Journalist During Spanish Civil War

Last year I wrote of Arthur Koestler's capture and later release at Gibraltar during the Spanish Civil War [Gibraltar Magazine March 2005). The British zoologist Sir Peter Chalmers Mitchell, who was living in Malaga at the time, was responsible for saving the journalist, and later famed author,from execution. This past summer I came across Mitchell's autobiography My Fill of Days.

My Fill of Days charts Mitchell's life from his birth at Dumfermline,Scotland in 1864 to the final days of the Spanish Civil War at his villa in Malaga. Mitchell had re tired to the villa to enjoy the 'quiet'life after a successful career. He attended Aber deen University and then Christ Church at Oxford and went on to garner inter national respect for his work in biology and zoology. MitchelI wasthe secretary of the Zoological Society of London from 1903 to 1935.

Curiously, although the final chapter of My Fill of Days was written in the last days of the War and after Mitchell had saved Koestier's life, there is no mention of the Hungarianborn writer in the book.

Koestler, who would later gain fame as an author and philosopher, does talk of Mitchell in his own book, Spanish Testament, and in fact the book is dedicated to Mitchell. Koestler was working as a journalist when he had n-jade his way to Malaga to report on the plight of the refugees fleeing the Nationalists. Koestler had heard of Mitchell and he sought him out.

"He is the Grand Old Man of Ma laga. In 1932, after having created the Whipsnade Zoo,the result of30 years of planning, he bought a house here, to lead a peaceful and retired life. Peaceful indeed... Ad venturous spirits like him have a positive genius for getting them selves into messes with the most in nocent air in the world. He has just finished his memoirs,[*see below] My Fill of Days. The well-cared-for house,half Spanish, half Victorian, and the neat garden,are just like an enchanted isle in this spectral town. We make friends at once; Sir Peter invites me to move to his house if the situation becomes critical. He is determined to stay on whatever happens.1 have a vague feeling that 1 shall stay too. This town and its fate exert a strange and uncomfort able fascination over one.

"1 think over what 1 have seen on the various fronts, it all seems hope less. But the strangest thing of all is the absolute quiet on all the fronts. Malaga is bombed from the air at least once a day; at the front not a single shot is fired. The last rebel attack was carried out on the Gra nada and Gibraltar roads simulta neously ten days ago; since that, nothing. I have a growing impres sion that for some reason impossi ble to understand,like so much else that is inexplicable in this bizarre war, the insurgents have given up the idea of attacking Malaga. The city is still without food and muni tions;but it looks as though in some miraculous way it will be saved."

Koestler was seriously mistaken about the Nationalist's intentions. At the time he was a card-carrying Communist and therefore a Repub lican sympathizer. Early in the war he had been arrested in Seville by the Nationalists but managed to escape in a taxi to Gibraltar. A cer tain Captain Bolin was humiliated by this es cape and he swore that Koestler would be ex ecuted if captured.

Mitchell was also a Communist, although not card-carrying,and a Republican sympa thizer. But he was treated like a kind of honourary Consul by the local officials and using his influence and his protection under the British flag(which flew over his villa) he had helped Spaniards from both sides escape via Gibraltar. Among these was his neighbour Senor Bolin and all of his family. Senor Bolin and Captain Bolin were cousins and that coinci dence is probably what saved Koestler's life.

Senor Bolin was an aristocrat and therefore a target of the Republi cans who were clinging to control of the city. Koestler described what happened in Spanish Testament.

"...and Sehor Boh'n came to the house of his neighbour. Sir Peter, whom he knew to be a'Red',to ask for shelter and protection. He ar rived with his wife, mother-in-law, five or six children and two or three maids.Sir Peter installed the whole Boh'n tribe in his house — it was packed from attic to cellar. Senor Boh'n handed over certain docu ments for safe keeping in an enve lope, which Sir Peter locked away in a drawer of his writing-desk.

"The next day an Anarchist pa trol visited the house.They did not wish to trouble Sir Peter, knowing his sympathetic attitude towards the Republican Government, but they demanded to see the docu ments of the Sehor living upstairs.

