The
Gareth Jones
Diaries
-Witnessing the Holodomor Firsthand
© 2006. All Rights Reserved. www.garethjones.org
Overview
1.
2.
Early Life / Education
Diary / Letter Observations of a Famine:
1.
2.
3.
3.
Randolph Hearst
1.
2.
4.
5.
6.
1930 – Lloyd George & First Unescorted Visit
1931 – With Jack Heinz II
1933 – Foray into Ukrainian Villages & Kharkiv
1935 Repeating Famine Allegations
Thomas Walker Affair 1935
Murdered by Chinese bandits or Soviet Retribution?
Orwell’s Mr Jones…
Memorial Plaque - Aberystwyth, Wales, 2006
Early Life
• Mother, Former Governess
to John Hughes’ family
between 1889-92, founder
of Hughesovka (now
Donetsk).
• Father, Headmaster Barry
County Grammar School.
• Gareth, Born 1905 in
Barry, South Wales.
Academic Career
• 1922-26 – 1st Class
Honours Degree in French &
German from Aberystwyth
University, Wales.
• 1923-25 - Université de
Strasbourg: Diplôme Supérieur
des Etudes Françaises.
• 1926 – Exhibiton Scholarship
to Trinity College, Cambridge.
• 1927, 1928 & 1929 - College
Prizeman – Plus Senior Scholar
in 1928.
• 1929 – 1st Class Honours in
German and Russian, with
distinction in Oral Examinations.
1930-31 – With Lloyd George
• One month unsuccessful
trial with The Times and
through family
acquaintance Tom Jones,
the long-standing British
Government Cabinet
Secretary is introduced to
Former World War One
British Prime Minister David
Lloyd George.
• Appointed Foreign Affairs
Advisor to Lloyd George.
1930-31 – With Lloyd George
• Visits USSR in 1930, for 1st time, on behalf
of Lloyd George; soon after British
Diplomatic Relations are restored having
being broken in 1927 due to the Arcos
Spying Affair.
• On Leaving USSR, Gareth writes candidly
to his parents:
Hurray! It is wonderful to be in
Germany again, absolutely
wonderful.
Russia is in a very bad state;
rotten, no food, only bread;
oppression, injustice, misery
among the workers and 90%
discontented. I saw some
very bad things, which made
me mad to think that people
like [the Webbs] go there and
come back,
after having been led round
by the nose and had enough
to eat, and say that Russia is
a paradise. In the South there
is talk of a new revolution, but
it will never come off,
because the Army and the
G.P.U. (Secret Police) are
too strong. The winter is
going to be one of great
suffering there and there is
starvation. The
government is the most
brutal in the world. The
peasants hate the
Communists. This year
thousands and thousands
of the best men in Russia
have been sent to Siberia
and the prison island of
Solovki. People are now
speaking openly against
the Government.
In the Donetz Basin
conditions are unbearable
Thousands are leaving. I
shall never forget the night I
spent in a railway station on
the way to Hughesovka.
One reason why I left
Hughesovka so quickly was
that all I could [get to eat was
a roll of bread.]
1930 – October -The London Times:
“Two Russias”
Through Lord Lothian, Gareth Introduced to Editor of The
Times & Invited to write 3 articles, in which he stated:
Click HERE for link to articles
1930 - The London Times:
“Two Russias”
• “…foreign delegations [are] blissfully ignorant of the
hunger, discontent, opposition, and hatred.”
• “…Donetz Basin, where there has been a serious
breakdown in food supplies.”
• A miner expressed …“Everybody is going away from the
Donetz Basin, because there is no food here. There is
nothing in Russia. The situation is terrible.”
• “The present food shortage was attributed by most
Russians to two causes – the agricultural revolution
begun last year and the absence of a free market... “It is
all the fault of this collectivisation, which the peasants
hate. There is no meat, nothing at all.”
1931 – Ivy Lee (PR), New York
• Head-hunted from Lloyd
George’s Secretariat to
work for world’s leading
PR agency on Wall
Street as their Soviet
expert.
• Chaperoned 21 year old
Jack Heinz’s visit to
USSR in August 1931.
1931 – Ivy Lee (PR), New York
• Afterwards, compiled a privately published ‘Anonymously
written’ book in spring 1932, entitled: “Experiences of
Russia – 1931 – A Diary” – namely from Gareth’s
Diaries.
