“…England has lost in the Basque "footstool" its principal instrument of spiritual and political domination over Madrid. 292/946/12b/28(iv)…”

“…Important political significance, both from the nationalist point of view in Spain and the international point of view, attaches to the present stay of Franco in Bilbao, in Biscay, the ex-spiritual and economic centre of Basque separatism. …”

“…Through these ceremonies, full of traditionalist significance and revolutionary purport, which carry in procession the ancient Madonnas against a background of shipyards and blast furnaces, Franco, who knows the soul of Spain, is laying with serene wisdom the great sentimental, spiritual and economic bases of his policy of reconstruction. …”