https://declassified.library.utoronto.ca/files/original/26f9418706395a99280ef27da6a42983.pdf ac54a9db2bbf4a7382b6fafed4e64058 PDF Text Text (Jli,ce~,, "111eL'4 [__ __________________ - - ---- - File- Tex Vertical Folder No. Sp. 2394-10 000001 ;·;~, ·,,_. "'":,...;;'. --,)• �Document disclosed under the Access to,fnformation Act . Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur /'acces l'informati;n -a \ '\ {, ............ -.- SECRET CANADIAN EYES ONLY Department· of External Affairs Defence Liaison (2) Division SPECIAL REGISTRY Subject: I' G.F. de M. BURGESSand - D.D. lVIacLEAN ,. I British I Foreign (Disappearance I. ; ., 0fficials File No. 2- 2- BURGESS Volume______ From________ To _ _ ---------- of) RELATED FILES ' ''; ,' ' ·I l I I t \ . l , l . 'I IMPORTANT This file contai_nsintelligence material from a delicate source and is to be seen only by authorized persons on a strictly need-to-know basis. When on loan to them it is to be kept from ·the sight of unauthorized persons, and is to be returned to Defence Liaison (2) Division Special Registry in a sealed string envelope. I 000002 , \ • ~ • ' l -• f •~o \ ·- -.- - - , : ' ~-_____,:_ �\-- ------- -------- _, :- . . \ __ ~-- - __ : - \ - • -- 7 - s~--8- tJ,R ;~? File No. -~~=z~ ~;~~ii:.;;e "" Vol.,__ _ 'J-., 000003 \_ �':?l} P) Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act ~LIPPI G °"'"mm, dlwO"' "" wrt" de lo lo/'"' DEPARTMENT OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS f CT 1967 WAHlNGf ON PO~ J J... Da te ........................................................................ Pu blica tion ............................................................................... r. ..~..~ .... Maclean'sSpyingMoreVital Than British Have Adrriitted London Sunday Times LONDON, Oct. 7-A sec r e t intelligence r e p o r t which the Sunday Times tracked down in Washington in the course of its investigations into the Philby conspiracy makes it clear that, contrary to repeated British government assertions since 1951, Donald l\.IacLean had access to every crucial Anglo-American policy decision at the height of the Cold War. The report was compiled in 1956 by U.S. State Department intelligence officers in an attempt to assess the damage done by MacLean anq Guy D. Burgess DONALD MacLEA~ who fled with him in 1951. GUY BURGESS For the first time, the re... took their secrets to Moscow in 1951 port reveals the magnitude of MacLean's e s pion age cance of this the circumto the Russians. Just before achievements. • It is alll! the first evi- he di(?d, MacArthur com- stances of 1947 have to be dence froJ\ official files plained that the Chinese not recalled. In the early postthat the British government only knew of this policy de- war years the world supply has been consistently mis- cision but "all our. strategic of uranium was thought to leading in its statements on troop mcvements." be limited. The West thereMacLean's duties and the Until now it has generally fore embarked, in extreme type of material to which been believed that Maclean, secrecy upon a program of he had access .. first secretary in the British "premptive buying". of uranIn fact, the U.S. intelli- Embassy in Washington and ium, in an attempt to corner gence report reveals that later head of the American all the known resources. MacLean had knowledge of Department in the Foreign secret Anglo-American ex- Office, passed to the Rus- Maclean was in a position to changes on the North At- sians only marginal atomic •tell the Russians every de- • tail of these vital negotialantic pact, the Korean War secrets. He saw these in the and the Japanese peace course oY his duties as U.K. tions. The revelations provide treaty." secretary of the combined It also shows, for instance, policy committee-the body the first credible explanathat Maclean had full knowl- set up to regulate the Anglo- tion of the necessity that edge of the critical Ameri- American exchange of scien- drove the master-spy Harold can detC>rmination to "lo- tific information on the Philby to risking, and in the event wrecking, •his whole calize the conflict," and atomic program. espionage career, to tip off therefore of its decision not This :nformatlon was vital Maclean before the British to allow the United N1tions enough, the report reveals. security services could reach forces under Gen. MacArth- Maclean was able to tell him. ur to carry the war against the Russians "'the estimates the Chinese coast. Maclean was not, as previmade at that time oeuraniBoth MacArthur and his um ore supply available to ous explanations have sugchief of intelligence, Gen. the three governmentsgested, simply an old friend. Charles Willoughby, .were Britain, A m e r i c a, and He was Russia's most imCanada. certain at the time that this portant known diplomatic information had been passed To appreciate the signifi- spy in the cold war years. 000004 �Document ,sc ose unaer the Access to Inform ton Act DocjHlllent div11lgueen vertu de la Loi sur l'acces a /'information • DEPARTMENT OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS . SU b''}eCt ............................................................................................................ Da te ..................... ~~! ...~ ....L ......~..................Pu bli cation ••••••••••••••••u•••••••••••nooooouoooooooooo••••••OOoooUU ♦ -ot••••••••••••••••O• .. ,,,...,, 1 ,i,,,,,,,,,,, D. L.2 SPEC. REG. 2 4 9 10 LET ot been convicted of any of• BRJTJSH fense. • PRJ TEFUNDS "The Government, in cases of DRAW difficulty, should be governed -- speda - o Th• New York Tim••. 11 by the principle that, however black the circumstances, a man ! Lordjwas treated as not guilty until LON ON, May 10 Mil Minister Without Port- hE; was found guilty," Lord f •confirmed in the House of!M1lls declared. . Burgess and Maclean d1saprds todayt hat Guy Burgess peared just before counter-in. was bei~g allowed to transfer telligence agents were to queshis private funds from London 1tion them on suspected security to Moscow by being classified leaks. as an emigrant. They have since been working· Burgess, who fled from Brit• for the Soviet Government. ain in 1951 with Donald-Mae-~ lean, has a • private income, which he uses to supplement his salary as a translator for the Soviet Foreign Ministry. For several years, it is understood, he has been permitted to withdraw these funds. Viscount Massereene and Ferrand, who had asked for a clarification of the matter, said it was an extraordinary situation if the Government classed suspected tr&itors as emigrants. Lord Mills replied that although references to Burgess• "might arouse distaste," he hadl ' I 000005 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur /'accesa J'in/Drmation • DEPARTMENT. OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS I "'7 ,.