• Arguably, the first Western book to ‘honestly’ report the
onset of famine conditions within the Soviet Union, again
citing variations of the word ‘starve’ on half a dozen
occasions…
Click HERE for link to full transcription of book
1931 Experiences of Russia – A Diary
Gareth wrote the Foreword:
“With knowledge of Russia and the Russian
language, it was possible to get off the beaten
path, to talk with grimy workers and rough
peasants, as well as such leaders as Lenin’s
widow and Karl Radek.
We visited vast engineering projects and
factories, slept on the bug-infested floors of
peasants’ huts, shared black bread and
cabbage soup with the villagers - in short, got
into direct touch with the Russian people in
their struggle for existence and were thus able
to test their reactions to the Soviet
Government’s dramatic moves.”
Sept 5
Woke, Keen supporter
came; later whispered
to Vice President, then
he came & there was a
complete change in his
attitude. “Its terrible.
We can’t speak worse
than before the Rev.
But 1926-27, those
were fine years”.
Absolute change in
[his] attitude &
gestures.
“We’ve got to keep
quiet or they will send
us to Siberia .
Then went to the
Village Soviet, an old
man came,
whispered “It’s
terrible in Kolhoz.
They took away my
cows & my horse. We
are starving. Look
what they give us.
Nothing. Nothing.
Nothing!
How can we live with
nothing in our dvor.
But we can’t say
anything or they’ll
send us away as they
did the others.
All are weeping in
villages.
Extract from Gareth’s 1931 Diary
1931 As published in ‘Experiences of
Russia – A Diary’
•
A doctor’s wife on the boat said to Jones:
“Exiles? The peasants have been sent away
in thousands to starve. They were exiled just
because they worked hard all their lives.
It’s terrible how they have treated them; they
have not given them anything; no bread cards
even. They sent a lot to Tashkent, where I was,
and just left them on the square. The exiles did
not know what to do and many starved to death.”
1931 – Oct 14th The London Times
THE REAL RUSSIA - 3 Articles
[…In which he first used the Doctor’s wife’s anecdote.]
Click HERE for link to articles
1932 - Oct 14th Letter to Parents
London Circles Knew of Raging Famine…
“On Friday, I had exceptionally interesting talks …
with Prof. Jules Menken (LSE) a very well known
economist. He was appalled with the prospects: what
he had seen was the complete failure of Marxism. He
dreaded this winter, when he thought millions would
die of hunger.
He had never seen such bungling & such
breakdowns. What struck him was the unfairness &
the inequality. He had seen hungry people one
moment & the next moment he had lunched with
Soviet Commissars in the Kremlin with the best caviar,
fish, game & the most luxurious wines.”
Planning a Trip to Expose the
Soviet Famine
• The next day (on October 15th & 17th) Gareth writes two
articles for the Cardiff Western Mail to highlight the tragic
situation entitled; “Will there be Soup?”
• Incensed by the lack of other news from the USSR, & in
line with his Welsh Non-Conformist beliefs & virtues;
Gareth decided to make a trip at his earliest opportunity
to make amends.
• After a busy schedule; ghosting Lloyd George’s War
Memoirs – & just ten days after being the first foreign
journalist to fly with the newly appointed German
Chancellor, Adolph Hitler, he arrived in Moscow on the
5th March 1933:
Click HERE for link to German articles
Malcolm Muggeridge
Gareth’s 1933 Diary
appointment with
Muggeridge in Moscow on
6th March at 9pm.
Muggeridge
Collapse of Bolshevism.
Returned from villages –
terrible – dying. No seed for
sowing. Practically no winter
sowing.
Outlook for next year
disastrous – End of Party
absolutely inevitable,
Stalin hated by Party, but
Party cannot do anything. 95%
of Party opposed to Stalin’s
policy, but there s no
discussion. Any opposition
and man is removed.
1933 – March 10th – Conversations on Train to Ukraine.
Boy on train asking for
bread.
I dropped a small piece
on floor and put it in
spittoon. Peasant came
and picked it up - ate
it.
Peasant woman: “Many are
dying. We’re starving. There
is little cattle left. They take
all grain away.
Ukrainian peasant: “They
took away my grain. Cattle
(maлo) a little. But there
were a lot.
Member Politdel
“I’ve been a member of the
party for 12 years. They are
now sending 2,700 from
Moscow Politdel. They are the
best, the strongest. It is semimilitary. We’ll smash kulaks
and smash opposition. We’re
promoting all men who
served in the civil war. The
elite, chosen ones. 60% of us
have been in higher
educational schools.
He clenched his fist & hit
down
…with every word: resolute,
ruthless, cruel:
“We are all workers mainly from
the factories.”
“We are going to organise. They’ll
be about 4 of us in each MTC. The
MTC where I shall be will look
after 15 kolkhozes. We’ll give
them strict control.”
