The
Gareth Jones
Diaries
- A Man Who Knew Too Much
www.garethjones.org
© 2006. All rights reserved. Nigel Linsan Colley
Overview
Part 1 – Who Was Gareth Jones?
1.
Early Life / Education / Credentials.
Part 2 – The Gareth Jones Diaries
1.
Personal Diaries, Letters & Newspaper Articles of his Eyewitness
Observations of Ukrainian Famine Conditions in 1930, 31 & 33.
Part 3 – Covering-up the Famine
1.
Denigration by Walter Duranty in The New York Times in 1933.
2.
Gareth’s Forgotten Role in Randolph Hearst’s ‘Famine’ in 1935.
Part 4 – Shooting the Messenger & Airbrushing the Truth
1.
Soon After… Mysteriously Murdered by Japanese-Controlled
Chinese Bandits (or Soviet Retribution)?
2.
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.
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 – Exhibition
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
Jan 1st 1930.
1930-31 – With Lloyd George
• Visits USSR for 1st time as the eyes & the ears
of the Lloyd George, but with an ‘open mind’ in
August 1930; soon after British Diplomatic
relations are restored.
• 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 was introduced to Geoffrey
Dawson, Editor of The Times (who had no Moscow
Correspondent) & invited to write 3 ‘uncensored’ 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.”
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.”
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.”
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,
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 on a
month-long ‘unescorted’
visit to USSR in August
1931.
1931 – Ivy Lee (PR), New York
• Afterwards, Heinz compiled a privately published &
‘Anonymously written’ book in spring 1932, entitled:
“Experiences of Russia – 1931 – A Diary” – i.e., Gareth’s
Diaries.
1931 – Ivy Lee (PR), New York
• Afterwards, Heinz compiled a privately published &
‘Anonymously written’ book in spring 1932, entitled:
“Experiences of Russia – 1931 – A Diary” – i.e., 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 signed 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 [editor of Pravda].
1931 Experiences of Russia – A Diary
Gareth signed 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 [editor of Pravda].
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.”
Extract from Gareth’s 1931 Diary [transcribed in next 2 slides]
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.
Another Telling / Published Extract from
Gareth’s 1931 Diary [transcribed in next slide]
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
Back with Lloyd George in 1931
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.
Back with Lloyd George in 1931
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
• Gareth immediately penned two articles for the Cardiff
Western Mail published on Oct 15 & 17, 1932 to highlight
the tragic situation entitled; “Will there be Soup?”
Planning a Trip to Expose the Soviet Famine
• Gareth immediately penned two articles for the Cardiff
Western Mail published on Oct 15 & 17, 1932 to highlight
the tragic situation entitled; “Will there be Soup?”
• In line with his Welsh Non-Conformist beliefs & virtues;
Gareth decided to make a trip to view the conditions
firsthand.
Planning a Trip to Expose the Soviet Famine
• Gareth immediately penned two articles for the Cardiff
Western Mail published on Oct 15 & 17, 1932 to highlight
the tragic situation entitled; “Will there be Soup?”
• In line with his Welsh Non-Conformist beliefs & virtues;
Gareth decided to make a trip to view the conditions
firsthand.
• On 23 February 1933, Gareth became the first foreign
journalist to fly with the newly appointed German
Chancellor (& afterwards dining privately with Goebbels…)
He prophetically wrote in the Western Mail:
“If this aeroplane should crash then the whole history of
Europe would be changed. For a few feet away sits
Adolf Hitler, Chancellor of Germany and leader of the
most volcanic nationalist awakening which the world has
seen.”
Click HERE for link to German articles
10 Days Later Gareth Arrived in Moscow on 5th March 1933
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 – Gareth Packed a Rucksack Full of Food
from Moscow Torgsin & Caught ‘Local’ Train to Ukraine.
The following are some of
his eye-witness accounts
of his lone foray into
Ukraine – some of you
may wish to follow his
handwriting as I narrate,
others might wish to just
close your eyes and
picture the scene in your
minds…
1933 March 10th – Gareth Packed a Rucksack Full of Food
from Moscow Torgsin & Caught ‘Local’ 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 semi-military.
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 Perekop [Crimea?] 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.”
First day[‘s] march
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” (No Bread Here – All
are Swollen) [Written phonetically in
Russian – & translated later] 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 … 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)
nyxnoie.”
“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
КОРМить.” 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
(the living dead) ПОГИБЛИ. 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 [which] 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 [of Gareth’s] they
thought was wonderful.
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.”
Escorted to ‘Kharkoff’
After two days ‘tramping’ along the track, according to one of
Gareth’s 1935 American syndicated articles for Randolph Hearst,
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.