__ )- ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Subject .......................................................................................................... . e__0 -::) .,/4--' ill Stay in Russia, Ex--Diploma.t Decides D. L.? S?EC. r r4.J ·;\loscow, April 23 (Reuters>-- • Burgess pause • at onC' point I Defected diplomat Guv Burgess to pour a vodka 1111eltoniato: . : . J 1icc, after which he remarked: \or!ay claimed the British Goy-, J hi, is Queen Elizabeth's ernment obtained a warrant for farnrite drink, you know." his arrest last week partly· bC'- He said the only evidence cause it was terrified of his Britain harl against him was . ·obtained from Vladimir Petrov, possible return to England. a Soviet embassy official who Burgess, in an hour-long in- defected in Australia in 1954. terview with a reporter at his "Nobody can aCCC'ptPetrov's Burgess said. "His Moscow apartm<'nt. also said word." the warr/rnt was counter-propa- statPment ahout me was mad£' to ganda to last week;'s return to Apstralian srcurit~• police ... " Russia of defected•Soviet sclen-· He said the Australian sedurlty tist Alexei Golub. pollce was set up by Ml-5 and Burgess .:aid. there ~ms noth-· now is dominated by the Amering to British cl ·ms that he i(•;rn I-ed<'t:1! Bureau of Tnvestimight try to rct to England. gahon. "I like living n the Soviet )Ir said he would like to $ ·Jm," he I' r-ation in Britain where his Union undrr said. "I wouldn't Jive in• n,other lives, but th\,~ would expense-aceount " rause "great pain and trouble" Sea to hi~ "many friends In high He said he broke volun-• plar·(>s." vacation to return h tarily to try to clear up a "There would be an enorswarm of reports that havt> mous scandal, so I don't want appeared since the warrants to return to England just now," were issued. •1~•-'"--"--,,---------he sairl. British Attorney-General Sir Reginald .Mannlngham - Buller announced last Wednesday that warrants for the arrest of Burgess and his fellow ex-diplomat Donald Maclean had been obtained for violation of Britain's ' Official Secrets Act. Burgess and Maclean defect. ed together 11 years ago. J\Iaclean has refused to answer re- , porters' questions since the : warrants were obtained. Burgess said he thought there were dozens of reasons 1 for the British action, now, "after 10 long years." ·' "One ls the British Government Is 'so easily flung into a panie," he • said. "They are positively terrified, of my going back to Englantl. "I have heard confidential sourc...l':,M,'R•• and from my manY the establishment' and even in J\U-?; fBritain's security armyl." Burgess said Golub, the Soviet biochemist who returned lo Russia after gaining a,~ylum in the Netherlands, als'o had something to do with the ~varrants. Golub and another redefector held a press conference here last Wednesday, the day the warrants were announced ln London. "Somebody decided it would be a good idea to take Golub off the front pages and put Burgess on them," he said. "It was a good idea, the though~ to counter Golub's statement that he liked the Soviet Union by making up an-other that Bur- • gess didn't like it and wanted . to leave." 1 I I 000006 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur /'acces /'information a • DEPARTMENT OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS Subject ........................................................................................................... . . R 31962 bl. . ,... l"\-q'R A n M IL Da te ........................................................................ Pu ica t1on .......·-······················~:. ....... ~ .......... t..................................................... . D. L. 2 SPEC. REG. i-ef,,ddlin'g Through ., ,., :------, /EmbarrOMiitg BurgessT~jp/ Avoid.d by P&iderousBrifish Manoeuvres r...~,!f-;--e:---. ~l l < _j 000007 �Document chscfosea unaer t e Access to nlormot,on J!.c Document divulgue en vertu de la Loisur l'occes a /'information • DEPARTMENT OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS Subject .......................................................... A••··· . PR Date ....................................................................... Publication ............................................................................ . .Defecto Expedted Back . ace Arrest ._J - By ~MIJ>DLETON Specl LOJiffO w,ere au ~- p1'il18-Warrants y for .the arrest . f Donald D;i.:Maclean and Guy M. Bu!ss, rmer British diplomats ho detected to tqe So• n elev.en years a.go. ecljed to arrive on:tw by plane calr. No •uthentlc exof their expected reavailable. former dtp1'nats render Saviet P1Qtectlon tonight, adding another mys.tery to th~,e_any thilt :hue surround ~em since they fled from B:rltiwi~ 1951 as coun• er-espio were about to move [A spek • h Embassy ednesday ge'ss nbr Macie fa, permission travel Blt\ain, United ~ 'Inte naWinal reported. . said th eml>Assy had had no contact with the two former diplomats pd had no knowledge of an:i\, plans to arrest them if theT should arrive in ,J.,on• ' don.] >-, ~ Within~ e last fQrty-eight the British secueard, apparently through its o q;eas branch, M. I. that the . wo ~en were about to leave Moscow. Accordingly, Detec~ve Inspecor George Smith of Scotland d's Special Branch applied vlet U They in Brit ti s; for warrants for their arrest under the Official Secrets Act of 1911. Soon afterward, British European Airways announced that Maclean and Burgess would be on -a flight from Moscow by way of Amsterdam due to arrive at London Airport tonight. ·The Special Branch prepared to seize the two men when they left the plane. Later the airline announced that they were not aboard. Maclean, Government sources said, was still in his Moscow apartment and apparently concerned Jest any news of his intended arrest in London reach his American-born wife, Me-I linda Maclean. Burgess was reported to ha.Ve bee'n away from the Soviet c~pital:.!.or two weeks. Behind this tangled tale lies a cloak-and-dagger melodrama. One piece of the puzzle, British officials hinted, was a news canference in Moscow today devoted to a Soviet scientist and, an electrician who had returned I. to the Soviet Union after having, sought asylum in the Netherlands and Italy, respectively. The emphasis placed on that news copference by the Soviet Government apparently was intended to balance the effect in the Communist bloc of the re-' turn of Maclean and Burgess to Britain, officials said. Delay Laid to Bureaucracy Something eJdently went amiss. What it was, no one in authority here would say. The best-informed speculation was that the vast machinery of the Soviet bureaucracy had stalled on the relatively simple administrative matter of granting exit visas tD the two Britons. The British side of the question is not altogether clear. There are well-founded reports that Scotland Yard asked for' warrants for three other unidentified d,fectors, and it may be that. their absence contributed to the failure of Maclean and Burgess to arrive on schedule. Of the two Britons, Burgess has been the most forthright ·in voicing a desire to retwn home. In 1959, during Prime Minister Macmillan's visit to Moscow, he told correspondents he wanted to visit his relatives and friends in Britain. Burgess also asserted that he had been offered £10,000 (28,000) to write his memoirs for a London Sunday newspaper. He: added that he could collect that much and more in damages from British newspapers that had called him a traitor. Under British law, treason can be committed, Home officials said, only when the act involved is committed to help a country with which Britain is, at war-in other words, to aid "the Queen's enemies." Of the two men, Maclean is the more important. Like Burgess, he was well-born and welleducated. Unlike him, he had risen, despite doubts about hrn Communist inclimi.t ns, to f' responsible role in t!lL foreign office. Burgess W" ; aw· ys ,I No. 2 man, while l\ ;:,c'"m was clearly marked for •h • ,1ig-hest posts. Acts Punishable 11-> 'dony The warrant given to Inspector Smith wa•; l•<'~ed o 1 provision of Section One of the Official Secrets Act dealing with the gathering of informa• tion in prohibite,i places, the making of plans, sketches and models or communication of any official code or pass word that in any of these cases, was "calculated to be, or might be, or is intended to be, directly 1 or indirectly useful to an enemy." S•1c'1 i. f 1'~· •men ts amount to tc: r • u icier B1 'tish law. Mar-! 