“The weather for the harvest is
good, i.e. Lot of snow.”
“The methods of the kulaks have
changed. They used to murder.
Now they are subtle. Now they
say “yes we’re for the Kolkhoz”,
they’ll steal & wont work & they’ll
make difficulties. They try to wreck
by mean tricks, but they are not
dangerous any longer.
“I was in Pretop [?] in cavalry served
Budyonny’s 1st cavalry.”
The conductor said that there were
fewer travelling now, because it was
difficult to leave factory. But soon
there will be a lot of people leaving
Moscow for south on account of
passportisation. Also there were a lot
about 2 months ago.
I asked a man (Jew or Armenian)
where he was going.
He had a lot of gold teeth and said:
“I’ve left Leningrad and am going to
Kharkov to look for a job. I have no
vote. They have deprived me of my
rights, because I was a private trader.”
Boy Komsomolets:
“Very strict now. They are dying in
villages. In Belgorad there is bread,
but that’s a town.
“One woman stole 5 beets & got 10
years imprisonment.”
“If you steel coal from station, 10 yrs.
Very bad & we don’t know if it’ll be
better.”
Talked to a group of women
peasants; “We’re starving. Two
months we’ve hardly had bread.
We’re from the Ukraine and we’re
trying to go north. They’re dying
quietly in the villages. Kolkhozes
are terrible. They won’t give us any
tickets and we don’t know what to
do. Can’t buy bread for money.
A chicken was 20 rubles. Milk - 3
rubles a litre.
I dropped orange peel in spittoon.
Peasant picked it up, ate it. Later
apple core. Man speaking German
same story “Tell them in England,
Starving, bellies extended. Hunger
“Be careful in the villages
because the Ukrainians are
desperate. They will grab any
bread they can see.”
Conductor gets 67 rubles a
month, & a pound of black
bread for journey (day); “I
must work night and day”.
Komsomolets: “When I left
my mother and her sisters a
couple of days ago, they had
2 glasses of flour left.”
1933 - March 10th/11th
Walking along the Railway Track through
Black-Earth District & into Ukraine
First day March 11
From train, I walked about
an hour, chatted to all. The
same story.
There was a kolkhoz.
Asked children outside hut:
God? “Of course not. There
is no God.”
Talked to men on track. It
was getting [to] sunset. One
of them said:- “you’d better
not go
…further, for hooligans will rob
you of your coat & your food & all.”
The other – handsome, determined
young Communist, said “ Yes its
dangerous. Come and stay with us in
our village.”
Communist took me along to a
Selsoviet; full of young people,
children. One of them belly swollen.
All people say same ”XЛEБА HETУ
BCE nyxnoie” (Bread Not Available)
– One woman said:- “We are looking
forward to death.”
In one village, all bread had gone two
months ago, & potatoes had run out,
there was only bypяk (beetroot)
… for one month. How can they live
till next harvest?
The questions in the Selsoviet
were most intelligent: about workers
life, Japan, China, America, why the
crisis? Good Listeners. Keen
Discussions.
Then to the cottage of the
young Pres. of village soviet, decent
fellow with smile, ruddy face, 27 yrs
of age. His wife was there, with
closely cropped hair with gold
round earrings. Very kind.
Discussions for hours: “there
is only one communist in the
village”.
March 11 The President of the Kolkhoz
said they had enough seed, but move
towards the South there was a lack of
seed. He said that two families had
been sent away from the village of 120
dvor. Probably he was kind-hearted.
The discussion was very open, the
peasants saying that it have never
been so bad, the Pres. saying faintheartedly that great sacrifices had to be
made.
One peasant: “If only Lenin had
lived, we’d be living fine. He knew what
was going to happen. Here they’ve
been chopping and changing policy &
we don’t know what’s going to happen
next. Lenin would not have done
something violently and then said that
it was an oшибka (mistake).”
Two soldiers came and they asked
heaps of questions. “The bourgeoisie
were crushing the working class in
England. They shot down
demonstrators. Communists sat in
prison & England was going to declare
war on Russia.”
They had come to arrest a peasant
thief who had killed another. The thief
had gone to steal potatoes from the
hut of another.
The owner of the hut had come out
& the peasant had stabbed him with a
knife. There were many cases of that
happening.
The Red Army soldier who came the
next morning also said, “Don’t travel
by night. There are too many wild…
uncultured men want food and to
steal.”
Went to bed late, slept on floor.
In one bed; Pres., his wife & her
sister & small bed the child.
Woke up next morning before 8.
