Closed Rapidly and Brutally
The suppression of all religious schools in Spain , is proceeding with such rapidity, brutality and lack of consideration for the public good---even on the socialist viewthat The Times correspondent has been moved to say that "it has all the appearance of 'a measure adopted with sectarian haste."
Among the schools closed are those of Santa Isabel in Madrid, founded by Philip II, where 600 girls were taught, the college of Santa Maria de Gracia in Avila where St. Theresa was educated and where nuns have been teaching for fifteen centuries.
Provincial inspectors have been ordered to close down all religious schools.
Protests Throughout the Country
Protests against this typical intolerance have been made throughout the country. At Orense, in Galicia, 600 parents have
lodged a collective protest. In Carthagena 10,000 people are said to have signed a protest against the expulsion of the Sisters of Charity. At Pontevedra parents have joined together to state that the government was going beyond its powers in ordering so complete a laicising of education. At Pampeluna many furniture dealers have refused to sell school furniture to the municipality for use in the state schools.
Meanwhile the agitation and terrorism throughout the country show little signs of abating. Reports of affrays come from Zamora where a Fascist was killed, from Santona where a teacher was badly wounded in a fight due to the closing of schools, from Malaga, and the Asturias and Barcelona, both of which parts are in disorder through strikes and labour troubles.
s In the Cortes last week a member pointed out the lamentable difference between the results of a popular front victory in Spain from one in France, and contrasted the behaviour and programmes of Largo Caballero, the Spanish Socialist leader, With that of Leon Blum.
Much interest is being taken in the call of the Catholic leader, Gil Robles, to reform the Catholic party by breaking it away from the reactionaries and giving it a more radical social programme. Catholic trade unionists assented to the programme of the general trades union congress held in Madrid, the chief item of which was that the workers would proceed to the confiscation and taking over of all industries that employed the "lock-out."