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The chief importance of the affair was that it taught me to read the war news in the papers with a more disbelieving eye.
If I ever go back to Spain I shall make a point of having a cup of coffee in Huesca.
The issue has been narrowed down to ’Fascism versus democracy’ and the revolutionary aspect concealed as much as possible.
Actually churches were pillaged everywhere and as a matter of course, because it was perfectly well understood that the Spanish Church was part of the capitalist racket.
One of the most horrible features of war is that all the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.
It is the same in all wars; the soldiers do the fighting, the journalists do the shouting, and no true patriot ever gets near a front-line trench, except on the briefest of propaganda- tours.
When you think what fighting means it is queer that soldiers want to fight, and yet undoubtedly they do. In stationary warfare there are three things that all soldiers long for: a battle, more cigarettes, and a week’s leave.
If they came too near the Fascists had a habit of shelling them–justifiably, for in modern war no one scruples to use an ambulance for carrying ammunition.
A fat man eating quails while children are begging for bread is a disgusting sight, but you are less likely to see it when you are within sound of the guns.
This war, in which I played so ineffectual a part, has left me with memories that are mostly evil, and yet I do not wish that I had missed
It is difficult to be certain about anything except what you have seen with your own eyes,
Earthquakes in Japan, famines in China, revolutions in Mexico? Don’t worry, the milk will be on the doorstep tomorrow morning,