The Communist leader of next
village was there – Keen
Revolutionary; “We have
difficulties, but they have been
overcome.”
“There’s seed in this village.”
Cattle decrease disastrous. There
used to be 200 oxen, now 6 horses
& cattle here down by tremendous
amount.
The new tax, the Communists
… think will increase the desire
of the workers to work.
But there have been too
many wreckers, too many
kulaks, who have been trying to
influence the other peasants.
Breakfasted, then sister of
wife did algebra lesson.
The Communists realised &
admitted that there was no grain.
That was ‘Bockrenchenka’ [?] in
the Black Earth region. Lower
down it is much worse.
Talked to all the people as I
tramped along the railway track.
Ravens or crows (with…
… grey cap). White expanse of
snow.
Moscow – Sebastopol train rattled
past with sleeping wagon. Politdel
party members, etc.
Went into village. There is no
bread. “We’ve had no bread for 2
months”.
“Each dvor had one or 2 cows.
Now none. There are almost no
oxen left & the horses have been
dying off.”
There was a young worker in
the village “the unemployed are
growing and they’re treated
…like cattle. They’re told to get
away & they get no bread card.
They’re cutting down men
everywhere. I worked in Kharkov.
There they’ve dismissed
thousands. “
“How can I live? I got a lb of
bread for all my family & we came
here for a short time, there is no
food here. My family is in Kharkoff
& I don’t know how they’ll live.”
“We’re all getting (swollen)
nyxлbin.”
“In this village 5 or 6 kulak
families were sent away to Siberia &
to cut wood in the Northern forests,
…also to build a railway in
Murmansk.”
But some of the kulaks live
better than those who remain in
the villages because there is
now more bread in the towns.
“In the south 20% of the
population have died of hunger”
said the young worker “and in
some parts 50%. They’re
murdering us.”
“A lot of factories cannot
pay their wages.”
Lunched with teacher:
“potato soup, potatoes with a
little meat (very little) & kasha.”
“I have my own cow” said teacher.
He was a Marxist. His wife said that
hardly any of the children believed in
God.
Walked out. The peasant; “No
food. You [teacher] don’t work & get
plenty of food. You’re the first kulak in
the village and tried to throw me out
of my hut.”
Then, onto the railway and on to
Ukraine.
Wagons, oil, timber towards the
South.
Most important railway in Russia.
Now in Ukraine. / Go back
pages… [Gareth’s diary entries now
fill space in previous diary].
In the Ukraine. A little later I
crossed the border from Greater
Russia into the Ukraine.
Everywhere I talked to peasants
who walked past – they all had the
same story;
“There is no bread – we haven’t
had bread for 2 months – a lot are
dying.”
The first village had no more
potatoes left and the store of
БҮРЯК (beetroot) was running out.
They all said ‘the cattle is
dying. (Nothing to feed.) НЕЧЕВО
КОРМНБ.” We used to feed the
world now we are hungry. How
can we sow when we have few
horses left? How will we be able
to work in the fields when we are
weak from want of food?
Then I caught up…
…with a bearded peasant who was
walking along . His feet were covered
with sacking. We started talking. He
spoke in Ukrainian Russian. I gave
him a lump of bread and of cheese.
“You could not buy that anywhere
for 20 rubles. There just is no food.”
We walked along and talked;
“Before the war this was all gold. We
had horses and cows and pigs and
chickens. Now we are ruined. We are
(doomed) ПОLUБЛИ..“You see that
field. It was all gold, but now look at
the weeds. The weeds were peeping
up over the snow.”
“Before the war we could have
boots and meat and butter. We were
the richest
…country in the world for grain.
We fed the world. Now they have
taken all away from us.
“Now people steal much more.
Four days ago. They stole my
horse. Hooligans came. There
that’s where I saw the tract of the
horse.”
“A horse is better than a
tractor. A tractor goes and stops.,
but a horse goes all the time. A
tractor cannot give manure, but a
horse can.
How can the spring sowing be
good? There is little…
…seed and the people are too
weak. We are all weak and hungry.
“The winter sowing was bad,
and the winter ploughing was also
bad.”
He took me along to his
cottage. His daughter and three
young children. Two of the smaller
children were swollen.
“If you had come before the
Revolution we would have given
you chicken and eggs and milk and
fine bread. Now we have no bread
in the house. They are killing us.”
“People are dying of hunger.”
There was in the
…hut – a spindle the daughter
showed me how to make thread. The
peasant showed me his shirt, which
was home-made and some of his
sacking which had been home-made.
“But the Bolsheviks are crushing
that. They want the factory to make
everything.”