3,n had ;x,, ll a Ve !11ed member o:': the Brit1.;h mlssion:;I in Washington ond Cairo before he bE'"· r>e head of the AmerJCan Dcpu-tment in the Foreign Office. Burgess also had been stationed in Washintgon. When he fled he was a minor Foreign Offil:e official. Maclean, now 49 years old, has been employed on a number of jobs since his arrival in ~ Moscow. One was editing al ,eading Soviet political maga•zine, International Affairs. He 1as also played a r-0le, British sources said, in the formulation of ·soviet policy on the Middle . East. Burgess apparently has been 1 employed as a translator by the Hoviet Foreign Ministry. Madcan Still at Apartment MOSCOW, April 18 {Reuters) ' - -Donald D. Maclean was still in his apartment here tonight despite reports that he was flying to London. Earlier in the day, Maclean had told a reporter who called at his apartment that he had "absolutely nothing" to say about reports that arrest war-. rants for him and Guy M. Burgess had been issued in London. "I don't want to talk to you at all," he said, and he added: "I have asked-you never to come and see me." Later in the evening, the door was opened by an elderly British woman who took a message 1 for the former -dip!cm-1.t and passed it to him. Then u,~ door was shut , :1ci locked. Maclean was visible inside, still wearing the open-necked shirt and corduroy trousers he had been in previously. A friend of Burgess said that he was _on vacation somewhere in the Soviet Union but would be returning to Moscow in two ' weeks.. "I cannot tell you where he is," the friend declared. f(i Y )41 l Burgess Not on Airliner AMSTERDAM, The NetherJ lands, April 18 (Reuters)-The pilot of a Dutch airliner from! Moscow that was rumored to be carrying Guy Burgess told air- , line offic;ials today that as far! as he knew Burgess was not tboard. A tense crowd of reorters and photographers lmdI been ~aitin~ ~ for the ~lane. . I ~ I. 2 il, so;-~---.fH:".G. ~I • ,..i........,,,~~;x' .<..'Ca"--· '\.'_:::,,O,-fllc,c_ l ' ' __ l l I 1 000008 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Ac Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur l'acces a l'informa CLIPP! • DEPARTMENT L OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS ········•······JQ··'·J 7-1-.:B Date .. .......... MAR ..! ...1.J.9.§J................... Pu blica.tion GLO,iJ5. AND MAIL 1 '---l -~1---, U.K. Defe Maclea ound InM cow.Post Mos w, March 26 <Reu eri> Don Maclean, the British dip mat who defected to Rus10 years ago, today was nd living here quietly~nly ~ ~ards from t~e capital's bigg Western colony. Maclean, now 47, who was head of the U.s. department of the Foreign Office when he defected with fellow-di,1>lomatGuy Burgess, is using the name Mark Frazer. He lives with his U.S.-born wife Melinda, and their three chlldren on the sixth floor of an 11-story apartment building overlooking the Moscow River. He is known to be en editor of the EnglMih edition of the top Soviet political magazine on international affair,. Maclean has been undisturbed ,by Western correspondents and told one reporter: ''.For that I am grateful. All my wife and I and our family wish to,.do is live in complete pr" •" I fl, - <- ____ l s ·, 6 --- I ~ '-~- -1 I 1 r l V I/Iii. l.J,>'V'\ �Document disclosed underJ1,e Accpf tg'fnformotion Act Document divulgue en vert1X5fd'10!,)lir"'lacces a l'infor7~i'5fi • CLIPP-I DEPARTMENT C ...,....... OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS Subject ......................................................................................................... . OCT2 o1960. Date ........................................................................ Publication ... . Burgess Made iplomot ho Defected Crashes Party MOSCOW (Reuter~)Guy Burgess, British din lomat who defected t Russia in 1951, said Wr nesday night about 1 life in Russia: "It co to everybody to f('"l has made a mistakr, you ran quote mr that." 1 Burgess said he wo•ild I "' go back to Bntam but • r ~o back as long as the c:, d lasts." The former British forrn1 flee employee talked with 1 rrn correspondents aftc, crashing a Western part •·r have no ::, zenship." he to1 rcpo tr, am a British subject." Burgess disappcq,red f1ni, am 1n 1951 with Dhnald • nothcr foreign office both later turned up 11 R • 1. Burgess said he c"uld not r,c-ak for Maclean, whom he .~1d hr had not seen for some 11 11n. nut it was genera II.· unclr •ood t ,a. Maclean a-lso has not cha t~<'d hi nation~lity. Wou4l VI it UK Bur.;css, 4~. sa d: "Of course I would like to go back tl'J B1.. ta n for a holiday, ' t aO lo ~ as I could be cert •n of gett111g h c' ln the Soviet Union." He said " "stupid" white pa-: er had b en issued by tl•e Bn:. ' sh "n1 1 nment hich called him 1. Soviet agent, "whirh 1 w- \ p c:::> ,.. l -v ,.<,{v, b ~\A ~ ~ ':)t.'\.., _,_i(n) " m a sociali t, I'm not Communist," he declared. " ·h~y couldn't let me go back. I· r are more afraid of my gmng I l k than I am. Just think v hr pressure the Americans ~uld put on. • long a~ tl1e 000010 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi ~)JrJ'acces /'information a Ll:ASE Rl::R • DEPARTMENT OF EXTERNAL ~ AFFAIRS Subject ..................................................... ................................... . /.,- f 1/ ~~..··~ / or to Soviets ids to Visit West B11the Auoclated Pre~• London UUY Burgess... one of two British diplomats who detected to the :Soviet Union nine years ago, wants to re•· turn to Britain-but only for a visit. The Dally Mail said Jan. 9 Mr. Burgess expressed the wish in a telephone interview from ·Moscow but insisted on a promise of sate return to the Soviet Union. "It is clear that I couldn't get good work in England," he told the paper. "I've got a good job here (in Moscow) and I'm perfectly peaceful," Mr. Burgess, who fled to the Soviet Union with' fellow <Uptomat- 1Jonald Maclean in 11151, ts a consultant tot a Soviet publishing firm. J r 000011 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information A (J > 1 Document divulgue en vertu de la~ / ALL. CORRESPONDENCE 'l'O BE; SECRE R •.,.,,.~OLICE, OTTAWA ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE HEADQUARTERS BY HAND PLEASE QUOTE OTTAWA, June 4, 1959. -SECRET ... - -- ATTENTION:Mr, J.K. Starne~ You may be interested to receive a copy of an interview conducted by J.I.B. May 13, 1959 of Mr. Eric C. DURSCHMIED concerning his recent interview with Guy BURGESSin Moscow. D. L.2 SPEC. REG. 2 3 4 /,; ,,~~- \,/ ADDRE$EC:• ..,. -THEJlll'IMISSIONER, IN REPLY /'az..::. Dissemina 1 I :"li'" nspector 5 6 f.J;,wl_ 11..,/ ,.......,. Defence Liaison (2) Div., Dept. of External Affairs,. Room 247 - East Block, OTTAWA,Ontario. ·"' of the report has been restricted J.I.B., Mr. H.C.M. Stone �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur l'occes a /'information ,,. . rnru.1$ c;,l~• ch, 19 t-o r.o·er ·c ril1a istt r orn tda s· 8 to th .. .. nj ator very ~lt1,d d . . n f 0 0 , t t . (;. u ,, r · o act, ·fil ir. prroors) • vi ota. .. .fa.st jor in t l tc,- • td not 000013 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur J'acces a /'information ' . 