• 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.