• 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 [sabotage] trial of the British [Metrovik] engineers,
the need to remain on friendly terms with the [Soviet press] censors
… was for all of us [Moscow Journalists] 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.