1 s or~es ,1ns • . owe voice h ... n J • ; • e:tin lil~ ea cpl from )>eh th picti,. than the v e , "urvd.llan wcrs ippor interest· v~. Onl • '°'e • ·O 1 llrP,f!8 j rvicw to ~ "t1ie cc ' ed. 1 5 11 ,tr . ed n flS.l.TO onal on . to ti,1a rnpre$ • ion n to a .. r 'W.¼ • wa . . try. . ovi~,t 000014 �- L______c___ ... Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a /'information - 3 'Present I tllier!17 ~{o roe 1 ft for flCOW on lh n end t. ~f!e· weeka • t ere and in Ov,echosl.ova.1tia. 000015 �Document disc ose un er tfie Access to n ormo 10n ct Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur /'acces /'information a ., PLEASE .l-1.& • • . ' 11 DEPARTMENT OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS r/ ~ ' \.. - ' 1 l .,f! Z.71 ································· I Sub;ect ...................................................... ,. ............. ...,.-...................... . 1 T.Q.R.Q.NJQ ..... S.T.A,......... ~ ................ . Date ......................... ~.~.Y. ...?....?........ ~~·····..··.Publication ..................... .Sprclal to The Star LN1·!on, . ov. 2,i - Rep ft'Oll' 'loscow indicate that• r.ni;:,in's famous missing d1plomPts ---Gt•YBurgess and Donald 1a Lean -· have gone their 1 r'Parate ways in the Soviet l'niop, to which they fled in May, 1951. Both live in Moscow bul:.they ~ rarely if ever see each other. '1/IarLean and his American 1fe, Belinda, have "gone na• • J11ve." They have learn~d Rus' ian and spend cons1da-able time with Russian friends. Their children go to Russian schools. and are growing up to be Com' munists. MacL n himself, in Ithe old days wa~ a well-conduct:ed, model diploprnt when sober and a wild degenerate when hitting the Mttle, is understood to be behaving himself. ' Not so Guy Burgess, whose private life was a scandal in the foreign office before he and' MacLean fled to Russia. He has been reported by numerous 1people to be restive and unihappy and anxious to "visit \England" again. He has not been able to learn Russian well, although he has the reputation ef being brilliant, and the su~picion exists that he really: doesn't have his heart in it. The Russians, it is under• stood, have tried to show their appreciation of the way in \\ hich hr referted from the British diplomatic service. They are allowjng him to live the klnu of personal life which $candali1.cd his British and American aC'quaintances during his diplomatic career. The same kind of irre~ular habits cost thousands of Russians their lives and thousands more their liberty <,luringthe early thirties. Although. many Americans and 13ritishrrs have always suspeeted that Burgess and MacLean ~ere really members of the British intelligence service.~ -posing as Commies-the Russians obviously don't think so. l l I I l 000016 �Document disclosed under the Access to lnformotion Act Document divulgue en vertu de Jo Loi sur /'occes l'informotio a DEPARTMENT OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS, CANADA. NUMBERED LETTER TO: THEUNDER-SECRETARY OF STATEFOR EXTERNAL AFFAIRS, OTTAWA, CANADA. ,~ 7-A// .. A~- Securi ty: . Q O :m1 ms.NTUL. ............ . ~ c:'.b:, No:..................................... . MARCH29 1956. , . . f . ................ FROM;rtW ..Qff.=t:P.Ji: ..Q~. .~Wt.fl+9r.Ii ..Q9vµ~i~~~.~9J~ ..f.QR Date: .............. . Enclosures: .. , ...2 ,r', , ... , . , . , , , ..... ,.,. . ....... CA~ADA,. ... :ciP.IW.Q~l ......................... . Our letter No. 452 of March 12 , .. 1956. &ference: ........................................... ,.~ . ,, ~1:1~ .. ~.'?~~?'.:~~-~~.?r.. f.I.'~.~-,,,. ................ 9.C?\lR<?:i.:q.,<:?1:.1:!. ?~. ~~?:qf~~Y............ L' ...........................................................i·' .. Subject: .. -~~P.'?f.~.?.t:.. Air or Surface Mail: .. -4\.~ ... , .. , .. ,,., •, Post File No: .. .......... , , ... , , , , , , , . , •• Ottawa File No. References .J, I r Distribution to Posts The White Paper on security was discussed at some length in the House of Commons on march 21. Mr. Kenneth Younger, as spokesman for the Opposition, opened the debate with a thoughtful and comprehensive statement on the intent and possible repercussions of the reconnnendations set forth in the findings of the Conference of the Privy Councillors on security. While the necessity for effective security measures was agreed upon by the opposition, particular emphasis was gi van to the need for caution against over-zealous application of the procedures. Ivir. Younger noted that the Privy Councillors had not asked for any major changes in the present security system, which is regarded as basically sound, and expressed the hope that the recommendations intended to strengthen security were purely procedural. Doubts were expressed as to the wisdom of publishing any official docwnents on general security propositions which could be given different applicatioman.d interpretatiors. As pointed out, the White Paper was not a full report of the Conference and general statements out of their context may tend to be regarded as a kind of Charter of what may legitimately be done in the name of security. Nevertheless, Mr. Younger did not question any substantial aspect of the findings and it could be said that the main constructive contribution of his statement was to ensure that security measures will be confined to the requirements of na t1 onal sa.1·ety and will not degenerate into a witch-huntine or spy mania. A few dissentiug voices both from the 2. Conservative and Labour sides were heard expressing the views that, notwithstanding the \7hite Paper statement that security arrangements had been fundamentally sound, past events have shown that this was not the case. It was suggested by Colonel Cordeaux, who has served in Naval Intelligence and been decorated by several European governments for his intelligence work during the war, that a drastic overhaul of security arrangements is needed to ensure T ••• 2 000017 Ext. W2i\ <Hev. 2/52) �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur l'occes a /'information '3 .. ,.. �,. '· ,.· . . 'Bocum·e'!fd1}closeavnder-th'f::A,cces~ to/nformatiorrAf •. , : ,qo,::"urrjent_divulgue en.ver!u ci_e_/a_Loi 's,Hfacd;s a (infoirn'atio ._>._ "'.r''' '15·'· f·.' , . ··• :'\,·,,, .·'-4'('-· ·~:,, ,,., '. . ' ., .. \ .... ,, ··◄ .,. ''" '. ;,,r,...,.,. -~·~ ·-:-t'I ' ~ ' ' • J ' ., . ., ", :. ' . ·. ' .. .r: ',. • ~' ... '.t .. ' < h~ j<. .: ... . ' '.' ·- ·2 -·' ' -, • _,,,,' '";, ':· •.; < • ; : •'.,. • .. • -._,. • •, 0 '. :,:~ '·. > - ·' . ,, ,- ·, ' ,:,•w " ,·•' •, . ., ,,· • '> '•1':<;c,;,'. 'i4.--· ' •,· :' - ••• j • • • ·•: ·', > < L >- • • ,, ', ' \.\ _,,(.-i,' •,•• ;.,_. ', : : , '' '•• ., .,c '. :· "' •, •~ ' • I : ' .:,,.-~·.'•':·,··:.:i.'"',,,,·• • ' .-,~- '.~ ;:, .... ·,• " '',,,·•.' F • ' -:'• , '\ ., r "!O ; ,.,, ; ••• •"~ •• ·~ -~·••, •• ,' ,,. • ·• ; ·' :: •. ::\~,;:.,• .. • " . that those who put· -loyaJ:ty to the:tr. poli t_i9_al ·1d·eolog1e s :b~.f'.ore . ,~-.,. • . .. '.'c: 'loyalty-ii'o: their cou.ntt>Y:~1:+ou1d·:aot.=be_·in~·.po~it;tons ·y.rh_;!.ch::·g:t've:·· • . . ·: .. · ·:,. i.·. tham.acoess·.'to· 'St.ate ·s'eorets •. As· expeot-ed,-'a -f'evi,ref,.eren~.es :to .._ ; ..... ••.-· ' •• -~~e_·_B,i;l.rge~s;)ind•.Maciea#.:.~a.~e--:~~r,~: ~~q(')~_,.Jtti~,-'~.in;Y.,:~.o;;:s:~~e~s-_-, t~~:·:,.:t·::,/:~· ,· • : . L~o~; of\. ina=,.ght ;s~_own.by. the;tr ·-~up(?r:tors<:for_ ha."f.J::_ng-.