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Gareth met and interviewed many famous men of
the early 1930’s
*****
Gareth despite his young years
met many famous personalities and people that had a great influence on the
world politics of the early thirties. Of importance was the fact that he
was employed by David Lloyd George, the great British Prime Minister in the
World War One - the Welsh wizard. Through him he had entrée to many famous
politicians; Seebohm Rowntree who influenced Lloyd George in the birth of
the Welfare State; Lord Lothian Ambassador to the USA in 1939 and others in
Britain. In Ireland he interviewed Ėamon de Valera, Sean Russell (The Real
IRA) and others of influence in the period. In Germany he had a long
conversation with Dr Joseph Goebbels and met Adolph Hitler. In Moscow he
interviewed Maxim Litvinov and in Japan, General Sadoa Araki, Former War
Minster, Admiral Osumi Mineo, the Naval Minister, General Hayashi , the War
Minister, Matsuoka
Yōsuke,
Amô Eliji and Baron
Kijūrō Shidehara, Prime Minister of Japan in 1945. In the United States he
met President Hoover, Frank Lloyd Wright and William Randolph Hearst. In
1931 Gareth worked for the
great publicity expert, Ivy Lee in Wall Street, New York for one year..
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David Lloyd George |
“I struck with horror when
the news of poor Mr Gareth Jones was conveyed to me. I was uneasy about
his fate from the moment I ascertained that when his companion, Dr
Herbert Müller, was released he was detained. The so-called bandits
fastened on to Mr Gareth Jones as the more dangerous of the two.
“That part of the world is a cauldron of conflicting intrigue and
one or other interests concerned probably knew that Mr Gareth Jones knew
too much of what was going on.”
***** |
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Ivy Lee |
Gareth was spectator to the Great Depression and
greatest disillusionment in the USA in 1932 - that “of the worker, who
only two years ago was getting £8, £10, a week, and now has to stand in
the bread line….But right in the centre [Broadway]I saw hundreds and
hundreds of poor fellows in single file, some of them in clothes which
once were good, all waiting to be handed out two sandwiches, a doughnut,
a cup of coffee and a cigarette.”
Letter
to
David Lloyd George, and quoted in The Truth about Reparations and War
Debts, 1932. |
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*****
In
Hitler’s Aeroplane, Three o’clock Thursday Afternoon,
February 23rd,
1933:
“If this aeroplane should crash the whole history of
Europe would be changed. For a few feet away sits Adolf Hitler,
Chancellor of Germany and leader of the most volcanic nationalist
awakening which the world has
seen.”
*****
Gareth Jones: The
Western Mail, entitled With Hitler Across Germany: 28th
February, 1933.
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Emperor Hirohito |
“Hawaii
contains more Japanese - the potential enemy - than any other
nationality. There are 140,000 Japanese nearly one half of the
population. Are they loyal to the Stars and Stripes, or do they still
worship the Son of Heaven? Have they among their number a percentage of
spies who report the secret of America to Tokyo? Will they be able to
blow up parts of the naval base in a time of war? Will they be able to
ignite the petrol tanks?”
Gareth Jones; Western Mail, 25th June, 1935
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