He gained top
marks in the Civil Service Examination for the Consular Service, which
subsequently offered him a posting in China, which he did not accept. In view of
his exceptional knowledgHTTP/1.1 100 Continue
e of European languages, this offer would have been seen
as derogatory and a great disappointment to his family. He was a Barry County
Schoolboy from Wales in the era when the possession of public school education
was considered of great importance. Gareth travelled widely throughout Europe
and the United States. He worked his passage on a dirty French steamer, signed
on as a stoker on a Norwegian boat and travelled steerage on small Swedish and
German steamers. He was the 1920’s version of the back-packer. In 1923, due to
the fall in the German Mark he travelled through Germany for the sum of five
shillings. In 1930 he became research advisor in Foreign Affairs to
Mr David Lloyd George, the former Liberal Prime Minister, and the following year
he became Assistant to Mr Ivy Lee, public relations counsel to Rockefeller,
Pennsylvania Railroad, Chrysler and other American business institutions. During
this time Mr Lee, who knew Russia well, requested Gareth to accompany Jack Heinz
II, grandson of the founder of the Heinz Organisation, on a tour of the USSR.[1]
Gareth’s sister, Mrs Eirian Lewis told of how she visited them aboard a
dilapidated Russian ship, the SS Rudzutak in the Port of London before their
journey.
[1] “With a 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 [Secretary of the Communist
International]. We visited vast engineering projects and factories, slept on the
bug-infested floors of peasants' huts, shared black bread and cabbage soup - 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. It was an experience of tremendous interest and value as a study
of a land in the grip of a proletarian revolution.” Extract from Gareth’s
Preface to Jack Heinz II’s [anonymously written] book Experiences in Russia
– 1931. A Diary.” [N.B. In 1931, the U.S.S.R. was still politically
unrecognised as a sovereign state by the U.S.]
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Gareth with his Mother
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