Mallorcan Insult

To the Supreme Court in Madrid last week went the case of five U. S. citizens, one a woman, who were jailed in Palma, Mallorca, last June for hitting and insulting a member of Spain's crack police, the Guardia Civil (TIME, July 24). All five had been acquitted last October by a military court. But custom required a military auditor to review and confirm such a verdict. It happened that the auditor was a monarchist and not above embarrassing the Republican government's diplomatic relations with the U. S. He appealed the case to the Supreme Court, irascibly demanding jail sentences of six months and a day. The court saw that four of the five, including the woman, had on the evidence "insulted" one of the efficient Guardia Civil whose support is indispensable to the Republic. Pointing out that there is a law against "spoken insult against the armed forces of Spain." the Supreme Court last week smacked the four, then out on bail in Palma, with six-months-and-a-day jail sentences, let the fifth go.

Greatly dismayed was U. S. Ambassador Claude Gernade Bowers who hastened to Foreign Minister Leandro Pita Romero to deplore the unhappy effect of the new verdict on U. S. public opinion just at the time when Spain wants an increase in its U. S. import quota for Spanish wines.

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