Gareth Jones (journalist)
Encyclopedia
Gareth Richard Vaughan Jones (13 August 1905 – 12 August 1935) was a Welsh
journalist
who first publicised the existence of the Great Ukrainian Famine of 1932-33
, the Holodomor
, in the Western world
.
, who had founded the town of Yuzovka, modern day Donetsk
, in Ukraine
, and her stories inspired in Jones a desire to visit the Soviet Union
, and particularly Ukraine.
Jones graduated from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth
in 1926 with a first class degree in French
, and from Trinity College, Cambridge
in 1929 with a first class honours degree in French, German
, and Russian
. In January 1930 he began work as Foreign Affairs Advisor to former British Prime Minister
David Lloyd George
, and that summer made his first brief "pilgrimage" to Yuzovka
(by then renamed Stalino).
In 1931 he was offered employment in New York City
by Dr Ivy Lee, public relations advisor to organisations such as the Rockefeller Institute, the Chrysler Foundation, and Standard Oil
, to research a book about the Soviet Union. In the summer of 1931 he toured the Soviet Union with H. J. Heinz II
of the food company dynasty
, producing a diary published by Heinz as Experiences in Russia 1931. A Diary., which probably contains the first usage of the word "starve" in relation to the collectivisation of Soviet agriculture. In 1932 Jones returned to work for Lloyd George and helped the wartime Prime Minister write his War Memoirs.
In late January and early February 1933 Jones was in Germany
covering the accession to power of the Nazi Party, and was in Leipzig
on the day Adolf Hitler
was appointed Chancellor. A few days later he flew with Hitler to Frankfurt and reported on the new Chancellors' tumultuous acclamation in that city. The next month he travelled to Russia
and Ukraine, and on his return to Berlin
on 29 March 1933, he issued his famous press release which was published by many newspapers including the Manchester Guardian and the New York Evening Post:
This report was unwelcome in a great many of the media, as the intelligentsia of the time was still in sympathy with the Soviet regime. On 31 March the New York Times published a denial of Jones' statement by Walter Duranty
under the headline "RUSSIANS HUNGRY, BUT NOT STARVING". In the article, Kremlin
sources denied the existence of a famine, and said, "Russian and foreign observers in country could see no grounds for predications of disaster". On 13 May, Jones published a strong rebuttal to Duranty in the New York Times, standing by his report:
In a personal letter from Soviet Foreign Commissar Maxim Litvinov
(whom Jones had interviewed while in Moscow
) to Lloyd George, Jones was informed that he was banned from ever visiting the Soviet Union again.
Banned from Russia, Jones turned his attention to the Far East
and in late 1934 he left Britain on a "Round-the-World Fact-Finding Tour". He spent about six weeks in Japan
, interviewing important Generals and politicians, and he eventually reached Beijing
. From here he travelled to Inner Mongolia
in newly Japanese-occupied Manchukuo
in the company of a German journalist. Detained by Japanese forces, the pair were told that there were three routes back to the Chinese town of Kalgan
, only one of which was safe; they took this route but were captured by bandits who demanded a ransom of 100,000 Mexican
silver
pesos
. The German journalist was released after two days, but 16 days later the bandits shot Jones under mysterious circumstances, on the eve of his 30th birthday. There were strong suspicions that Jones' murder was engineered by the Soviet NKVD
, as revenge for the embarrassment he had previously caused the Soviet regime.
On 26 August 1935, the London
Evening Standard
quoted Lloyd George paying tribute to Jones:
/English
/Ukrainian
) plaque was unveiled in Gareth Jones' memory in the Old College at Aberystwyth University, in the presence of his niece Margaret Siriol Colley, and the Ukrainian Ambassador to the UK, Ihor Kharchenko, who described him as an "unsung hero of Ukraine". The idea for a plaque and funding were provided by the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association (www.uccla.ca), working in conjunction with the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain. Dr Lubomyr Luciuk, UCCLA's director of research, spoke at the unveiling ceremony.
In November 2008, Jones and fellow Holodomor journalist Malcolm Muggeridge
were posthumously awarded the Ukrainian Order of Freedom at a ceremony in Westminster Central Hall
, by Ambassador of Ukraine to the UK, Dr Ihor Kharchenko, on behalf of the President of Ukraine in reward for their exceptional services to the country and its people.
