UPDATE! Journalist Jones exposed Stalin famine (to be honoured by Ukraine posthumously on November 22, 2008). Wales On-Line, Nov 10, 2008

To Orwell Today,

Jackie,

I am writing to you [January 2004] as you certainly seem to be in the academic 'know' on the writings and thoughts of George Orwell and are aware of my relative Gareth Jones with whom you link to his Soviet articles from your website. See SOVIET UNION FAMINE EXPOSURE

Therefore I would like to pose an 'academic' question, relating to my great uncle -- who as a young independent journalist and former foreign affairs advisor to Lloyd George -- internationally exposed (& much to Stalin's embarrassment) the great Ukrainian famine-genocide of 1933.

Two years after Gareth Jones' famine exposure in 1935, he was kidnapped by politically-controlled bandits close to the Soviet border in Manchukuo, from a vehicle now known to have belonged to a trading front of the OGPU (Soviet Secret Police).

My specific question to you is: Orwell would have known about my great uncle's famine exposure in 1933 and subsequent mysterious murder (which was world news for two weeks in August 1935) -- and as one knows that most characters in Animal Farm have a symbolic name, then why is farmer Jones, called 'Farmer Jones'? He was obviously a parody of Tsar Nicholas, so why wasn't his character, perhaps called either Farmer Nick or alternatively with an inference to his alcohol consumption, such as Farmer Guinness or Haig?

In my curiosity of this question, it has been put to me that Farmer Jones was chosen as a name in Animal Farm, simply due to its popularity as a British surname. And though I might well be chasing Don Quixote windmills on behalf of my relative, I would dearly like your opinion or those in the know to definitively dismiss/discover a symbolism of its origin.

Conversely, could you point me in the right direction as to whom I should approach.

Kind regards
Nigel Colley

Greetings Nigel,

When I discovered Gareth Jones's (who is your uncle as you proudly say) SOVIET UNION FAMINE EXPOSURE articles last week (while looking up material on Muggeridge) I was thunderstruck by the magnitude of his contribution to Orwell's knowledge of life in the Soviet Union which was then so expertly woven into Animal Farm and 1984

I knew without a doubt that Orwell would have read the Soviet articles by Gareth Jones. I wondered for awhile why Orwell hadn't talked about or written about him. Nor is Jones's name mentioned in any of the Orwell biographies. But then I realized that Orwell had his reasons and I also know what those reasons probably would have been. But I was kind of sad that Gareth Jones didn't receive any credit.

Then in the middle of the night two nights ago - in between waking up and falling back asleep - I started thinking again about Orwell and Gareth Jones and then it struck me that Orwell HAD mentioned Gareth Jones after all in the character of Farmer Jones in Animal Farm!! Just like how the Communists had killed the Tsar and all his family, so too had the Communists just as ruthlessly and cruelly killed Gareth Jones. And so Orwell gave the Tsar character the name of Jones. It is so obvious!!

It was therefore very thrilling to get your email saying that you think the very same thing. Obviously we're 100% right on! Orwell will be chuckling that we've found that puzzle piece!

So you're not alone in chasing Don Quixote windmills, or should we say ANIMAL FARM windmills.

How honoured you must be to know that Orwell had your relative in his thoughts when he penned his two great masterpieces.

All the best,
Jackie Jura

PS - These are the articles about Gareth Jones so far on ORWELL TODAY:

SOVIET UNION FAMINE EXPOSURE, by Gareth Jones

EXPERIENCES IN RUSSIA, 1931, A DIARY, by H. J. "Jack" Heinz, II (heir to Heinz Company, 1869, American success story)

MY JOURNEY THROUGH FAMINE STRICKEN RUSSIA & WHY RUSSIA IS HUNGRY, by Whiting Williams

ASSIGNMENT IN UTOPIA, by Eugene Lyons
"...The first reliable report of the Russian famine was given to the world by an English journalist, a certain Gareth Jones, at one time secretary to Lloyd George. Jones had a conscientious streak in his make-up which took him on a secret journey into the Ukraine and a brief walking tour through its countryside. That same streak was to take him a few years later into the interior of China during political disturbances, and was to cost him his life at the hands of Chinese military bandits. An earnest and meticulous little man, Gareth Jones was the sort who carries a note-book and unasham­edly records your words as you talk. Patiently he went from one correspondent to the next, asking questions and writing down the answers. 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, and perhaps with some idea of heightening the authenticity of his reports, he emphasized his Ukrainian foray rather than our conversation as the chief source of his information. In any case, we all received urgent queries from our home offices on the subject. But the inquiries coincided with preparations under way for the trial of the British engineers. The need to re­main on friendly terms with the censors at least for the duration of the trial was for all of us 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, unanimously and in almost identical formulas of equivocation. 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. The scene in which the American press corps combined to repudiate Jones is fresh in my mind...

...conversation continues at GARETH JONES PROOF DISCUSSION (about Mr Jones in Animal Farm). Feb 12, 2004

WAS WINSTON SMITH GERALD SMITH? (Gerald L. K. Smith, close friend and associate of HUEY LONG who launched the SHARE OUR WEALTH SOCIETY in 1932)

WAS GARETH JONES BEHIND ORWELL'S NAMING OF FARMER JONES IN ANIMAL FARM?, by Nigel Colley

PUBLIC PRIVATE LAND GRABS (US/UK pay Big Business to seize land-water-utilities-mines-schools-health-services). Guardian, Jan 6, 2004. Go to 9.Keeping Masses Down & BURMESE DAYS & RUSSIAN SEIZURE OF LAND, by Gareth Jones and Zimbabwe's cattle on verge of extinction (whole gene pool being wiped out). Scotsman, Jan 6, 2004

NO ESCAPE FOR GULAG PRISONERS (treated like slaves w/o wages in mines, factories & laying track). Telegraph, Jan 4, 2004 & COMMUNISM'S TRUE BELIEVERS (broke all records for mass slaughter). National Post, Jan 4, 2004. Go to 42.Party Tells 'Why' & COMMUNISTS COINED 'MCCARTHYISM'

Go to LENIN BEHIND ENVIRONMENTALISTS and ORWELL'S PUBLISHING PROBLEMS