Escorted to ‘Kharkoff’
After two days ‘tramping’ along the track, according to one of
Gareth’s 1935 American syndicated articles for Randolph Hearst,
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.
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.
Now in Kharkiv
Queues for bread. Erika [from
the German Consulate] 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 from 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 cart came 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.
Many constructions were
abandoned on account of financial
difficulties. Rottenly built.
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 in
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 Consul
telephoned the
Foreign Office, said;
‘Yes Jones. He
arrived on foot.’
Many beggars,
peasants on the streets,
crying for bread.
GPU
Land - green tabs.
Town – blue tabs.
Saw general pass, looking
like ordinary soldier.
Lots of GPU men in street.
Supposed to be 250,000 in
Ukraine, but this is
exaggeration. These are
peasants [who] hate them
like poison.
GPU much stronger
than it was & has
complete control.
1921.
German: Now much
worse - much worse
than war years also.
Then there was no food
in the towns, but the
peasants had food.
Now neither the
peasants nor the town
have food.
The GPU is getting more and
more powerful.
Stalin & GPU now ruling Russia.
There is a struggle between
Narkomindel [People's Commissariat of
Foreign Affairs] & GPU, but
Narkomindel has nothing to say.
New Ukrainian Policy.
In the last few weeks there has been a
beginning of Russification again.
Muscovites have been placed in
leading posts in Kharkoff & more
Russian is to be taught in the schools.
Personal Letter to Lloyd George
Personal Letter to Lloyd George from Berlin
27th March 1933
“I have just arrived back from Russia, where I
found the situation disastrous. The 5-year Plan
has been a complete disaster in that it has
destroyed the peasantry & brought famine to
every part of the country. I tramped alone for
several days through a part of Ukraine…
The situation is so grave, so much worse than in
1921 that I am amazed at your admiration for
Stalin."
Who was Gareth Jones?
From United Press Moscow Correspondent, Eugene Lyons’
1937 book; Assignment in Utopia:
“The first reliable report of the Russian famine was given to
the world by an ‘English’ journalist, a certain Gareth Jones, at
one time secretary to Lloyd George. Jones had a
conscientious streak in his make-up which took him on a
secret journey into the Ukraine and a brief walking tour
through its countryside.
That same streak was to take him a few years later into the
interior of China during political disturbances, and was to cost
him his life at the hands of Chinese military bandits. An
earnest and meticulous little man, Gareth Jones was the sort
who carries a note-book and unashamedly records your
words as you talk. Patiently he went from one correspondent
to the next, asking questions and writing down the answers...”
Click HERE for Lyon’s chapter with more about Gareth; “The Press Corps Conceals a Famine”
Gareth Held Berlin Press Conference
where he Exposes the Famine.
First USA Newspaper reports published
same day 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.
Throwing Down Jones?
From Eugene Lyons’ 1937 book; Assignment in Utopia:
On emerging from Russia, Jones made a statement which,
startling though it sounded, was little more than a summary of what
the correspondents and foreign diplomats had told him. To protect
us… he emphasized his Ukrainian foray rather than our
conversations as the chief source of his information.
Throwing Down Jones?
From Eugene Lyons’ 1937 book; Assignment in Utopia:
On emerging from Russia, Jones made a statement which,
startling though it sounded, was little more than a summary of what
the correspondents and foreign diplomats had told him. To protect
us… he emphasized his Ukrainian foray rather than our
conversations as the chief source of his information.
In any case… with preparations under way for the trial of the
British [Metrovik] engineers, the need to remain on friendly terms
with the censors … was for all of us a compelling professional
necessity.
Throwing Down Jones?
From Eugene Lyons’ 1937 book; Assignment in Utopia:
On emerging from Russia, Jones made a statement which,
startling though it sounded, was little more than a summary of what
the correspondents and foreign diplomats had told him. To protect
us… he emphasized his Ukrainian foray rather than our
conversations as the chief source of his information.
In any case… with preparations under way for the trial of the
British [Metrovik] engineers, the need to remain on friendly terms
with the censors … was for all of us a compelling professional
necessity.
Throwing down Jones was as unpleasant a chore as fell to
any of us in years of juggling facts to please dictatorial regimes,
but throw him down we did… Poor Gareth Jones must have been
the most surprised human being alive when the facts he so
painstakingly garnered from our mouths were snowed under by
our denials.
Duranty – 31 March 1933, New York Times
“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'
judgment was somewhat hasty and
asked him on what it was based. It
appeared that he had made a fortymile walk through villages in the
neighborhood of Kharkov and had
found conditions sad.”
“…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
March 19.
Met Litvinoff.
“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.
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 (for using his name to
give credence by association to Gareth’s famine
allegations) and also by London Intelligentsia.
