MALCOLM MUGGERIDGE

In mid-October 1932 (less than a month after Malcolm Muggeridge had arrived in Moscow on the 16th September 1932 for a temporary appointment, whilst the regular correspondent of The Manchester Guardian was on leave), Gareth had met Kingsley Martin (editor of The New Statesman and close friend of Muggeridge from his days at The Manchester Guardian) for lunch in London. Martin had just returned back to London from a trip to Moscow with the London Evening Standard's cartoonist Low.  On the 15th October, Gareth wrote a letter to his parents where he stated: "I was able to be of great help to Kingsley Martin by translating after lunch, some passages from Russian newspapers...The news in the City coincides absolutely with Muggeridge’s point of view and mine. Sir Bernard Pares has received confirmation of the famine from many sources.”

When Gareth had arrived in Moscow in early March 1933, he met Muggeridge and a note in Gareth's diary confirms that they spoke of the famine together. 

On the 8th March, Mr. W. Crozier, the editor of The Manchester Guardian, had just read Muggeridge's series of famine articles, and wrote to him stating that the "facts observed speak for themselves', but was sorry that Muggeridge had not restricted himself to "plain matter-of-fact statement of what he saw", as Muggeridge's own comment would inevitably lead the newspaper open to criticism from partisans of both sides of the political spectrum. Eventually, three of Muggeridge's series of articles were heavily sub-edited and published unsigned, on the 25, 27 and 28th March, and in the manner proposed by Crozier in his letter.

These three famine articles unfortunately remained entirely unnoticed in the columns of the newspaper at that time, as the news of the day was preoccupied with the plight of the Jews in Nazi Germany. The first comment in The Manchester Guardian referring to these articles was not until the 8th May 1933,  when Gareth wrote a letter to the Editor, Crozier in support of Muggeridge's articles:

1. Gareth's Letter to the Editor of The Manchester Guardian, 8th May 1933 - The Peasants in Russia - Exhausted Supplies.

Gareth had hoped probably hoped that Muggeridge would have reciprocated with a letter to the New York Times in his own defence to Walter Duranty's rebuttal of  the 31st March.  But unfortunately no letter appears to have been forthcoming, as offered in this letter (linked below) of Muggeridge's  to Gareth, where he also mentions writing a book (Winter in Moscow) but does not reveal the subject or that Gareth was to be the main character of Pye in this satirical story:

1. Letters to Gareth from Malcolm Muggeridge, 17th April & 29th September1933.