-r~ta-~n~d·:_;,:·.. :· , .them _;n·.the F.oreign Off'i~e. ,whezr ·the:t.r _beh~(v;igu._rJiad l:>eco~e _:~l:?,ow.n • • •· ,·to<.·t];lem.·_·: :' __-,_._ ,:_ .·_.. •. • - ·.·._.:·· .. • • ·: ··-:::- · <·.(.,,-:,~.· ..,:.-·; . ·~•-;, '• ' ',• :• •.~• ... ~ • "'\ :••.. '• • /' ,:·.,. • ,,:,L -:t ,• .• •· - .. - • ,,',~' • S .• · 3~·: The ~oma: Seq_retary _spo~e for ·,th'e Goverrim~nt~~- :He. \.: fir.at repiinded th,e._niewbers abou,:; the. atmosphere wh_ich' naa,·pref-· .. · ·::,ia:1.1,~d wlien .•the iippointme)1t of .the Conf'ere:q.ce-of'. P:r;-~_y.y _Qt;?µ.ri:~il:I.9rs• ,, >•;wa.•s.de.aided. ·_There was -~t tht;i;t :ti,me: s"ome·-f'eeling that in ~he ,-. .. ,;:.taee· of the 1ideoiogica.1· tra;t t~r 1. :menace :·the prqolem o':f\~,~cu-r,i~y.'_•••.· ..., . was appr~ached from Ht,oo .liberal an ..:_agl~. ·).\'f.OW •~his,:~~~.~irig )1as/' '._ "~·-· .. c • ·.· g;v!:ln waf to _a fear that: the ·rights of,the·:1:qdtvi~-qa_1,·m1gnt:1?e in· .. ,..-_,· ·: ;3ome j eoparay ., ·MajO:r\ Ll:-oyd-George ''then _said tl1a t. ·the corp.pos1;:tion •. . . _ ,or· the· Confererioe .was such as ..·.to·· inspire· co.ntidence .and tl::ta..t. ·.. ..'. -,1 ..' while ~,the· :i:'epor-t:'·could< not <f'-or obviou.s· ,re:a.sons pu,bl:t'~:b:e.cL·:l,rf •:'.• ,. . : •full; , the- f'ii:;i.dings,..'Y'lhi'chi,a]fpe._ar'ecf in. tne wni;te.- Pa.per flhoµl_9-·re:... , ..._.. '. ·, .. ·_•. lieve both. sides •. The .Whit·e_,Paper :has •cle·ar.ly e~tablisp.ed ..tha:,t'- . < . ·_ •• •. ·::· • ·a-lthougri. • cert.a:t'n .ch~nges-·were ·.requir~d '~o,,·str.engthen'.°:-··t~~ .:·-...-. •• ,·...•.. ·:-.• . . .- ~: · security _s.ervi9_e~, _'there- was· n,bthing. ba~i?a~ly _wrp:hg wi:;th the • •. .:·...-: · . • ;system. · ·Hu .refe:rr_ed to: ...':the· suggest1011·. tba.'t. th,e :·Gover:r:un~.:t;tt should' . •..•.. •--~"-.-h~v:e_ ·w:tQ.er·pow,ers to· .detai:ri•· suspects ·and s:tat~d.' tha ii 'the.·' . > -~-.' • · . t:'ou.ncillors .re,oonmiende9- strongly agains_;t; ·any ·.a.Inendnien,~-: :~t ·the.. ,: . ..·:, •....:.law in that--respec_t •. Wh;t;I.e_JlP.men:~Jon '.yias'.made _oJ·:;·,the-•cir_gum~·e,....... • • • • • stances ..which_:.eu;rround,ed the :d.isappear~rice 'of Bµrge$s. :and, ,Ma.clean· •·.-.., it is_,_.Cl$ar, _.th'at\the 'above, sugge.~tion ':r~:St!'l te_d f,ro~. a ,de_sirEf to·' ' . ••~ . ·.'_a·vbi<i:t;\ r.e.peti t·:ton •o:t'..similar· si tu:ati•oris.;>~ The poli~y regarding~.:•• >'·c~nnnuniats ~rid· co:qmn.uiist '.:sympat_h:l,_sers~·-:]~'olleiwedby· p;re~;to:us·.' :' .._· .,.,.-...,_••, ... govermnen·ts., ..'l:~s _proved ..to ,be. a ··~ound. one ..and the-White ·Pa.per:._ ·,.,_ .. • ·-J . ., ~-_ recommendeq. .tha'.~ .1:ih~.yshould p.o't· ·be.· em.ployed in, the. C;tvil: .Service .. '· .</· 'in. positiori$-Jvhich would. giv~ them :acc~ss '. t.6 ::se6ret .infor~tion:, . :,qonoerning. th:e/C~s~.-··of· -~} Civil -SerYant having_ re,la·tives belJ,i:i;id... ,--.:· ., •:the Irotl;' .Cq.r1ia1n·, ·the . .lvi~:nis.:ter e'mpna:aizea that if' the :,e~lo~-.ee·,,. ·.,. • . <:."..··, ; : ha,d _to 1:re taken· ..otf' ,~e.c;r-e:t work., · eff'or_ts woulc.l b.e· mat\~. to:- •give •• •-·· _:..•him .employment ·in )fom~ o_t~er· br,ancb>- of the Cty11 • Service., .• 0ne : "· .".: :~a,t..~:gon: of• fec.uri ty ri'~ks whi_c1?, •·i_s p~rti cU:l,arl:,y..:vul,nera}?J:!3;.i~~- ·._ : ...:. ;·;·__~lµdes c.;v}-l"fer:~ants wi_~ho.ser.1oq.s 'eha:racter· def'ects~-·-i Y~t, tb,.f;)se-:...... .• ·c~~es a1"'e ·not_·'.to b_e deal:t.,:wi'_'t,ihby:aet ru.l~s but ·:r.a1ip.er considered·.,. ·_-:-·· • - • --~l+their me~i•ts· by ~;nia_ters_t~· or.d~.r to: a".6~d- any. de~,:ing of· a •·. -',"-·: ··, .,... '.·.Jus1r trea'!i:m..ent!t :,In, :r,e:ply.. to. a: qu~f:!t:ion :r~om: Mr.•. You;nger-.f'or: some.··,• .' ,':·:·•'figure·.~, abo~~ pu~~~g 1·._"tb,e:Ho:m.eSe9ret~_r·j::.:stated -"t11?-t,__ t~~ ~o_:t~J,-·,:_-·• · • . ": . ·.of ·th?1;1e purged ~-r_:ing_ the las_t_'five ·year~ w~-s s;l.x~y-t~o.,:· h:tn,e· in •, .. the ·higher .execµtive or ran.lrs ·and·.f!if'ty-three in -the lower· ranks· • ·, · • ..cpu.t ·of:.~- non-:-i~d-µ,str:ta.l· ·f'igur~ o:f.'650.,00C?°. and. an ·:trj.dustria.f·-'· • • .•• · .. i'i'gur~·'., .. ef' ~oo 000.·.' · · •: ·• · ..~ '· · . . :•· : ·\ .·,:::. • • ~·,:. • · :· <·:'.'-: .... • ,.· .• ~e ·,•' ,' ,' ,. ' ' ;, ' ' ,.· .•• ~i:s· 'i. •' _ , ,,/' ~---, •• ·---: .:· • , .·. : .::::r~-~ cot3:clu.ding 's~;iltem~n1/; .th~H~me-·:s~c:reta._r:r.~-. :':. • • _ . . :·. · g8:ye ~o tl?,'3.. House: an assurance :that .. ther.e .. was no -depar-tu~e :"'from· • . •' .;· ,' ·', ·.th,e :P.Ol~CY·l~i.<:l ·ddwn by previous ·go:vernments ..~nd ··tha t ·..the,fGovern- •. .··. " : :men.t '11:3-t?nded>tc;,-_tak~ the ·,_vE?rY, 'g~e,?4"t,es~',O!;lr~ :5'0,._tl;la'ti/,·1tis.''4:i,p:1~.;- ••...,_',,' •• ' .: ... catiop. ,iy:i.11,_no.t•,-JJnpingeunfairly,-,on·-,human .rights. ,-, . . -.· . --. ·. • . • ·_.: • • . . _:·.,\ , , .. ~·:;:/-· .. • :,r;:·,_·_."., _:~~·.,. ·,, ·~ , -~.::":~":~·,:..\" ... ; '-,\~~: _· .,.' , .· , , . - ~ -·~_':. •':· ~··: \ ., :·_,_-o •. ~·. ; • _,·; · .·: .. •Wp.;le. __ tli~:.-Cl:~foat\:).a..were·'~g;tve11;wide :--coverage:.in tne· :·.---. . -.pres~,;:· th.,e·y.prov:oked very little· editorial comment.·. ·'E:nclosed·.·are: . :iiwo...ct?P,_ies _·or: ;1:1~_Rous~.p;t.:'•C~I!D¥9ns· ·_of'fi'9ial<:Report dated.- llia:1?ch·_21, ..-~.-:_::' _;~~5$_ •. • '. ·, :•--',. -·., ;M• ~ ,' ' • • ,., ,• ,,: • \ ~ .j • "',,: ''.; _:· '.,·.·:-.,··~-..--·: •.,·.. ': ·.•;,- ,, '·f,••,• - ',' ','• <• ·-: ' '·~-.. ··•-~ .-.., . ;., ,, ;'.•,: ~-~ , -, \ - • ~ .·.-.:.. , ·.,··}. ·•.:: • ' ;( ~. _· : "' ·:·· .. ~;- ·. , , •' •,:_ • __ : .... :·:'·'~ . ... :· 1 • ... ...· <.::': ·:· : ' p .:~ . .. ,· ·:·~·-· ll' .~ s ,. ' ,· , -.~- f· • •.• ::-,· • ·:,·') ••• ·•·),·,: , -· ; ~. -· • 1 ~ ' • ' ,. . ~ ·, ; ~.-...~.. . • ., ,., ~- ''' ·~ ..' • ·; -~.:-·:-.. ·, , 000019 , • l •• �- • Docume'iit disclosed under the Access:aotifemfufr,Jt1ci: ~,_ ·oocument divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur l'acces a l'iieformtttidff _,.Cormi,t1(tef!:,., J25J cannot be presented -until jus.t:6efore .ff • • ORDERS THE ·DAY is -disc~ssed-on- Second J~.ead_inganp iµ Committee_.·•·:That,. I : thought,, - puy• :.a special obligation 011 lllY-to inform :the CONSOLIDATED ;F'UNI;>, .~~L Committee .of this :change. 'ln addition. • Considered·in Co.mmittee.. • I took the step '9f·il)f6rming'·right· hon. · 6entleri1en opposite~ before the publica[Sir CHARLES MACANDREW 'in the Chair] tion ortlie Bill; that this iias our intention, • Clauses 1 a~d 2 ordered to stand part -because it would have been .unreasonable of the _Bill. , . .. . , , • . , .tohave .asked the Committee .to agree..to Clause•3.-(Powii( FOR THETREASURY·a cllapge·like this point bla,nk. -I trust-;I • . • .TO BOR~OW:) ' •• have made.out the case that we are acting Motion made, and Question proposed, re~sonably iµ o'~itting. the ,ies,tdctio~' oµ • . Th~t th~ Clause'stand part of_fbe Bi~t·· this oc<;a~ion.,.1 :::, , ·-·Mr. Harold Wilsjjn(Huytonf: Lik~ the 3.32 p.rp. , ,.. , ., . I do . The FinancialSecretaryto the Treasury 'Financial Secretary,to· the Tre':ci:si.iry, notseek to detain -the Committee long (Mr~ Henry Brooke):At:is m:y,duty to d~tain the .Committee to point out .that ·on t~is point since)here' ~s very· imin 011e 1'.espect,this• ClatJ.S~difftrs:..frqm .·por~ant·.deb.ate·to,Jqllqw; ,and .the tim~ ~i,milarClauses in preyious Consolidated for that is already somewhat limited--, Fumt . Bills .whic_hthe Committee_,has Mr. Ede (South Shields): Not to before be~n accustot;nedto pass. . Jf hon. Mem- 10 o'clock. • • '·" • • peri{will Jook· at subs,ecti<;m· (3) -µtey,will , Mr. Wilson: -but .since, as the.right find' thaf on tliiS.:occasion the provision which ha~ hitltertp restricted to 3 per cent. hon .. Gentleman has ,pqintecl'out,. this the ·rate of interest payable on· Ways ·and •involves· a breach of•precedent, which ,-1 thi~, .it is only right ,Means advance~ is orpitted, The CI;iuse goes back to 1,,941 deals with. the, Floating· Debt, and far that the .. Committee should · have an and away the ·greater part -of tliat is in . opportunity. of considering it. _ As he Treasury bi_lls. A small part is' norniaUy •said;-the Consolidated ·Fund ··Bill cannot in•day-t'o~day·Ways and Means·advances, l;)e. printed until after -Report of the as they are ·called, and .hitherto thereshas Estimates. • That means that the Combe~n this restriction; on'•'the'.s'ma'ller·part mittee might have had no opportunity t(_) but not on -the larger part, to a maximum • sppt ,.this fh~nge in pra~tice but for the rate of interest of 3 per cent. That right hon. Gentleman's •·courtesy in restriction. is .omitted from this. Bill, and. informing some 'of us and in ·informing it is 'doni ' for' a good ' substantial the Committee ·now. : ' •· • · .;, reason. ,:,;, This small but significant change shows At: present, the current market rate for what a t'angl'ed web,-Government weave day-to-day· money is abov~ 3 per cent. ,when -they-- tr.y·-to•· control- the-·whole It would, therefore;: be "Unreasonable. to economy by . means of. the· monetary expect to borrow m6ney .at 3 .p~r cent._~r weapon, and the monetary weapon alone. under. If, therefore, we are to continue The right hon.· Gentleman has •not told to enact a maximum rate of 3·per-cent. on us how much' bortqwing on W,ays.and _Ways ang Means adpnces 'the result wiII Means at- a_rate above··3. pe~.Aent. wm be that we shall not get the money, -and cost the taxpayer. Clearly, smce, ·as he instead we shaII have to borrow on said, Ways and Means advances.·are only Treasury bills at a rate which is now over a small part of the total borrowing in 5 per cent. Therefore, this restriction, the. period covered by the Bill it will be which has been in former Acts, designed, only a small part of the total cost to the no doubt, to save money, would cost taxpayer of the- Government's action in money if we were to retain it now. For raising the Bank Rate. It may be diffithose reasons, the Government have cult for him to say how much it is, but decided on this occasion, to present the I hope that at some stage he will tell us. ~ill without that restriction in it. a bit more about that. He made it 'clear that he could have I felt it was obligatory on me to build up the proceedings of the Co'nimittee to borrowed the whole amount·on Treasury explain this because the Consolidated bills, the rate of interest on which is not Fund Bill is unlike other Bills ,in that it contro11edand ·has not been controlled by 1:. -.25. ) __ .• _.o_ .nsol_l_4, t_lt,eil Fu.n_ if Bill-. _c_: "111' . :2l 'MARCH 1195.6 GF· ·,r ~ ' ' • t • and 26 H 10 r \ I 000020 �Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a l'info~"motionc• ' lJJ.lj . Oral Answers 21 MARCH 1956 Business of the Housel/& ~252 balculating_charges for treatment; what _ _ Second Class, ~s. 4d., with miBm of ~ the weekly:charge for eac~ class ; and 4s: _Sd•. ~nd, maximum _of £1 3s, ~d. what p~rc~Iitageof the beds ts .free. In add1Uon, t~e~e patients are l!abl~ to • Mr.. Lennox-Boyd : As tlie Answer to this Question. is rather Jong and includes a table of figures, I will, with pei:mission, circulate it in the OFFICIALREPORT. • • pay other spec1ahst fees for operat10ns, accouchement; X-rays, etc. • 93·5 per cent of hospital beds in Singapore are free of all charges. : Mr. Awb~ry : Is the Secretary of State ·aware that the average wage of, the SIERRA LEONE (FRANCHISE) Malayan worker is less than . 2. dollars 57. Mr. Sorensen asked the S~cretary of a day and that the charges for treatment in hospital· are mu~h more than that? State for :tJheColonies on what grounds Will he see that ·something.. is done to , Syrians are not permitted to vote in 'local provide free, treatment. (or. the workers government elections under the new fran• in the liospit~ls in.Malaya and_Sing~pore.? chise regulations in Sierra Leone. lV[r. Le~nox.;Boyd: This matter.,was • Mr. Lennox~Boyd: I hope the hon. ·Member is also· aware that 93·5 per cent. recently debate in the Sierra-Leone Legisof all the hospital beds in Singapore are lative Council, •which decided that no _free of all charges. • • aliens-should be· entitled to vote in local go".ernmentelections but that theie shoufo Following' is the Answer: . be· no ·restriction· in this respec;t pn racial For the purpose of calculating charges for grounds against .any persons born in the. treatment in Singapore hospitals, patients, are divided info fo~r classes, n~niely: • tertitory. Legislation wiU s!J.ortly:'.be introduced to give ~m;ct to this decision. First Class· A,'First Class ·B, Seco°i1d.Class . and Third Cla~s.. Patients ,in the Third Class pay no fees ·of any kind. ' Ward charges per diem for patients in the first three classes are as follows: In ordinary and maternity hospitals In mental hospitals Mr. Sorensen : Do ·1 understand from the right hon .. G~'n:tleman that Syrians :who ·are -naturalised or born in Sierra Leone will be entitled to .the ·f.ranc;ht~e'? First Class • First · ,Class A B, £ s. d. £ s. d. s. ci. 1 17 4 L.s 0 9 0 ~USINESS OF THE HOUSE: 14 0 7 0 That the Proceedings on any Private Business set down for. consideration at Seven o'clock . this evening by direction of the Chairman of . )Vays and Means be exempted from the p~ovisions of Standing Order No. 1 (SiHings of 'the House) and that, notwithstanding anything in Standing Order No. 7 (Time for taking Private Business), any such Private Business •may be taken after Nine o'clock,-,-[J\1r. Heath.] Second Class Mr. L~nn~x-Boyd : That is, so. Ordered, 1 3 4 Patients in the First and Second Classes are also liable to pay. specialist treatment fees per dtem _as follows: First Class A and B, lls. Sd., with minimum of £1 3s. 4d. and maximum of £5 16s. 8d. 26 H 9 000021 '1 �Document OJsCloseb unher M@ ACEMS lb)P,]bfihbllbh Ali Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur l'acces ii /'information ,. -1255.imsolidated Fund Bill- 21 •MARCH 1956 ·committee 1256 any provisions of the Consolidated ·Fund . I •shall. not detain the Committee Acts. The right hon. Gentleman rather further, but, in appealing 'to my hon: sounded as though he was taking a little Friends not to protract the debate, unless credit to himself and the Government they feel especially moved by this matter, f,or having saved the taxpayers' mqney I {eel .I should say to t~e. right hon. by this alteration in the foi:qi of the Bill. Gentleman that we shall reserve ·our right To use that sort of argument-is to behave to·debate the whole question of the cost · rather like a cutpurse who-stops·a passer- of the higher interest rates when we ·conby and robs him of all' his· possessions, sider what I may call rthe interim Budget but finally gives him his bus fare home of 17th April. I think that that is a and then expects to receive gratitude as better occasion for debating this whole a result. Here the Government are question than this afternoon· because then increasing the cost very considerably to we