• 1933-34 - Worked as local reporter for Cardiff
Western Mail, initially on stories relating to
Welsh traditional arts & crafts, but later
interviewing Irish Prime Minister, de Valera !
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 1933 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
Five articles published in American Hearst Press
commencing 18 February 1935 relating
journalist ‘Thomas Walker’s’ observations of a
continuing 1934 Ukrainian famine & illustrated
with secretly taken photographs from his own
camera.
1935 – February – The Thomas Walker Affair
1935 – 13th March – Louis Fischer & The Thomas
Walker Affair
• Marxist, Louis Fischer in a published letter to leftwing US magazine, The Nation, showed that:
– Walker’s photos were from different seasons.
– Some photos from 1921 famine.
– Thomas Walker according to unverified Sovietsupplied records to Fischer, could never have visited
Ukraine.
– Not only were all his photos & articles bogus… Even
Walker, himself turned out to be a fake! But whose
fake was he? Hearst’s or Stalin’s?
Click HERE for link to letter
1935 – 13th March – Louis Fischer & The Thomas
Walker Affair
– In Fisher’s March Letter’s Postscript: “P.S. Would the
Hearst press oblige with a photo of Mr Thomas
Walker, and with facsimiles of his US passport and of
the Soviet visa stamped upon it?”
1935 – 13th March – Louis Fischer & The Thomas
Walker Affair
– In Fisher’s March Letter’s Postscript: “P.S. Would the
Hearst press oblige with a photo of Mr Thomas
Walker, and with facsimiles of his US passport and of
the Soviet visa stamped upon it?”
British PRO Records of Deportees for June 1935 shows…
1935 – 13th March – Louis Fischer & The Thomas
Walker Affair
Passport Fraud Charged’, New York Times, July 13, 1935
‘Indicted Writer Also Accused as Escaped Convict’...
“Robert Green, a writer of newspaper articles describing
famine conditions in the Ukraine, was indicted yesterday
…on the charge that he had made false statements
obtaining a passport.
George Pfann, Attorney, alleged that Green, who wrote
under the pen name, Thomas Walker, was a fugitive from
Colorado prison where he escaped in 1921 while serving a
sentence for forgery…”
1935 – 13th March – Louis Fischer & The Thomas
Walker Affair
1. How did Fisher know Walker was travelling on a false
passport, three months before his London arrest? Was
he informed by the Soviets along with Walker's
‘supposed’ 1934 USSR travel dates? And, who tipped
off the British authorities?
1935 – 13th March – Louis Fischer & The Thomas
Walker Affair
1. How did Fisher know Walker was travelling on a false
passport, three months before his London arrest? Was
he informed by the Soviets along with Walker's
‘supposed’ 1934 USSR travel dates? And, who tipped
off the British authorities?
2. The American Daily Worker wrote; “Evidence at trial
revealed he [Walker] had made a previous visit to the
Soviet Union in 1930, under the name Thomas J.
Burke” and was “expelled for attempting to smuggle out
a ‘whiteguard’ out of the country”.
Yet Walker, according to Soviet supplied information
travelled again to the USSR in Autumn 1934, albeit
under another name, but surely a risky undertaking –
unless he was perhaps, recruited from a Soviet Prison?
1935 – 13th March – Louis Fischer & The Thomas
Walker Affair
• Fischer’s letter combined with Walker’s subsequent
(re)arrest effectively for half a century …
– Destroyed the credibility of the Worldwide
‘Conservative’ press’ allegations of any Soviet famine
in the 1930s.
1935 – 13th March – Louis Fischer & The Thomas
Walker Affair
• Fischer’s letter combined with Walker’s subsequent
(re)arrest effectively for half a century …
– Destroyed the complete credibility of the Worldwide
‘Conservative’ press’ allegations of any Soviet famine
in the 1930s.
– Furthermore, in 1933, when Gareth claimed millions
were dying, Fischer then scoffed: “Who counted
them? How could anyone march through a country
count a million people?”
– But in 1935, without ever mentioning Gareth’s name
or even attacking his 1935 articles directly – Gareth’s
eyewitness observations of 1933 were not only
tarnished by the same brush as Walkers, but were
completely forgotten for nearly 70 years.
Gareth Investigates the Far East
Spring 1935
At the time of Walkers’
articles, Gareth was
effectively ‘incommunicado’
having embarked on factfinding mission of the Far
East.
After interviewing the
Japanese Minister of War in
Tokyo, he decided to visit
Inner Mongolia to investigate
the possibility of the Military
Expansionism of their puppet
state of Manchukuo,
spreading across Northern
China…
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.