"Sir Peter was obliged to hand over the documents.The Anarchist leader,a young lad,opened the en velope.

The first thing he found was Sehor Bolfn's Phalangist member ship card, the second a set of por nographic pictures such as are posted to amateurs by certain book shops in Paris. The Anarchist seemed highly delighted with both discoveries.Then Sir Peter had one of his usual happy inspirations.

"Look here," he said in his smoothest tones,"we'll strike a bar gain: you keep the pictures,and I'll keep the card."

"The Anarchist, who, as 1 have said, was very young, was at first indignant, then amused, and fi nally,out offriendliness towards Sir Peter, he consented.

Some days later, however,Senor Bolin was arrested. Mitchell se cured his release, obtained pass ports for his family and,risking his own life,smuggled them to Gibral tar.

As the Nationalists approached Malaga,Koestler refused to run and at 11am on Tuesday, 9th February, 24 hours after the rebels had en tered the city, he was arrested. Koestler told his captors that he was a friend of Sir Peter Chalmers Mitchell.

An officer asked in broken Eng lish whether it was true that Mitchell was an English aristocrat.

"I should think he is," replied Koestler."He is a member of a very old aristocratic family, and a great friend of the King."

Koestler claims to have said this so convincingly that the young of ficer turned quite pale.

"Determining to make the most of the situation, I introduced my self and said that I regretted that I was obliged to make his acquaint ance in such an unshaven state. He was completely taken aback, and announced his own name: 'Franco'".

Unfortunately for Koestler Cap tain Bolin was soon on the scene and he ordered a gardener to get some rope in order for the journal- ist to be tied up.Then ten minutes later Mitchell returned pale and upset.

"It was Senor Bolin," he said. "He's just back by car from Gibral tar."

"Has he got any more dirty post cards?"

"No but he's wearing a red beret of the Requetes and has a huge army revolver. He says it will give him great pleasure to hunt down the Reds and kill a few of them with his own hands."

The gardener returned. He had been unable to find a rope, but had brought two yards of electric wir ing.

"I believe they are going to hang me," Koestler said to Mitchell.

Mitchell and the two Bolins en tered a separate room to negotiate.

"What's happening?" Koestler shouted through the open door.

They came out,and Sir Peter said very quietly and with a tender look, "It seems that it is alt right for me, but not for you."

"Anyway," Koestler wrote later, "they did not shoot me there and then".

Koestler wasjailed, however,and each night listened in fear as other prisoners were taken out and ex ecuted.

"To this day 1 do not know what made Captain Bolin change his mind," wrote Koestler in Spanish Testament, "whether my words had made him conscious of the re sponsibility he would be taking upon himself if he were to shoot a foreign journalist in a house flying the Union Jack,or whether the gen tleman with the red beret and filthv pictures had after all brought him self to the point of intervening.

"24 hours after his arrest. Sir Pe ter,thanks to the intervention of the officers of a British warship, was set at liberty. While still on board he tel egraphed the news of my arrest to England. I have him to thank for the fact that my sentence by the Malaga court martial was not put into ef fect."

Right to the last Mitchell was helping others escape. On the day of his departure he smuggled two Spanish aristocrats, Don Tomas, and his English horn wife. Dona Mercedes, aboard the rescue ship HM5 Ardent.

It has been said that Mitchell re turned to Spain during World War II and helped to set up a Commu nist cell in Gibraltar. I am still in vestigating this story. Among his accomplishments are the Mappin terraces at the Whipsnade Zoo and several books on zoological subjects including The Nature^Man(1904) and Materialism and Vitalism in Bi(1930). He died in 1945. Koestler later rejected Communisfn and became a pariah of the intel lectual left. His masterpiece is the political Darkness at Noon.He died in 1983.

Author's note: Publication of My Fill of Days was arrangedfor the au tumn of 1936 hut this had to be post poned. Mitchell wrote chapter XX af ter returning to the UK and this is the chapter where one might have expected Koestler to receive at least a mention.