Mil Perdones, Senores!

In the reading room of the U.S. Consulate at Valencia, 40 young Spaniards sprawled in cozy comfort. They pored over OWI Spanish-language publications, gazed at the bright posters glorifying the U.S. war effort.

Into this scene of amity rushed a couple of Falangist hotheads. Just back from volunteer service with the Spanish Blue Division on the Russian Front, they ripped the posters from the walls, denounced their countrymen as traitors. Spanish guards handcuffed the two intruders, lugged them to the calabozo.

U.S. Ambassador Carlton J. Hayes's stiff protest was almost unnecessary. Generalissimo Francisco Franco's government and the Falange party immediately weighed in with profuse apologies. The two consulate demonstrators were expelled from the Falange, brought to Madrid in irons for trial and punishment by a special court.

A similar demonstration in the British vice-consulate at Saragossa had brought similar amends. U.S. and British officials had long since learned to use such episodes to press Franco further away from the Axis, squeeze valuable concessions from him. Last week the Falange, political core of Spain's Fascism, announced a program of general "relaxation" in domestic affairs, even dissolved the rambunctious Falangist Militia. The last elements of the Blue Division returned from Russia to be disbanded. A No.1 subject of current negotiations is the question of Italian merchantmen and warships held in Spanish ports.

Franco's crabwalk toward the Allied camp did not overly impress Allied leaders. But they had reason to feel that at least they had him crab-walking in the right direction.

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