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In the quiet Calle Miguel Angel, a mob of blue-shirted Falange bullies broke into the International Institute for girls, an American-owned building which also houses a progressive Spanish school. While police calmly looked on, ignoring the screams of women, the Falangists pinned down School Director Phyllis Turnbull of Binghamton, N.Y. and her staff, began smashing windows, lights, chairs, blackboards.
Shoot If Necessary. Despite many injured, no word of the rioting appeared in the Madrid press. The university was closed down, but next day Falangists and anti-Falangists clashed again. This time the Falangists pulled their pistols, but in the confused fighting managed only to wound one of their own sympathizers. At this point Franco stepped in, ordered all Falangists confined to barracks, and sent 1,400 heavily armed plainclothesmen into the streets with orders to break up disturbances by "shooting, if necessary."
Franco also gave the government-controlled newspapers and radio their line. The Falangist Arriba editorialized: "Blood is running again among the youth of Spain," blamed "armed liberalism motivated by Communism." But Spaniards were not deceived. The government announced that Dean Torres López had been fired, while Rector Laín Entralgo was reported ousted. Seven student ringleaders were reportedly exiled to places 200 miles from Madrid. The names of the youths, all respectfully referred to by the title of Don, showed them to include the son of one of the founders of the Falange, the nephew of the Falange's third in command, and the son of one of Franco's closest personal friends.
At week's end Franco abrogated the "right" of Spaniards to move freely about Spain, and suspended the law protecting them from summary arrest and imprisonment. Both rights are largely theoretical in Spain, but their abrogation was a warning by Franco that he has decided to reverse his policy of "easing up," and to re-establish his old, ironfisted rule. The country responded with a sense of tension not known since the dark days following the fall of University City.