On 23 June 1937, Eileen and Orwell, with John McNair and Stafford Cottman, boarded the morning train from Barcelona to Paris. Sitting in the restaurant car, as if they were tourists, they safely crossed into France. Sir Richard Rees later wrote that the strain of her experience in Barcelona, even before the May Events, showed clearly on Eileen’s face: ‘In Eileen Blair I had seen for the first time the symptoms of a human being living under a political terror.’1 The nature of this terror is exemplified by documents concerning Orwell and Eileen (and also Orwell’s colleague, Charles Doran, 1894–1974, see note to Orwell’s letter to him of 2 August 1937, below), prepared for the Tribunal for Espionage and High Treason, Valencia, three weeks after the Orwells escaped. Orwell’s experiences in Spain, exemplified by these documents, are significant witnesses to the way Orwell and his comrades, especially those of the POUM, were betrayed by those supposedly fighting with them against Fascism in Spain. It was an experience that Orwell never forgot and coloured his thinking, actions and writing for the rest of his life. Orwell did not know of the existence of these documents though it is clear from Homage to Catalonia and his letters, articles and reviews that he well understood what had given rise to them.
The Spanish originals of these documents are in the Archivo Histórico Nacional de España, Madrid. That concerning Orwell was first sent to the editor by Karen Hatherley and a clearer version and the document related to Charles Doran, together with the translations reproduced here, were kindly provided by Robert A. McNeil, Head of Hispanic Collections, Bodleian Library. The editor is very grateful to both. The Spanish version of the Orwell document, with some variants, is included by Victor Alba in his El Proceso del P.O.U.M. (Barcelona, 1989), the inside back cover of which reproduces a much-overwritten version of the original. The Doran document is not included either in Alba’s collection or the Complete Works. The trial of the leaders of the POUM took place in Barcelona in October and November 1938 (see letter to Raymond Postgate, 21 October 1938, below). Orwell later corresponded with one of those found guilty, Jordi Arquer (3238, n. 1, XIX/154, and 3651, n. 1, XX/140); see also his letter to Charles Doran, 2 August 1937 (below). Like Orwell and his wife, Doran is also described as ‘trotzkista pronunciado’. Among names in the Doran document is Karl Radek (1885–1939?), who had accompanied Lenin in the sealed train in which Lenin returned to Russia just before the October Revolution (see 3649, n. 3, XX/139), and whom it is stated Doran defended. The newspaper cutting in Doran’s possession refers to Lt Norman Baillie Stewart (‘the prisoner in the Tower’), who had been accused of selling secrets for £90 to German agents through ‘a mysterious girl-friend named Marie Louise’ (Robert Graves and Alan Hodge, The Long Week-End, 1940, 267). Curiously, the description ‘su misteriosa amiga’ also appears in the Spanish document; France, not Germany, is mentioned in the Spanish document. A lengthy afternote to these documents will be found in the Complete Works, XI/31–7.