George Orwell: A Life in Letters (18 page)

3
.
Harry Milton was the only American serving with Orwell’s unit. He and Orwell were talking when Orwell was shot through the throat (
Homage to Catalonia
, p. 138). He was Trotskyist and regarded Orwell as ‘politically virginal’ on arrival in Spain. They spent hours together discussing politics. Orwell was ‘as cool as a cucumber’ and ‘a very disciplined individual’ (see
Remembering Orwell,
pp. 81, 85, 90).

4
.
James Maxton (1885–1946), Independent Labour Party MP, 1
922–46; Chairman of the ILP, 1926–31, 1934–39.

5
.
Andrés Nin (1892–
1937), leader of the POUM; he had once been Trotsky’s private secretary in Moscow, but broke with him when Trotsky spoke critically of the
POUM
. He was murdered by the Communists after the customary Soviet interrogation in May 1937. (See Thomas, p. 523.)

6
.
This refers to Bob Smillie, thrown into jail in Valencia where according to his captors he died of appendicitis. (See
Homage to Catalonia,
p. 149.)

7
.
Young Communist League.

Orwell and
The Road to Wigan Pier
were subjected to vicious attacks by Communists and the extreme Left Press. Ruth Dudley Edwards describes Orwell as being ‘blackguarded’ by Harry Pollitt, leader of the Communist Party of Great Britain in the
Daily Worker
, 17 March 1937 (
Victor Gollancz
(1987), p. 248). Pollitt wrote: ‘Here is George Orwell, a disillusioned little middle-class boy who, seeing through imperialism, decided to discover what Socialism had to offer . . . a late imperialist policeman . . . . If ever snobbery had its hallmark placed upon it, it is by Mr Orwell. . . . I gather that the chief thing that worries Mr Orwell is the “smell” of the working-class, for smells seem to occupy the major portion of the book. . . . One thing I am certain of, and it is this – if Mr Orwell could only hear what the Left Book Club circles will say about this book, then he would make a resolution never to write again on any subject that he does not understand.’ Attacks on Orwell continued during the summer and finally Orwell sought Gollancz’s help.

To Victor Gollancz*

20 August 1937

The Stores

Wallington

Dear Mr Gollancz,

I do not expect you will have seen the enclosed cutting, as it does not refer to anything you published for me.

This (see underlined words) is the—I think—third reference in the
Daily Worker
to my supposedly saying that the working classes ‘smell.’ As you know I have never said anything of the kind, in fact have specifically said the opposite. What I said in Chapter VIII of
Wigan Pier
, as you may perhaps remember, is that middle-class people are brought up to
believe
that the working classes ‘smell,’ which is simply a matter of observable fact. Numbers of the letters I received from readers of the book referred to this and congratulated me on pointing it out. The statement or implication that I think working people ‘smell’ is a deliberate lie aimed at people who have not read this or any other of my books, in order to give them the idea that I am a vulgar snob and thus indirectly hit at the political parties with which I have been associated. These attacks in the
Worker
only began after it became known to the Communist Party that I was serving with the P.O.U.M. militia.

I have no connection with these people (the
Worker
staff) and nothing I said would carry any weight with them, but you of course are in a different position. I am very sorry to trouble you about what is more or less my own personal affair, but I think perhaps it might be worth your while to intervene and stop attacks of this kind which will not, of course, do any good to the books you have published for me or may publish for me in the future. If therefore at any time you happen to be in touch with anyone in authority on the
Worker
staff, I should be very greatly obliged if you would tell them two things:

1. That if they repeat this lie about my saying the working classes ‘smell’ I shall publish a reply with the necessary quotations, and in it I shall include what John Strachey
¹
said to me on the subject just before I left for Spain (about December 20
^th
). Strachey will no doubt remember it, and I don’t think the C.P. would care to see it in print.

2. This is a more serious matter. A campaign of organised libel is going on against people who were serving with the P.O.U.M. in Spain. A comrade of mine, a boy of eighteen whom I knew in the line,
²
was recently not only expelled from his branch of the Y.C.L. for his association with the P.O.U.M., which was perhaps justifiable as the P.O.U.M. and C.P. policies are quite incompatible, but was also described in a letter as ‘in the pay of Franco.’ This latter statement is quite a different matter. I don’t know whether it is libellous within the meaning of the act, but I am taking counsel’s opinion, as, of course, the same thing (ie. that I am in Fascist pay) is liable to be said about myself. Perhaps again, if you are speaking to anyone in authoritative position, you could tell them that in the case of anything actionable being said against me, I shall not hesitate to take a libel action immediately. I hate to take up this threatening attitude, and I should hate still more to be involved in litigation, especially against members of another working-class party, but I think one has a right to defend oneself against these malignant personal attacks which, even if it is really the case that the C.P. is entirely right and the P.O.U.M. and I.L.P. entirely wrong, cannot in the long run do any good to the working-class cause. You see here (second passage underlined) the implied suggestion that I did not ‘pull my weight’ in the fight against the Fascists. From this it is only a short step to calling me a coward, a shirker etc., and I do not doubt these people would do so if they thought it was safe.

I am extremely sorry to put this kind of thing upon you, and I shall understand and not be in any way offended if you do not feel you can do anything about it.
³
But I have ventured to approach you because you are my publisher and may, perhaps, feel that your good name is to some extent involved with mine.

Yours sincerely

Eric Blair

[X, 390, pp.72–4; typewritten]

1
.
John Strachey (1901–63), political theorist, Labour MP, 1929–
31, then stood unsuccessfully for Parliament for Oswald Mosley’s New Party (of Fascist inclination), then supported Communism. He was Labour Minister of Food, 1945–50 and Secretary of State for War, 1950–51.

