asked the Prime Minister if he will seek a meeting with the Spanish Head of State.

I have no plans to do so, Sir.

Would the Prime Minister try to find an opportunity of conveying to General Franco the deep repugnance felt by many people in these countries of Britain at the continuing denial by his régime of all legislative autonomy in the nations of Catalonia and the Basque? Will he express to General Franco our sense of horror at the appalling treatment meted out to Basque nationalists in Spanish gaols?

The views of the House are very well known on some of these questions of the treatment of minorities within European Spain and in other parts of the Spanish empire. If the hon. Gentleman is concerned about the question of the right to vote, while it is true that those living in Spanish territories overseas do not have much of a right to vote, nor have the occupants of Spain in the sense that we understand it in England, Wales and Scotland.