A Welsh
journalist who exposed Stalin's starvation of millions of Ukrainians in the
1930s has been posthumously honoured by the
Gareth Jones, who was born
in Barry, south
Millions of Ukrainians
starved to death but news of the tragedy was suppressed.
However Mr Jones wrote
about it, and was given the nation's Order of Merit at
Fellow reporter Malcolm
Muggeridge was the other reporter to reveal the truth behind the country's
enforced starvation and both are now revered in
Both are now dead and were
posthumously awarded their honoured at a special commemoration ceremony in
Westminster Central Hall.
The awards were bestowed
upon them by the Ambassador of Ukraine, Dr Ihor Kharchenko, on behalf of the
President of Ukraine.
The orders are awarded for
exceptional services to
During his
journalistic career, which was cut short by his murder by bandits in
He wrote for The Western
Mail, The Times and The Manchester Guardian among others and during the 1930s
travelled through
On his travels through the
land where his mother had once lived, he was shocked to discover the famine
conditions he encountered.
An estimated 7m people,
including a third of
At the time the Soviet
authorities - and many western journalists - denied the nation's enforced
starvation was occurring and Ukrainians themselves have only become fully aware
of the events since the fall of communism.
However, Mr Jones announced
that millions were starving in
Several foreign
correspondents rushed to rubbish the story with 1932 Pulitzer Prize winner
Walter Duranty of the New York Times dismissing his eye-witness account as
"a big scare story".
Mr Jones's niece Dr Siriol
Colley has written a book about his life, A Manchukuo Incident, and said:
"The Ukrainian people have taken him to their hearts - they call him the
unsung hero."
Fedir Kurlak, chief
executive of the Association of Ukrainians in
"As far as the
Ukrainian community is concerned, anyone who has heard of Gareth's exploits
will quite simply take his hat off to him, and regard him as an exemplary
journalist."
From 1930, Mr Jones acted
as a foreign affairs advisor to the then former prime minister David Lloyd
George.
This led to a career as a
journalist and as well as visiting the Soviet Union, he reported on President
Roosevelt in the United States, on Mussolini's rise in Italy and the troubles
in Ireland.
He was also in
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