can look at the picture as a whole. the taxpayer by the rise in the Bank Rate Already there is an increase of about and trying to save a very small amount £1_00million_in the annual interest payof it by enabling the Government to ment compared with 1951. It is a fanborrow on ·ways and Means advances fastic sum when..one bears in ·mind the perhaps at 4¾ per cent. or some such recent mean economies. of the Gover·n: figure instead of borrowing on Treasury ment which are causing so much bills at 5¼ per cent. · hardship. • • • What he has not explained-and I do If we are to let this matter go this not press for an answer now-is why he afternoon without further-. comment, I .has not followed the preced_entwhich, I should like to ask the Financial Secrethink, was folio-wedbefore 1941~ Before tary whether he will give an undertaking 1941, there was an interest limitation in that between now and the Budget dethe Consolidated Fund Acts. I think it bate we shall have information, or will was at that time 5 per cent. Since 1941, ask ,the Chancellor, when he opens his it has been 3 per cent. we· understand Budget on 17th April, that sufficient inthat the right.hon. Gentleman cannot now formation will be available to the House continue with the 3 per cent. figure, but on that occasion to enable us .to debate we do not understand why he has not put ·tlie consequences of these increases in in some 9ther figure, such as 5 per cent. interest rates· to the fullest possible or 6 per cent: That might have been extent. In particular, •we should like more in line with the current Bank Rate. an estimate from the Government of what the cost .of servicil)g the National Does this mean, perhaps, that the Gov- Debt. is .likely to be in the financial year ernment intend to raise the Bank Rate which we shall shortly be entering. If still higher during the currency .of this the right hon. Gentleman can give an period of borrowing? My own view undertaking that we can have a much would be that the Government do not at fuller debate of this very important present intend so to act because they point on that occasion, I think that the never know more than a ~iay or two Committee will be willing to let the point ahead what they are going to do, so I go until then. . • . should not imagine that the Chancellor -Mr.'H. Brooke: As far as I know, a of the Exchequer has decided to take wide debate on these matters will be fo action of that kind, though it is probably order in _the usual days' debates followtrue that the Chancellor has it in mind ing the Budget. I will certainly bring that he·may have to. to the attention of the Chancellor of the It would have been better, I think, had Exchequer what the right hon. Gentlethe Government, in making· this breach man has just said about his desire for with practice, set some ceiling figure,. be- further information and for a full opporcause for all we know· we are Jetting the tunity to pursue these matters. I am taxpayer in for paying 6 per cent. or ·8 obliged to him for not holding up the per cent. or 10 per cent. or whatever proceedings on the Bill now. All I woul4 figure it may be to which the Chancellor add is that anyone who drew any connext chooses to. raise the Bank Rate, clusion from Clause 3 (3) abo.ut the after . his interim Budget of 17th April future course of· the Bank Rate would breaks do:wn and he has to take m0 re be rather unwise. • .. __ ., emergency, action. Question. put and •agr_eedto. 26 H 11 000022 �Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi 1'257 CorisolidatedFundBill- 21 MARCH 1956 PublicServices(Securi.1258 Clause or,dered to stand patt of ·the •Bill. Clause 4 ordered to stand part of the Bill. _•• Bill reporte·d, without Amendment:, Motion made, and Question proposed' That the BilI be now. read th e Third time. the public that we_ must be constantly reviewing our security arrangements. On the other hand, we ·ail realise, too. that the introduction of more ·effective St)Curityarrangements has been .makin~ some inroads upon•our democratic trad1• tion. .That is.recognised in specific terms in this latest Report,· where it is stated that the Conference of Privy Councillors • PUBLIC SERVICES (SECU~ITY) " recognise that some of the measures which •the State is driven to take to protect its security are in some respects alien to our traditional practices." 3.43 p.m. Mr. Kenneth Younger (Grimsby): I Mr. Sydney Silverman (Nelson and rise to ask the Government some ques- Coln~): A masterpiece of understatement. tions and, I hope, . also to initiate a Mr. Younger : One of the things I want general discussion upon Cmd. 9715, entitled " Statement on ,the Findings of the to discover is to what extent it. is an Conference of Privy Councillors on understatement. I hope that the GovernSecurity." As the House knows, the ment will be able to give us some origins of this Report lie in the debate reassurance. we had in the House on 7th November, Whether it is or not, that frank admis• on what is now very widely known as sion in ,the White Paper is sufficient to the Burgess and _Maclean case. justify the· deep concern of Parliament That resulted in a Committee of Privy every time a tightening of security pro: Councillors, representing both sides of cedure is proposed. It also justifies our • Parliament, engaging upon an inquiry asking -today what the attitude of the into security • procedures under the Government is towards the problem and tc warn ,them that we shall exercise the following terms of reference: " To examine the security procedures now very closest v_igilanceon the way they applied in the public services and to consider carry out .the principles laid down in the • whether any further .precautions are called for Report. and should be taken." , When we debate a security failure, such Although that is the very recent origin as the Burgess and Maclean case, the of this Report, this is only the latest tendency is for there to be some. atmochapter in what is now the lengthening sphere of alarm about security· and to story of the attempts of successive demand, as was the case during that Governments since the war to safeguard debate, that some further powers should the security of the State in a manner con· be taken, whereas today, when we come sistent with the preservation of the to •debate the security measures themessential liberties of the individual. selves, I tnink that we shall find that the Prfor to this Report, the last major emphasis tends to be the other war-on for the·!1ber~y stage in the story was the announcement the necess~tyfor safeg_ua~ds made in the House in March, 1948, by of the subJect. That md1catesthat m this the then Prime Minister, my noble Friend difficult matter there can only be· a com•· Earl Attlee, as he now is, when he made promise between these conflicting con• • his statement about the introduction of siderations. new security procedures which the I do not know whether this commands Government of the day thought necessary general agreement, but I believe that we as a result of the security dangers which have no reason to be ashamed of the had become ev.identfollowing the end of compromise which we have struck on this· the Second World Wat. We all know matter in recent years. All of us have that since the war there have been some experienced about 40 years of world war notable cases of the failure of our security and revolution with men's minds all over arrangements to detect subversion or the world being -torn between cpnflicting espionage until fairly late in the activiti~s ideologies. We have lived in an age of the person concerned. There 1s. which was described· by Miss Re.becca. therefore, with that knowledge in the West a. year .or two ago as "The Age of background, fairiy general acceptance by Treason," yet I think it is ~mmonly 26 Hl2 .,, , ·1259, fl"•nsolidatedF1md Bill-·• l(..'