1935 – 28th July – Gareth Kidnapped in
Northern China by Bandits
• Invite originally from German Journalist Dr Herbert
Mueller.
• Gareth assured by Mueller; “Absolutely Safe, No Bandits”.
• After kidnapping, Mueller released after two days as
captive…
• Ransom later obdurately rejected by bandits …
• Gareth was tragically murdered after two weeks on eve of
his 30th birthday -12 Aug 1935 …
1935 – Sept / Oct - Immediate Aftermath
• London publication in The Week by Marxist, Claud
Cockburn, claimed that Dr. Mueller was released
because of secret Japanese-German Entente Cordiale
Pact.
• Japanese initially implicated by Foreign Office
concluded after 500-page report; ‘No Foundation
Whatsoever’.
• Ultimately Gareth’s murder put down to the act of a
miscreant Chinese bandit’s bullet…
• Not a single mention of Gareth’s Soviet ban or any of
his famine reporting in whole report.
• The Soviet Union were never once considered as
possibly being culpable despite…
Recently Released M.I.5 Records Reveal:
1.
Wostwag, the company which
gave ‘free transport’ were major
arm of NKVD in China & allegedly
‘de facto’ bankers and arms
dealers to Chinese Communist
Party.
Recently Released M.I.5 Records Reveal:
1.
2.
Wostwag, the company which gave
‘free transport’ were major arm of
NKVD in China & allegedly ‘de facto’
bankers and arms dealers to
Chinese Communist Party.
Dr Mueller, who invited Gareth on
‘Safe’ trip, was a known Comitern
activist with a secret dossier on him
from 1917 -1951 & at one time lived
in the Soviet Consol at Hankow.
Click HERE for link to PRO Evidence on Wostwag.
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 in The Week 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 have later
seen through the cover-up of Gareth’s
death by simple bandits, is arguably
George Orwell (whose bête noire was
also Cockburn)…
In Brief:
• Tsar Nicholas was also murdered
by ‘Napoleon’.
• ‘Jones’ is primarily a Welsh name,
though all Orwell’s names were
carefully & symbolically chosen.
• ‘9 [Ukrainian] hens had died of
coccidiosis’ c.f. Duranty; ‘No
Starvation, but …diseases due to
malnutrition’ – GO certainly knew of
Gareth & Duranty (having reviewed
Eugene Lyons’ book in 1938.)
Click HERE for link to full hypothesis
as to ‘Mr (Gareth) Jones; the Farmer
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.”
Gareth Jones – A Man Who Knew Too Much
“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…”
“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.”
Gareth Jones – A Man Who Knew Too Much
“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…”
“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.”
But One Might Wonder…
1. What might have become of Gareth,
had he lived? Especially with all his
knowledge & his ‘Who’s Who’ of
contacts…
But One Might Wonder…
1. What might have become of Gareth,
had he lived? Especially with all his
knowledge & his ‘Who’s Who’ of
contacts…
2. What if the World had Listened to
any of his ‘Cassandra-like’
Prophesies & Political Insights, as he
had the ‘low-down’ on the 3 powers
of evil?
Gareth Jones – In Conclusion
• Gareth’s diaries probably
represent the only independent
Western verification of Stalin’s
Ukrainian famine-genocide.
• His Soviet articles were
arguably the most accurate
reporting of 5-year plan.
• With his ‘mysterious’ murder,
an heroic ‘loose cannon’ was
almost airbrushed out of
history for more than half a
century…
• He was indeed a “Man Who
Knew Too Much”.
2006 – May 2nd Gareth ‘Recognised’ in
Aberystwyth, Wales
Ihor Kharchenko, London Ukrainian
Ambassador at the unveiling of a Trilingual Plaque with Gareth's niece,
Siriol, myself, the University Vice
Chancellor, Chancellor, Lord Morgan
and Prof. Lubomyr Luciuk.
2006 – May 2nd Gareth ‘Recognised’ in
Aberystwyth, Wales
• Historical tri-lingual bronze bas relief plaque by Toronto
sculptor, Oleh Lesiuk 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.”
2006 – May 2nd Gareth ‘Recognised’ in
Aberystwyth, Wales
• Historical tri-lingual bronze bas relief plaque by Toronto
sculptor, Oleh Lesiuk 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 my family’s personal 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…
Click HERE for link to Press
Coverage, Photos and Speeches
2006 November - Canada
And finally, thank you to the
the Ukrainian Canadian Congress,
Canadian Friends of Ukraine
& the Shevchenko Scientific Soc.
for the kind invitation & opportunity
to speak to you about my great uncle,
Gareth Richard Vaughn Jones
Nigel Linsan Colley
For further information, books & his articles:
www.garethjones.org