Hughes, a journalist for over 50 years, 40 of them as a world famous foreign correspondent. In 1940 he was Australia's only correspondent in Japan. In 1956, on advice of his then boss, Ian Fleming, he went to Moscow and obtained his greatest scoop, an interview with British spies, Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean. He became one of the best informed and most reliable of China watchers and Asian commentators