"Gareth Jones, largely forgotten except by his family, is today being called by Ukrainians 'The Unsung Hero of Ukraine.' 70 years ago Gareth returned from the Soviet Union after his third visit and on March 29th 1933, in Berlin, he made his grim press report revealing the genocide-famine in Ukraine, the Caucasus, Kazakstan and the Volga region, the result of Stalin's ruthless determination to carry out the Five-Year Plan of Collectivization and Industrialisation. The number of deaths has never been truly ascertained but estimated that it was between seven to ten million persons.

Returning from a 40-mile tramp in Ukraine, Gareth reported the tragic plight of the starving peasants. He shared his food with them and even slept with them in their primitive cottages. "There is no bread. We are dying!" was the cry.

His press release was printed in many papers including the New York Evening Post and the Manchester Guardian. The Pulitzer Prize winner Walter Duranty denied the peasants were dying of hunger and implied in the infamous New York Times article of March 31st that Gareth was lying. Gareth was further reviled by the Soviet-sympathetic foreign correspondents in Moscow.

Gareth wrote a letter to the New York Times published on May 13th in which stated that he stood by every word he had said about the terrible famine. Except for Malcolm Muggeridge, Gareth was one of the few journalists to report on the tragedy. Gareth bravely published at least 20 articles in April alone in the Western Mail, in the Daily Express and other newspapers.

A further disappointment was the fact that Maxim Litvinov, the Soviet Commissar for Foreign Affairs accused Gareth of espionage in a telegram conveyed to David Lloyd George and which banned Gareth from returning to Russia. He had spent his academic life studying Russian, its history and literature, as it had been his life's ambition to visit Ukraine where his mother had been tutor to the granddaughters of John Hughes, the steel industrialist and founder of Hughesovka, which is now the city of Donetsk. It must have been a great disappointment as he was never able to return to the Soviet Union.

In 1931 Gareth spent a year in New York with the Public Relation Counsel, Ivy Lee, but returned to Britain on account of the World Depression. Prior to Gareth's final tour of the Soviet Union, Gareth had been Foreign Affairs adviser to David Lloyd George and had assisted him in his War Memoirs. In late January, 1933 he left David Lloyd George to visit Europe, and was present in Leipzig the day Hitler was made Chancellor.

On February 23rd he flew with the great Dictator to the Frankfurt Rally following which he wrote his prophetic article commencing with the famous words: "If this aeroplane should crash 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."

Gareth's great disappointment inspired him to extend his interest further afield. At the end of October 1934 he left Britain for his 'Round the World Fact-Finding Tour'. After two months in USA where he visited Wales, Wisconsin, interviewed Frank Lloyd Wright and stayed with Randolph Hearst on his ranch, San Simeon in California, Gareth sailed for Japan. His intention was to find 'What the Japanese were up to?' and to investigate this nation's designs of territorial expansion.

Spending 6 weeks in Japan, he interviewed politicians who were influencing world events. He then left to visit countries bordering on the Pacific Basin where he asked expatriates' their views on Japan's intentions. He eventually arrived in Peking and he was invited by Baron von Plessen to accompany him and Dr Herbert Müller to attend the meeting of the Mongolian Princes at the court of Prince Teh Wang. Following this colourful gathering and believing there were no bandits, Dr Muller and Gareth left to survey the situation in Inner Mongolia.

They ventured into a town, Dolonor, where Japanese troops were massing. After being apprehended, the pair were advised there were three routes back to the town of Kalgan. On the following day, taking the route that was considered safe and not controlled by bandits Gareth and Müller were captured by these brigands and held for ransom for £8,000.

Dr Müller was released within two days. The ransom was forthcoming but the bandits were strangely obdurate and Gareth, after 16 days in captivity, was tragically murdered. With these bandits were Japanese observers and the Chinese men feared for the safety of their families, hostages of the Japanese army, in Tientsin.

Gareth's death was a great tragedy to his parents and his mother Mrs Annie Gwen Jones kept all his articles, letters and diaries. The articles have been place on the website www.colley.co.uk/garethjones* dedicated to Gareth Jones. These articles cover not only the Soviet Union, but Germany, United States, Ireland and in particular, a small book of his articles may be read about his beloved Wales, In Search of News. The book were published after his death and the proceeds of its publication went to the Gareth Jones Memorial Travelling Scholarship which is still awarded today. The small book was about rural Wales, long forgotten, and is a delight to read.

Gareth graduated from University College of Wales, Aberystwyth in 1926 with First Class Honours in French and in 1929 from Trinity College, Cambridge with First Class Honours in French, German and Russian. He was the son of Major Edgar Jones, LL.D. Hons. and Mrs Edgar Jones who met as students in 1889 at Aber., a sister of Miss Gwyneth Vaughan Jones, B.A and Mrs Eirian Lewis and great-uncle of Graham Colley, LL. B. all of whom were graduates at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth.

Gareth's father, Major Edgar Jones was President of the old Students Association in 1901 and 1951. He received and Honorary M.A. degree from Aberyswyth in 1922 and an LL.D in 1952. He was Warden of the Guild of Graduates and received the Freedom of the town of Barry in 1950. His title of Major was because he was Officer in Command of the Glamorgan Fortress during the Great War and received an O.B.E.,(Military) and T.D."

Written by Dr Margaret Siriol Colley, neé Lewis, the author of the book 'Gareth Jones: A Manchukuo Incident'.

*The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites.