BARCELONA 13TH JULY, 1937

BARCELONA 13TH JULY, 1937

Eric Blair and his wife Eileen Blair

It is clear from their correspondence that they are confirmed Trotskyists. They belong to the IRP [sic] of England.

ERIC BLAIR was on the ILP Committee functioning in the Lenin Division on the Granja front (HUESCA).

Liaison with the ILP of England (correspondence of D. MOYLE and JOHN MACNAIR).

Among the effects of CHARLES DORAN is found a letter addressed to ERIC B. from JOHN MACNAIR, asking him to write reports for the ILP.–

They must be considered as liaison officers of the ILP with POUM.

They were living in the Hotel Falcon, supported by the POUM Executive Committee.

Credential from the POUM Executive Committee signed by JORGE KOPP (from its character it seems to be a credential in favour of EILEEN B. valid for the events of May. [No closing bracket]

ERIC B. took part in the events of MAY.

Liaison with ALBACETE by means of DAVID WICKES.

Liaison with MOSCOW.–

Eileen B. was on the Huesca front on 13–3–37 (date inscribed on a photograph). She has a credential issued in BARCELONA on 17–3–37. Her husband has a permit to leave the front to go to Barcelona, issued on 14–3–37.

1. Sir Richard Rees, George Orwell: Fugitive from the Camp of Victory (1961), 147. For Burnett Bolloten’s application of the word ‘terror’ to the Spanish experience, see The Spanish Civil War: Revolution and Counterrevolution (1991), 570–71.

Charles Doran

A man of the ILP, in very close collaboration with the ILP Committee on the Huesca front, within POUM.–

It is clear from his correspondence that he is a confirmed Trotskyist.–

In Spain he had very close contact with the FAI, as well as a firm liaison with the Iberian Communist Youth of POUM.–

Liaison with Albacete.–

In his effects the names KOPP and MACNAIR are frequently found, as is material by BLAIR [or as in BLAIR’s effects]. –

In Glasgow, Scotland, in December 1936, he wrote a letter in which he defended Trotsky and Karl Radek against the Moscow trial.

Addresses in Spain found in his effects give reason to suppose the existence of co-religionists in Spain. D., as well as Blair and McNair, has written for the ILP. In his effects is found a newspaper extract relating to the trial for espionage in France of an English lieutenant BAILLIESTE NAST and his mysterious girl-friend MARIA LUISA SCHULE (or MARTIN), who both worked for the GESTAPO.–