The peasant then ate some very
thin soup with a scrap of potato. No
bread in house.
The white bread [bought in
Moscow Torgsin by GJ] they thought
was wonderful.
The hut had eight ikons, path
tawdry & cheap.
[Diary continues with several
more conversations along the railway
track…]
Everybody on the track said
the same: “Lots of people dying.
Only beetroot. Too weak for
spring sowing.
One group: “There are
thousands of unemployed . Their
bread card is taken away and they
have nothing. On April 1st there’ll
be another (оқращєнue) cut.
Go down to the Poltava
district and there you’ll see
hundreds of cottages empty. In a
village of 300 huts only about 100
will have people living in them &
others have died or gone away,
but most have died.”
One worker in Kharkov: “I only get
100gm of bread per day for wife and
myself.”
-------G.J. : “ What kind of crop will you
have?”
Peasant: “A splendid crop, - of weeds.”
Group of workers: “Terrible! Dying.!”
Railway Post
“Down South it’s ten times
worse. They’re dying off.
Empty villages.”
“We are too weak for
sowing.
“In this village they’ve sent
some seed but we’ve few
horses.
Resigned to fate. One
village – practically no seed.
Escorted to ‘Kharkoff’
After two days ‘tramping’ along the track, according to an
American article for Hearst by Gareth in 1935, his trek came to an
abrupt end:
“It happened in a small station, where I was talking with a
group of peasants: “We are dying,” they wailed and poured out
the old story of their woes. A red-faced, well-fed OGPU policeman
in uniform approached us and stood listening for a few moments.
Then came the outburst, and from his lips poured a series of
Russian curses. “Clear away, you! Stop telling him about hunger!
Can’t you see he’s a foreigner?”
He turned to me and roared: “Come along. What are you doing
here? Show me your documents.”
Visions of a secret police prison darted before my mind. The
OGPU man looked at my passport and beckoned to one of the
crowd, whom I had taken to be an ordinary passenger, but who
was obviously in the secret police.
Escorted to ‘Kharkoff’
He came to me and in the most polite and respectful terms
bade me follow him. “I shall have to take you to the nearest city,
Kharkov.”
Throughout the journey I impressed him with the fact that I
had interviewed Lenin’s widow, and a number of commissars and
great panjandrums of the Soviet régime, and by the time we
reached Kharkov I believed he was thoroughly convinced that any
real arrest of myself would plunge Russia and Europe and the
United States into a world war.
For he decided to accompany me to a foreign consulate in
Kharkov and he left me at the doorstep, while I, rejoicing at my
freedom bade him a polite farewell – an anti-climax but a welcome
one.
[Kharkiv]
Queues for bread. Erika and I walked
along about a hundred ragged pale
people. Militiaman came out of shop
whose windows had been battered in
and were covered with wood and said:
“There is no bread today.”
Shouts angry peasants also there.
“But citizens, there is no bread.”
“How long here?” I asked a man.
“Two days.”
They would not go away, but
remained. Sometimes a cart might
come up with bread. Waiting with
forlorn hope.
Streets in terrible. Condition,
houses rotten, ice thawing, wet dirty.
Saw homeless boys. They are
increasing. The influence of the film
“Introduction to Life” has been bad &
many boys from good family have run
away. We examined houses, the
stones were terrible, crumbled away
when I touched.
Churches
taken down to
make place
for building.
In one church
place workers
said that it was haunted & ran away. One
church was exploded and the tower
remained standing. Population said it
was a sign of God. Still Religious but
young people not.
Bewilderment among the Village
Communists. When they drove too hard,
lots of peasants got into trouble. When
they were too kind, accused of being
pro-kulak. Many arrested 35 shot – in
paper last Sunday. Policy has chopped
& changed.
Queues of
7000 stand.
They begin
queuing up at
3-4 o’clock
afternoon to
get bread
next morning
at 7. It is
freezing. –
many
degrees of
frost.
Terror much
worse. In 1931 it
was lightened.
Now bad again for
bourgeoisie.
Stricter.
When [German]
Consul
telephoned the
Foreign Office,
said; ‘Yes Jones.
He arrived on
foot.’
Outside
Torgsin. 80
paper rubles
offered for one
Torgsin ruble.
1921.
German: Now
much worse much worse
than was years
ago. Then
there was no
food in the
towns, but the
peasants had
food. Now
neither the
peasants nor
the town have
food.
Gareth Holds Berlin Press Conference
Immediately on Leaving USSR where he
Exposes the Famine.
First USA Newspaper reports published
on 29th March 1933.