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
who first publicised the existence of the Great Ukrainian Famine of 1932-33
Holodomor
The Holodomor was a man-made famine in the Ukrainian SSR between 1932 and 1933. During the famine, which is also known as the "terror-famine in Ukraine" and "famine-genocide in Ukraine", millions of Ukrainians died of starvation in a peacetime catastrophe unprecedented in the history of...
, the Holodomor
Holodomor
The Holodomor was a man-made famine in the Ukrainian SSR between 1932 and 1933. During the famine, which is also known as the "terror-famine in Ukraine" and "famine-genocide in Ukraine", millions of Ukrainians died of starvation in a peacetime catastrophe unprecedented in the history of...
, in the Western world
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
.
Life and career
Jones was born in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan. His mother had spent the period 1889-1892 as tutor to the children of Arthur Hughes, the son of Welsh steel industrialist John HughesJohn Hughes (businessman)
John James Hughes was a Welsh engineer, businessman and founder of a city in Ukraine. The city was originally named Yuzovka or Hughesovka after Hughes, but was renamed Stalino in 1924 .-Biography:Hughes was born in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales,...
, who had founded the town of Yuzovka, modern day Donetsk
Donetsk
Donetsk , is a large city in eastern Ukraine on the Kalmius river. Administratively, it is a center of Donetsk Oblast, while historically, it is the unofficial capital and largest city of the economic and cultural Donets Basin region...
, in Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, and her stories inspired in Jones a desire to visit the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, and particularly Ukraine.
Jones graduated from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth
University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth University is a university located in Aberystwyth, Wales. Aberystwyth was a founding Member Institution of the former federal University of Wales. As of late 2006, the university had over 12,000 students spread across seventeen academic departments.The university was founded in 1872 as...
in 1926 with a first class degree in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, and from Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
in 1929 with a first class honours degree in French, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, and Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
. In January 1930 he began work as Foreign Affairs Advisor to former British Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British Liberal politician and statesman...
, and that summer made his first brief "pilgrimage" to Yuzovka
Donetsk
Donetsk , is a large city in eastern Ukraine on the Kalmius river. Administratively, it is a center of Donetsk Oblast, while historically, it is the unofficial capital and largest city of the economic and cultural Donets Basin region...
(by then renamed Stalino).
In 1931 he was offered employment in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
by Dr Ivy Lee, public relations advisor to organisations such as the Rockefeller Institute, the Chrysler Foundation, and Standard Oil
Standard Oil
Standard Oil was a predominant American integrated oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company. Established in 1870 as a corporation in Ohio, it was the largest oil refiner in the world and operated as a major company trust and was one of the world's first and largest multinational...
, to research a book about the Soviet Union. In the summer of 1931 he toured the Soviet Union with H. J. Heinz II
H. J. Heinz II
Henry John Heinz II , best known as Jack Heinz, was an American business executive and CEO of the H. J. Heinz Company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA....
of the food company dynasty
H. J. Heinz Company
The H. J. Heinz Company , commonly known as Heinz and famous for its "57 Varieties" slogan and its ketchup, is an American food company with world headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.Perhaps best known for its ketchup, the H.J...
, producing a diary published by Heinz as Experiences in Russia 1931. A Diary., which probably contains the first usage of the word "starve" in relation to the collectivisation of Soviet agriculture. In 1932 Jones returned to work for Lloyd George and helped the wartime Prime Minister write his War Memoirs.
In late January and early February 1933 Jones was in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
covering the accession to power of the Nazi Party, and was in Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
on the day Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
was appointed Chancellor. A few days later he flew with Hitler to Frankfurt and reported on the new Chancellors' tumultuous acclamation in that city. The next month he travelled to Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and Ukraine, and on his return to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
on 29 March 1933, he issued his famous press release which was published by many newspapers including the Manchester Guardian and the New York Evening Post:
This report was unwelcome in a great many of the media, as the intelligentsia of the time was still in sympathy with the Soviet regime. On 31 March the New York Times published a denial of Jones' statement by Walter Duranty
Walter Duranty
Walter Duranty was a Liverpool-born British journalist who served as the Moscow bureau chief of the New York Times from 1922 through 1936. Duranty won a Pulitzer Prize in 1932 for a set of stories written in 1931 on the Soviet Union...
under the headline "RUSSIANS HUNGRY, BUT NOT STARVING". In the article, Kremlin
Kremlin
A kremlin , same root as in kremen is a major fortified central complex found in historic Russian cities. This word is often used to refer to the best-known one, the Moscow Kremlin, or metonymically to the government that is based there...
sources denied the existence of a famine, and said, "Russian and foreign observers in country could see no grounds for predications of disaster". On 13 May, Jones published a strong rebuttal to Duranty in the New York Times, standing by his report:
In a personal letter from Soviet Foreign Commissar Maxim Litvinov
Maxim Litvinov
Maxim Maximovich Litvinov was a Russian revolutionary and prominent Soviet diplomat.- Early life and first exile :...