2
.
Stafford Cottman.*

3
.
Gollancz told Orwell he was passing his letter on ‘to the proper quarter’. That proved to be the Communist Party’s offices in King Street, London. To Pollitt, he wrote, ‘My dear Harry, you should see this letter from Orwell. I read it to John [Strachey] over the telephone and he assures me that he is quite certain that he said nothing whatever indiscreet.’ What Strachey said is not known. However, the attacks did, for the moment, cease.

To Geoffrey Gorer*

15 September 1937

The Stores

Wallington

Dear Geoffrey,

Thanks so much for your letter. I am glad you are enjoying yourself in Denmark, though, I must admit, it is one of the few countries I have never wanted to visit. I rang you up when I was in town, but of course you weren’t there. I note you are coming back about the 24
^th
. We shall be here till the 10
^th
October, then we are going down to Suffolk to stay at my parents’ place for some weeks. But if you can manage it any time between the 24
^th
and the 10
^th
, just drop us a line and then come down and stay. We can always put you up without difficulty.

What you say about not letting the Fascists in owing to dissensions between ourselves is very true so long as one is clear what one means by Fascism, also who or what it is that is making unity impossible. Of course all the Popular Front stuff that is now being pushed by the Communist press and party, Gollancz and his paid hacks etc., etc., only boils down to saying that they are in favour of British Fascism (prospective) as against German Fascism. What they are aiming to do is to get British capitalist-imperialism into an alliance with the U.S.S.R. and thence into a war with Germany. Of course they piously pretend that they don’t want the war to come and that a French-British-Russian alliance can prevent it on the old balance of power system. But we know what the balance of power business led to last time, and in any case it is manifest that the nations are arming with the intention of fighting. The Popular Front boloney boils down to this: that when the war comes the Communists, labourites etc., instead of working to stop the war and overthrow the Government, will be on the side of the Government provided that the Government is on the ‘right’ side, ie. against Germany. But everyone with any imagination can foresee that Fascism, not of course called Fascism, will be imposed on us as soon as the war starts. So you will have Fascism with Communists participating in it, and, if we are in alliance with the U.S.S.R., taking a leading part in it. This is what has happened in Spain. After what I have seen in Spain I have come to the conclusion that it is futile to be ‘anti-Fascist’ while attempting to preserve capitalism. Fascism after all is only a development of capitalism, and the mildest democracy, so-called, is liable to turn into Fascism when the pinch comes. We like to think of England as a democratic country, but our rule in India, for instance, is just as bad as German Fascism, though outwardly it may be less irritating. I do not see how one can oppose Fascism except by working for the overthrow of capitalism, starting, of course, in one’s own country. If one collaborates with a capitalist-imperialist government in a struggle ‘against Fascism,’ ie. against a rival imperialism, one is simply letting Fascism in by the back door. The whole struggle in Spain, on the Government side, has turned upon this. The revolutionary parties, the Anarchists, P.O.U.M. etc., wanted to complete the revolution, the others wanted to fight the Fascists in the name of ‘democracy,’ and, of course, when they felt sure enough of their position and had tricked the workers into giving up their arms, re-introduce capitalism. The grotesque feature, which very few people outside Spain have yet grasped, is that the Communists stood furthest of all to the right, and were more anxious even than the liberals to hunt down the revolutionaries and stamp out all revolutionary ideas. For instance, they have succeeded in breaking up the workers’ militias, which were based on the trade unions and in which all ranks received the same pay and were on a basis of equality, and substituting an army on bourgeois lines where a colonel is paid eight times as much as a private etc. All these changes, of course, are put forward in the name of military necessity and backed up by the ‘Trotskyist’ racket, which consists of saying that anyone who professes revolutionary principles is a Trotskyist and in Fascist pay. The Spanish Communist press has for instance declared that Maxton is in the pay of the Gestapo. The reason why so few people grasp what has happened in Spain is because of the Communist command of the press. Apart from their own press they have the whole of the capitalist anti-Fascist press (papers like the
News Chronicle
) on their side, because the latter have got onto the fact that official Communism is now anti-revolutionary. The result is that they have been able to put across an unprecedented amount of lies and it is almost impossible to get anyone to print anything in contradiction. The accounts of the Barcelona riots in May, which I had the misfortune to be involved in, beat everything I have ever seen for lying. Incidentally the
Daily Worker
has been following me personally with the most filthy libels, calling me pro-Fascist etc., but I asked Gollancz to silence them, which he did, not very willingly I imagine. Queerly enough I am still contracted to write a number of books for him, though he refused to publish the book I am doing on Spain before a word of it was written.

I should like to meet Edith Sitwell
¹
very much, some time when I am in town. It surprised me very much to learn that she had heard of me and liked my books. I don’t know what° I ever cared much for her poems, but I liked very much her life of Pope.

Try and come down here some time. I hope your sprue
²
is gone.

Yours

Eric

[XI, 397, pp. 80–81; typewritten]

1
.
Edith Sitwell (1887–1964; DBE, 1954), poet and literary personality. Her first book of poems was published at her own expense in 1915, and she continued to write throughout her life. She achieved lasting and widespread recognition for
Façade
, which was read in a concert version, with music by William Walton, in January
1922. She encouraged many young artists and was greatly interested in Orwell’s work. Her
Alexander Pope
was published in 1930.

2
.
Here, a throat infection.

To H. N. Brailsford*

10 December 1937