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MALCOLM MUGGERIDGE
(LETTERS
TO GARETH FROM MUGGERIDGE - APRIL & SEPTEMBER 1933)
Chalet
de la Colline,
Rossinieres,
Vaud,
Switzerland.
April
17th 1933.
Dear
Gareth Jones,
Thank you for your letter. I am glad you liked the M.G. articles. They
were villainously cut. Duranty is, of course, a plain crook, though an
amusing little man in his way. I broke finally with the M.G. [Manchester
Guardian] over the Metrovick affair [6 British Vickers engineers
arrested and put on show trial in 1933 in Moscow].
With all due respect to your divine L.G. [Lloyd George] (whom as you
know, I admire) it seems to me that the Liberal mind has now lost what
qualities it once had – that is, a certain superficial integrity, and a
capacity, in the last resort, to abandon its own pre-conceptions in the
face of plain facts. Take, for instance, the Gladstone-Gordon affair. When
the unfortunate Gordon was actually besieged in Khartoum, the Pious
Incorruptible had to admit that the Mahdi was a brigand as well as a
patriot, and that the British Government was under an obligation to do
something about the matter. In the twilight of Liberalism, a man like the
editor of the M.G. cannot even go that far. When Gordon’s throat is
actually being cut, he still bleats – “We must still keep our heads;
we mustn’t get excited; we must be conciliatory” and so on. As I wrote
(in effect) to Crozier – “ You don’t want to know what is going on
in Russia, and you don’t want your readers to know either; if the
Metrovick people had been Jews or Negroes, your righteous
indignation would have been unbounded. You’d have published photographs
of their lacerated backsides. They being just Englishmen, you refuse to
publish the truth about their treatment or the general facts which make
that truth significant, - and this when the M.G. is packed with stories of
what the Nazis are doing to the Jews and the Poles to Ukranian [sic] and
Silesian minorities.”
I’m writing as much as I can. There’s an article coming out in the
next number of the FORTNIGHTLY; and I’ve sent three articles to the
WEEK-END REVIEW which may or may not be used. Also, I sent an
article to the TIMES about the position of foreign journalists in Russia.
It hasn’t come back, so they may have used it. By the way I’d be
grateful if you’d look for it, and let me have a cutting if it has, or
does, appear. I don’t see the TIMES here. Also, it appears that the M.G.
refused permission to the Ukranian [sic] Bureau to republish my articles
as a pamphlet, so they’ve asked me to write a 3,000 word pamphlet for
them. I’d very much like to see your articles on the agricultural
situation before I do this because it would strengthen the thing for me to
be able to quote someone else. Would you send them to me, or any sort of
rough draft of them, from which I could quote? If you send me a cutting of
Duranty’s piece, I’ll gladly write to the NEW YORK TIMES a letter of
protest. I’m afraid I shan’t be in England for some time because
I’ve got to get on with a book. And I’m hard up. When I am in England,
however, I’ll be delighted to come to Cardiff and lecture.
Yours
Malcolm Muggeridge [signed]
Finally,
in late September in reply to a letter of thanks to Gareth, Muggeridge
states unequivocally that Duranty 'writes what they [the Soviets] tell him
to':
League
of Nations
International
Labour Office
Geneve
As
from:
Pension de la Palge,
Quai Eaux Vivas 62,
Geneva.
September
29th 1933.
Dear
Gareth Jones,
Thank you for your letter, and for the Durranty [sic - Duranty] cutting.
He just writes what they tell him to. At the same time, since his
message refers to the new harvest I can’t challenge him on first hand
knowledge. That is to say, I know and you know that his description of
things in the Caucasus is untrue; but he can always retort, “ You
haven’t seen and I have.”
One idea I had, however. If I could get hold of specimens of his messages
during, say, the last year, I believe I could write an amusing article on
Durranty as a foreign correspondent that a paper like TRUTH might publish,
and that might do some good. I’d want about fifteen to twenty specimens
spread over the year; even going back earlier. Do you happen to have, or
know how I might get hold of, such specimens of his messages.
Bryn has been staying here, and I find him charming as ever.
Yours,
Malcolm
Muggeridge
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