(whom Jones had interviewed while in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
) to Lloyd George, Jones was informed that he was banned from ever visiting the Soviet Union again.
Banned from Russia, Jones turned his attention to the Far East
Far East
The Far East is an English term mostly describing East Asia and Southeast Asia, with South Asia sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.The term came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 19th century,...
and in late 1934 he left Britain on a "Round-the-World Fact-Finding Tour". He spent about six weeks in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, interviewing important Generals and politicians, and he eventually reached Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
. From here he travelled to Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in the northern region of the country. Inner Mongolia shares an international border with the countries of Mongolia and the Russian Federation...
in newly Japanese-occupied Manchukuo
Manchukuo
Manchukuo or Manshū-koku was a puppet state in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia, governed under a form of constitutional monarchy. The region was the historical homeland of the Manchus, who founded the Qing Empire in China...
in the company of a German journalist. Detained by Japanese forces, the pair were told that there were three routes back to the Chinese town of Kalgan
Zhangjiakou
Zhangjiakou, also known also by several other names, is a prefecture-level city in northwestern Hebei province of North China, adjacent to Beijing to the southeast. Its administrative area has a population of 4.35 million, and covers...
, only one of which was safe; they took this route but were captured by bandits who demanded a ransom of 100,000 Mexican
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
silver
Silver coin
Silver coins are possibly the oldest mass produced form of coinage. Silver has been used as a coinage metal since the times of the Greeks. Their silver drachmas were popular trade coins....
pesos
Mexican peso
The peso is the currency of Mexico. Modern peso and dollar currencies have a common origin in the 15th–19th century Spanish dollar, most continuing to use its sign, "$". The Mexican peso is the 12th most traded currency in the world, the third most traded in the Americas, and by far the most...
. The German journalist was released after two days, but 16 days later the bandits shot Jones under mysterious circumstances, on the eve of his 30th birthday. There were strong suspicions that Jones' murder was engineered by the Soviet NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
, as revenge for the embarrassment he had previously caused the Soviet regime.
On 26 August 1935, the London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
Evening Standard
Evening Standard
The Evening Standard, now styled the London Evening Standard, is a free local daily newspaper, published Monday–Friday in tabloid format in London. It is the dominant regional evening paper for London and the surrounding area, with coverage of national and international news and City of London...
quoted Lloyd George paying tribute to Jones:
Memorial
On 2 May 2006, a trilingual (WelshWelsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
/English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
/Ukrainian
Ukrainian language
Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet....
) plaque was unveiled in Gareth Jones' memory in the Old College at Aberystwyth University, in the presence of his niece Margaret Siriol Colley, and the Ukrainian Ambassador to the UK, Ihor Kharchenko, who described him as an "unsung hero of Ukraine". The idea for a plaque and funding were provided by the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association (www.uccla.ca), working in conjunction with the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain. Dr Lubomyr Luciuk, UCCLA's director of research, spoke at the unveiling ceremony.
In November 2008, Jones and fellow Holodomor journalist Malcolm Muggeridge
Malcolm Muggeridge
Thomas Malcolm Muggeridge was an English journalist, author, media personality, and satirist. During World War II, he was a soldier and a spy...
were posthumously awarded the Ukrainian Order of Freedom at a ceremony in Westminster Central Hall
Westminster Central Hall
The Westminster Central Hall or Methodist Central Hall is a Methodist church in the City of Westminster. It occupies the corner of Tothill Street and Storeys Gate just off Victoria Street in London, near the junction with The Sanctuary next to the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre and facing...
, by Ambassador of Ukraine to the UK, Dr Ihor Kharchenko, on behalf of the President of Ukraine in reward for their exceptional services to the country and its people.
External links
- Gareth Jones commemorative website
- Short biography of Gareth Jones by his niece, Margaret Siriol Colley. Includes links to newspaper articles written by Jones from around the world.