conspirators some weeks ago and, accordingly, arrested some 200 suspected officers and politicians last week before their revolution had gotten fully under way. The lie seemed to be given to this statement by the fact that all normal means of communication were suspended, as though to conceal and strangle a highly menacing threat to the Spanish Government.
King Alphonso, no unskilled politican, postured that all was well by leaving Spain, as scheduled, for a visit to London. General Marquis Baron Weyler was subsequently reported arrested, hustled to Madrid, "detained" there under guard in his own sumptuous residence—built with the spoil of Cuba.