Click HERE for link to articles
Articles In Europe
31st March 1933 – London Evening
Standard.
1st April 1933 – Berliner Tageblatt by Paul
Scheffer.
Plus Series of (20) Articles by Gareth in
London Daily Express, Financial News &
Cardiff Western Mail in Early April 1933.
Duranty – 31 March 1933, New York Times
Gareth was then immediately &
personally denigrated as a liar by the then
Pulitzer Prize winner, Walter Duranty, who
wrote:
“Mr. Jones is a man of a keen and
active mind, and he has taken the trouble to
learn Russian, which he speaks with
considerable fluency, but the writer thought
Mr. Jones's judgment was somewhat hasty
and asked him on what it was based. It
appeared that he had made a forty-mile walk
through villages in the neighborhood of
Kharkov and had found conditions sad.”
…“There is a serious shortage food
shortage throughout the country, with
occasional cases of well-managed State or
collective farms. The big cities and the army
are adequately supplied with food. There is
no actual starvation or deaths from
starvation, but there is widespread mortality
from diseases due to malnutrition.”
Click HERE for link to article
[On reading Gareth’s diary note of
when he met Duranty in Moscow
(on the same day as he met
Foreign Commissar Litvinoff),
then he was perhaps not surprised
to have been denigrated by
Duranty in the New York Times:]
March 19.
Met Litvinoff.
Duranty said:
“Save Face – Third International
down & out – quiet.”
“I don’t trust Duranty. He still
believes in Collectivisation. “
Gareth Jones’ Rebuttal Letter to the Editor of
the New York Times – 13 May 1933
• …Journalists, on the other hand, are allowed to write, but
the censorship has turned them into masters of
euphemism and understatement. Hence they give
“famine” the polite name of “food shortage” and “starving
to death” is softened down to read as widespread mortality
from diseases due to malnutrition.”
• …May I in conclusion congratulate the Soviet Foreign
Office on its skill in concealing the true situation in the
U.S.S.R.? Moscow is not Russia, and the sight of well fed
people there tends to hide the real Russia.
Click HERE for link to letter
1933 – ‘Joneski’ Litvinov Ban – Correspondence
from Gareth to a Friend…
"Alas! You will be very amused to
hear that the inoffensive little 'Joneski'
has achieved the dignity of being a
marked man on the black list of the
OGPU and is barred from entering the
Soviet Union. I hear that there is a long
list of crimes which I have committed
under my name in the secret police file
in Moscow and funnily enough
espionage is said to be among them.
As a matter of fact Litvinoff sent a
special cable from Moscow to the
Soviet Embassy in London to tell them
to make the strongest of complaints to
Mr. Lloyd George about me."
1933-34, The ‘Wilderness’ Year
• Snubbed by Lloyd George and London
Intelligentsia.
• 1933-34 - Worked as local reporter for Cardiff
Western Mail primarily on domestic stories.
1933-34, The ‘Wilderness’ Year
• June 1934 – Meets
Randolph Hearst at his
Welsh Castle, St. Donats,
Cardiff – invited to meet
again in St. Simeon,
California.
• January 1st 1935 –
Personally commissioned
to repeat famine
observations for Hearst;
given carte blanche to
write some of the most
vitriolic attacks on the
Stalinist regime whilst
being equally heartrending.
12, 13, 14th January 1935,
New York American, Los
Angles Examiner & Other
Hearst Papers
Click HERE for link to articles
1935 – February – The Thomas Walker
Affair
• 5 articles published in Hearst Press
commencing 18 February 1935 relating Walker’s
observations of a continuing 1934 Ukrainian
famine & illustrated with secretly taken
photographs from his own camera.
1935 – February – The Thomas Walker Affair
• show pic of articles
1935 – 13th March – Louis Fischer
& The Thomas Walker Affair
•
Louis Fischer in a published letter The Nation,
which showed that:
– Walker’s photos were from different seasons
– Some photos from 1921 famine
– Thomas Walker according to unverified Sovietsupplied records to Fischer, was only in Moscow for
five days in Autumn 1934 and therefore could never
have visited Ukraine.
•
1935 – 13th March – Louis Fischer & The Thomas
Walker Affair
And by this letter Fischer effectively…
– Destroyed the credibility of the American
‘Conservative’ press’ allegations of any Soviet famine
in the 1930s.
– Without ever mentioning Gareth’s name or even
attacking his articles directly – Gareth’s truthful
observations were tarnished by the same brush.
