1931 NEWSPAPER ARTICLES

In October 1931, after just returning from the Soviet Union with Jack Heinz II, he wrote another three articles for The (London) Times, entitled 'The Real Russia' from which we can provide the following selected quotes:

1. THE PEASANT ON THE FARM - Increase and its Cost:

"...A woman on the boat turned to me and said quietly, “Do you see those? They are kulaks, being exiled, just because they have worked hard throughout their lives. The peasants have been sent away in thousands to starve.It is terrible how they have treated them. They have not been given bread-cards or anything. A large number were sent to Tashkent and were left bewildered on the town square. They did not know what to do and very many starved to death.”

"...Throughout Russia on hears the same tale: “They took away our cow. How can it get a better if we have no land and no cow?” The cry of the Russian peasant has always been “Land and Liberty”, and it is the same cry today."

"...In one collective farm one old white-haired man bowed deeply and groaned: “Have pity on me! My courtyard is empty. Three horses and three cows have they taken from me and now they are getting thin and scraggy because they are not well kept. How can I get enough to eat? It is a dogs life.” A woman was passing and stopped to shriek at him. “Its little pity you deserve! You had your horses. You had your cows and you had little pity for us poor peasants then. I had no cow and no horse. I am better off under the kolkhoz.”

2. THE OUTLOOK FOR THE PLAN - From the farm to the Factory:

   "...They [workers] are forced, they complain to buy on the private market at exorbitant, prices and even then they remain hungry. Among the general workers there is little of that faith in the future, which is so striking in the Communist. Disbelief in the newspapers and in propaganda is widespread. On being confronted by some figures showing that the Five Years Plan was being completed in two and half years, one factory worker replied: “You cannot eat figures. The Five Years Plan is on paper. You see that tree over there; it is no apple tree, is it? But the Communists say. ‘Tomorrow that tree has to grow apples.’”

   "...But it is, above all, the nervous strain caused by under-nourishment and over-crowding that makes the life of the average Russian a misery. He blames not only the export of food, but also the bad distribution and delays, which result in the food supplies arriving in a decayed state."

3. YOUTH AND THE FUTURE - A Blessed Word:

   "...Will the peasant be happy as a cog in a great agricultural wheel, or will he always yearn for his little patch, his own cow, and freedom to buy and sell as he wishes? The next few decades will show."

   "... the children readily believe what is taught in the schools. A religious Leningrad mother bewailed the fact that her 10-year old daughter had recently returned from her class and had demanded: “Show me God! You cannot. There is no God.” Throughout the country posters proclaim: “Religion is a weapon for oppression”, while cartoons lampoon the priest as the tool of the Capitalist and a friend of the interventionist."

Whilst in the Soviet Union in 1931, Gareth and Jack Heinz II interviewed Karl Radek, editor of Izvestia, and formerly Secretary to the Communist Secretariat, where he stated: “Intervention in Russia would end with the destruction of Germany and Poland. We shall not intervene in other countries. History will decide which system is better. We are absolutely convinced that the Socialist system will win.” 

1.  Karl Radek Interview.

After leaving the Soviet Union, Gareth helped 'ghost' a book for Jack Heinz: "Experiences in Russia in 1931 - A Diary" and apart from his articles above for The (London) Times, only wrote one other piece, relating to his 1931 trip for The Western Mail. It was published over a year later, on 7th November 1932, detailing their interview with Lenin's widow, Nadezhda Krupskaya and written from a Welsh standpoint, to coincide with the 15th anniversary of the 'October' Revolution:

1. Lenin's Widow Talk's to a Welshman

In July 1931, Gareth wrote an article for The Contemporary Review, where he correctly predicted the secret addendum to the August 1939 Molotov-Ribbontrop Pact in which Germany and Russia agreed to carve up Poland.

1. Poland's Foreign Relations