Eileen

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31.8.40 [George Orwell]

August 31, 2010 in Eileen, Maida Vale, Political, Regent's Park, Spain, War-time, air raid, anti-aircraft guns, bomb, explosion by orwelldiaries

Air-raid warnings, of which there are now half a dozen or thereabouts every 24 hours, becoming a great bore.  Opinion spreading rapidly that one ought simply to disregard the raids except when they are known to be big-scale ones and in one’s own area.  Of the people strolling in Regent’s Park, I should say at least half pay no attention to a raid-warning . . . . . Last night just as we were going to bed, a pretty heavy explosion.  Later in the night woken up by a tremendous crash, said to be caused by a bomb in Maida Vale[1]. E. and I merely remarked on the loudness and fell asleep again.  Falling asleep, with a vague impression of anti-aircraft guns firing, found myself mentally back in the Spanish war, on one of those nights when you had a good straw to sleep on, dry feet, several hours rest ahead of you, and the sound of distant gunfire, which acts as a soporific provided it is distant.

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24.6.40 [George Orwell]

June 24, 2010 in Canada, Churchill, Duff-Cooper, Eileen, England, Flandin, France, Frenbch, French Communists, German armistice, Gwen, Hitler, LDV, Laval, Manifesto of Plain Men, Mass Observation, News Chronicle, Petain, Political, Richard Acland, Russia, Spain, Stalin, Verdun, War-time, capitalists, class, collaboration, conquest, demotic speech, left, pacifist, patriots, propaganda, red army, revolution, revolutionary government, revolutionary war, revolvers, right, speeches, winter by orwelldiaries

The German armistice terms are much as expected. . . . What is interesting about the whole thing is the extent to which the traditional pattern of loyalties and honour is breaking down. Pétain, ironically enough, is the originator (at Verdun) of the phrase “ils ne passeront pas”, so long an anti-Fascist slogan. Twenty years ago any Frenchman who would have signed such an armistice would have had to be either an extreme leftwinger or an extreme pacifist, and even then there would have been misgivings. Now the people who are virtually changing sides in the middle of the war are the professional patriots. To Pétain, Laval[1], Flandin[2] and Co. the whole war must have seemed like a lunatic internecine struggle at the moment when your real enemy is waiting to slosh you. . . . It is therefore practically certain that high-up influences in England are preparing for a similar sell-out, and while e.g. — is at — there is no certainty that they won’t succeed even without the invasion of England. The one good thing about the whole business is that the bottom is being knocked out of Hitler’s pretence of being the poor man’s friend. The people actually willing to do a deal with him are bankers, generals, bishops, kings, big industrialists, etc., etc. . . . . Hitler is a leader of tremendous counterattack of the capitalist class, which is forming itself into a vast corporation, losing its privileges to some extent in doing so, but still retaining its power over the working class. When it comes to resisting such an attack as this, anyone who is of the capitalist class must be treacherous or half-treacherous, and will swallow the most fearful indignities rather than put up a real fight. . . . whichever way one looks, whether it is at the wider strategic aspects or the most petty details of local defence, one sees that any real struggle means revolution. Churchill evidently can’t see or won’t accept this, so he will have to go. But whether he goes in time to save England from conquest depends on how quickly the people at large can grasp the essentials. What I fear is that they will never move until it is too late.

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15.6.40 [George Orwell]

June 15, 2010 in Albatross Library, Eileen, Hitler, Peter Watson, Political, Unity Mitford, War-time, fall of paris by orwelldiaries

It just occurred to me to wonder whether the fall of Paris means the end of the Albatross Library, as I suppose it does[1]. If so, I am £30 to the bad. It seems incredible that people still attach any importance to long-term contracts, stocks and shares, insurance policies etc. in such times as these. The sensible thing to do now would be to borrow money right and left and buy solid goods. A short while back E. made enquiries about the hire-purchase terms for sewing machines and found they had agreements stretching over two and a half years.

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12.6.40 [George Orwell]

June 12, 2010 in Abyssinian war, British, Eileen, Germans, Italian shops, Mussolini, Political, Spanish war, Swiss, War-time, attacks, french, soho by orwelldiaries

E[ileen]. and I last night walked though Soho to see whether the damage to Italian shops etc. was as reported. It seemed to have been exaggerated in the newspapers, but we did see, I think, 3 shops which had had their windows smashed. The majority had hurriedly labelled themselves “British”. Gennari’s, the Italian grocer’s, was plastered all over with printed placards saying “This establishment is entirely British”. The Spaghetti House, a shop specialising in Italian foodstuffs, had renamed itself “British Food Shop”. Another shop proclaimed itself Swiss, and even a French restaurant had labelled itself British. The interesting thing is that all these placards must evidently have been printed beforehand and kept in readiness.

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