– [Gareth was ‘conveniently’ incommunicado when
Fischer’s letter was published & therefore unable to
contribute to the controversy. Unbeknowingly, he had
just departed Japan & coincidentally from Gunther
Stein’s freely-given accommodation; who later
allowed his Tokyo rooms to be used by Soviet
‘Super’ spy, Richard Sorge, for covert radio
transmissions to Moscow…]
Gareth Investigates the Far East
• Gareth embarks
on fact-finding
mission of
Japanese
Expansionism of
their puppet state
of Manchukuo, in
Northern China
after interviewing
political leaders in
Tokyo.
Click HERE for link to Manchukuo Incident Book.
Click HERE for link to Gareth’s Far East Articles
1935 – 28th July – Gareth Kidnapped in
Northern China by Bandits
• German Company, Wostwag kindly supplied vehicle for an
extended trip into Inner Mongolia to witness the Japanese
presence in the area.
• Invite from German Journalist Dr Herbert Mueller.
• Gareth assured “Absolutely safe, no bandits”.
• After kidnapping, Mueller released after two days as
captive – unusual…
• Ransom obdurately rejected by bandits – unusual…
• Gareth eventually, tragically murdered after two weeks on
eve of 30th birthday -12 Aug 1935.
1935 – Sept / Oct - Immediate Aftermath
• London publication by Marxist, Claud Cockburn,
in The Week claimed that Dr. Mueller was
released because of secret Japanese-German
Entente Cordiale Pact.
• The British Foreign Office then instigated 500
page investigation into this specific allegation
and concluded; no foundation whatsoever
• No mention of Gareth’s Soviet ban or famine
reporting in whole report.
• The Soviet Union were never considered as
possibly being culpable despite…
British Public Records Office releases
intelligence on Wostwag in 2004
• Wostwag were major organ of Soviet NKVD:
– The General Manager in China, Adam Purpiss
according to Chase Manhattan records was:
“considered one of the shrewdest and cleverest men
in Far East,” and “at one time associated with the
Cheka.”
– Purpiss travelled under a invalid Honduran Passport.
– Wostwag were allegedly ‘de facto’ bankers and arms
dealers to Chinese Communist Party.
– Banked $900,000 into Chase Manhattan Bank, NYC,
in 1938 for purchase of aeroplanes.
– Sole monopoly for trade in Outer Mongolia – 50%
profits went to Moscow State bank.
Click HERE for link to PRO Evidence on Wostwag.
British Public Records Office releases
intelligence on Dr. Herbert Mueller in 2004/05
• 34-year dossier from 1917 to 1951
relating his Soviet sympathies:
– Lived at one time in Soviet
consol at Hankow.
– Alleged to have had assumed
several aliases.
– Known member of the
Comitern.
– Ran a Soviet courier business in
China.
Click HERE for link to PRO Evidence on Mueller.
MI5 Cover-up or Cock-up?
• MI5 never passed on relevant intelligence to
F.O. for their enquiry, even though:
– Sir Vernon Kell, founder and Director General of MI5,
told US intelligence he knew of Wostwag’s financial
tie-up with the Soviet Security Services back in 1929.
– Mueller’s 34 year dossier from 1917 was active at the
time in 1935.
If they had, then their conclusions may well have been
different… As it was, the F.O armed only with Marxist
Cockburn’s allegations of a Japanese-German pact,
weren’t even on the ‘scent’ of any Soviet complicity…
Who benefited from Gareth’s Murder?
• The embarrassment to the Japanese by being publicly
implicated with Gareth’s murder in Mueller’s German
articles resulted in effectively no further territorial
expansion of their Chinese ‘empire’ until the ‘Rape of
Nanking’ in 1937 – allowing Wostwag to continue to
‘operate covertly’ & trade profitably without hindrance.
• As a likely ‘marked’ enemy of the Soviet State for his
Holodomor reporting, liquidation of Gareth by NKVD
operatives in Inner Mongolia would certainly not have
displeased the Moscow hierarchy. And not least of all, by
former Chekist, Foreign Commissar Litvinov, who clearly
was incensed by Gareth’s affront to embarrassingly
expose the Holodomor ten days after affording him the
privilege of a personal interview in Moscow…
Orwell’s Mr Jones – The Farmer
One person who may not have been fooled by
the explanation of Gareth’s death simply at the
hands of miscreant bandits, would have been
Orwell…
Though, the English ‘Farmer Jones’ character in
Animal Farm obviously alludes to Tsar Nicholas, who
was murdered by the Soviets, there is now reason to
believe that Gareth may perhaps have been behind
the actual choice of naming Mr Jones, the Farmer:
Click HERE for link to full hypothesis as to ‘Mr (Gareth) Jones; the Farmer
Click HERE for link to a personal appraisal of the symbolism in Animal Farm in
relation to the Holodomor.
