El precio y suministro de los alimentos; los milicianos del POUM aprecian las armas soviéticos.

A visit to the weekly market showed that there are large quantities of vegetables, fruit, bread, pasta and fish available here. It was not particularly busy there. The stalls lacked fresh meat. Some prices: mandarins: between 10 and 15 cents per pound — about 400 grams; good grapes: between 30 and 50 cents per pound — about 400 grams. Plenty of bread and butter.

On Monday evening comrades asked me to give a talk on the international situation to members of the international group who were about to go to the front. Apart from our comrades Heidenreich and Huber, two Austrian soldiers and two Swiss were present. Naturally I spoke about Popular Front policies, particularly in France. The comrades explained that they were sorely lacking in political information at the front, and that the political commissars did virtually nothing in this respect. They requested that I or somebody else give lectures for a few weeks directly behind the front lines, and they assured me that there would be a lot of interest (I did not have enough time to take them up on this.) Political propaganda at the front is largely limited to providing milicianos with newspapers. These are sent every day without fail. Moreover, it is said that even amongst members of the POUM at the front, the contradiction between the attitude of the POUM in La Batalla to the Soviet Union and the soldiers’ gratitude for Russian arms is noticeable.