Orwell’s Mr Jones – The Farmer
• Chapter 6 of Animal Farm relates to the
Holodomor and clear reference to Duranty’s
“death’s due to malnutrition” article is alluded to
with; “Nine hens had died in the meantime. Their
bodies were buried in the orchard, and it was
given out that they had died of coccidiosis.“
• In fact, Duranty’s infamous article referred to
“Mr. Jones” on four separate occasions, and
likewise Orwell never once refers to ‘Farmer
Jones’, but always “Mr Jones – the farmer”.
• Duranty was not trusted by Orwell as he was
cited in his controversial crypto-Communist list.
Orwell’s Mr Jones – The Farmer
• In his 1945 ‘Prevention of Literature’ essay,
Orwell suggested placing the word ‘don’t’ before
each stanza of the below heretical poem to bring it
up to date:
Dare to be a Daniel
Dare to stand alone
Dare to have a purpose firm
Dare to make it known
Orwell’s Mr Jones – The Farmer
• In June 1938, Orwell reviewed Eugene Lyons’
“Assignment in Utopia” for The New English
Weekly, [in which he would later take the Soviet 5year plan Slogan 2+2=5 for use in 1984] and
therefore would have been aware that:
– Moscow American Journalists, at the wishes
of the Soviet Press Censor, colluded to
damn Jones as a liar.
– That Gareth’s “conscientious streak” led him
to murdered by Chinese bandits two years
after exposing the Holodomor.
Orwell’s Mr Jones – The Farmer
• In his 1945 Proposed Preface to Animal Farm Orwell
wrote:
“…it was considered equally proper to publicise
famines when they happened in India and to conceal them
when they happened in the Ukraine. And if this was true
before the war, the intellectual atmosphere is certainly no
better now.”
Though readers of Orwell, including biographer David
Taylor, believe this hypothesis relating to Gareth to be
‘plausible enough’, and that Orwell could not have written
on the Holodomor with out knowledge of Gareth, it is
almost ‘Orwellian’ in itself, that Orwell archives & papers
contain no mention whatsoever of Gareth Jones!
Gareth Jones – A Man Who Knew
Too Much
On Friday 16th August, upon hearing of Gareth’s
murder, Lloyd George commented in The London Evening
Standard:
“I was struck with horror when the news of poor Mr
Gareth Jones was conveyed to me. I was uneasy about
his fate from the moment I ascertained that when his
companion, Dr Herbert Müller, was released he was
detained.”
“That part of the world is a cauldron of conflicting
intrigue and one or other interests concerned probably
knew that Mr Gareth Jones knew too much of what was
going on…
Gareth Jones – A Man Who Knew
Too Much
He had a passion for finding out what was
happening in foreign lands wherever there was trouble, and
in pursuit of his investigations he shrank from no risk.”
“…I had always been afraid that he would take one
risk too many. Nothing escaped his observation, and he
allowed no obstacle to turn from his course when he
thought that there was some fact, which he could obtain.
He had the almost unfailing knack of getting at
things that mattered.”
2006 – May 2nd Gareth ‘Recognised’ in
Aberystwyth, Wales
• Historical tri-lingual plaque Gareth was unveiled at The
University of Wales, inscribed: ,
“In Memory of Gareth Richard Vaughn Jones, born
1905, who graduated from the University of Aberystwyth
and the University of Cambridge. One of the first journalists
to report on the Holodomor, the Great Famine of 1932-33 in
the Soviet Ukraine.”
• With thanks to the UCCLA, the Ukrainian Orthodox
Churches of Great Britain and of Canada, the Association
of Ukrainians in Great Britain, the Ukrainian American Civil
Liberties Association, and other donors, the bronze plaque
is adorned with a bas relief of Gareth Jones, prepared by
Toronto sculptor, Oleh Lesiuk.
2006 – May 2nd Gareth ‘Recognised’ in
Aberystwyth, Wales
Click HERE for link to Press
Coverage, Photos and Speeches
Ihor Kharchenko, London Ukrainian
Ambassador at the unveiling & blessing
with Gareth's niece, Siriol, myself, the
University Vice Chancellor, Chancellor,
Lord Morgan and Principal Organiser,
Prof. Lubomyr Luciuk.
25th
2006 – 23rd June
Annual Conference on Ukrainian Subjects
at the University of Illinois
Thank you for the kind
invitation & opportunity to
speak to you today, about
Gareth Jones…
Nigel Colley