._,"W 21-.MAR.CH 1956 believed" that;· desp1te that;· our,, public: service is not riddled· wi-th disloyalty. r think that all of llS in the House believe that in the overwhE;lmingmajorityour public ser.vants,of all ranks, are loyal and reliable. citizens. No doubt)t may be said that that.. sitµaHon has been secured at a ·cost. There must have beeff some cost in the operation of our security. measures to date. There must be some people. with grievances,· some· no doubt with justifiable grievances, because there are uncertainties in this mat:ter which seem to me inevitable. Nevertheless, both the officialswho have operated the system and the public who play a very important part in security by their general attitude to the problems of. espionage and subversion, botih these categories, have, on the whole, kept their heads and shown considerable moderation. When the system was tightened up in 1948 there was a debate in this House and anxieties were rightly expressed. I. think I am right in saying; however, that in the eight years which have since elapsed there has been no really serious volume of complaint. There must have been individual cases of complaint, but I do not happen to have had any. Also, there may be some grievances ·unresolved, but the lack of any public difficulty of any. kind shows that, on the whole, the compromise adopted has not been too unreasonable. Some statistics were given to my hon. Friend the Member for Bristol, South:. East (Mr. Benn), in a Written Answer • yesterday from the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, indicating that the numbers of people in. the higher grades of the Civil Service who have either been dismissed or moved, or who have resigned following the· better security measures introduced eight years ago, have. been small. However, those figures related only to higher grades and I ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he can give us precise figures or a general indication o~ whet.her the number of people affected by the regul::t· -tions have been also small in the lower grades. ·We know that the public service is a pyramid, with. relatively few people in the top grades and far more in the lower. grades. There has often been a: feeling that less· care is taken in the individual surI' acces a/'information Public Services (Security) . _1260 investigation of people. .in. the -lower grades. This may be inevitable perhaps· because they are, more numerous_,and if there are injustices these are more likely . to be at the lower end of the scale than at the top. If the right hon. and gallant Gentleman can tell us the figures for persons affected in the lower grades are as encouraging as those for the higher grades, I shall be grateful. Because I think that the compromise has worked well, I am glad that in the Report no major changes are demanded: Paragraph 8 states that .the main conclusion of the Conference was " that there is nothing organically wrong or unsound " about the present arrangements, but the paragraph continues by stating that there are • " certain recommendations, the purpose • of which is to strengthen the system in 'some respects." And adds that Her Majesty's Government have accepted them all. I hope that ,those recommendations are purely· procedural. • They may be of a kind which the right hon. and gallant Gentleman cannot reveal in public. I hope he can give us an assurance that there is nothing new and radical which has not been made public, and that it is true that in approving •this Report we are not accepting any major changes in the system as we have known it up to date. • • I ain glad to note, also, that there is no' demand for statutory powers. Paragraphs 18 to 20 of the Report refer to the matter which was raised in the Burgess and Maclean debate, nam~ly, whether new powers were required to prevent sus• pect persons from leaving this country. The conclusion of the Conference and of the Government is that no new statutory powers should be introduced. I accept the argument in those paragraphs and I am glad that this is the conclusion. May I say, in passing, that I never really thought that the absence of powers was the basic oifficulty even in the Burgess and Maclean case. It is true that there is a certain ~gap in the •statutory powers of the police, for the very ·good reason tha-t we do not allow persons to be • held indefinitely without a charge. The real difficulty in these cases, however, is not the absence of legal power so much as the difficult questioii of knowing how long 26 R 13 000023 �Document divu/9.ue en ver u ... 1261 Consolidated Fund Bill- 21 MARCH 1956 Public Servlces (Secui-1- 1 , 1262 the House expected some report .from the 'it is wise to let investigations run when Government on the outcoJ1le. of. the the evidence is incomplete ; the desire deliberations of the Conference. not to alert' somebody about whom •, • , inquiries are still in progress, and so on. . The secon~ reas'?n why I sho,11~not I believe that -none of those difficulties hke to see this White. Paper use.a rn the would have been affected even if the Gov- way I have s~gg~sted_ts that_bt its ~er~1s ernment had decided ,that they would giYe of reference 1t 1s strictly limited m _its additional statutory powers. as I am glud scope. T~e Report :elates . to security they are not doing. proc~dure m the public services and to nothmg else, and 1t would be dangerous It is important to realise, in this con- to try to apply its wide generalisations in nection, that even if one is prepared to any other connection. I hope I shall not _give-the maximum of arbitrary powers to be thought to be unnecessarily introducsecurity authorities, as has been done in ing any party point-because that is not some other countries, this does not ensure my intention-if I call the attention of 100 per cent. security. There could not the House to tl,le fact that during the be a. better example than Nazi Germany, recent debate on Cyprus the Secretary of with the arbitrary powers given to the State for the Colonies referred to one Gestapo and a society riddled with paragraph of this Report on a topic comtreason before the war and during the pletely divorced from anything which the war and right to the finish. It is easy, by Privy Councillors were considering. overdoing the granting of powers to It is not part of my business. today to security authorities, to damage the liberty of many innocent people without ensur- say whether the sentence quoted by the ing the apprehension and conviction .of right hon. Gentleman from paragraph 16, the few who are guilty. about the possibility of revealing Nevertheless, although no new powers • evidence, was apt to_his argument or not. are asked for, I ithink that there is one It is a bad practice, however, if people major new departure in this Report. This get into the habit of quoting this docuarises from the mere fact of committing to ment as. though it were the British bible print and putting into an official docu- on security. r.t is not. If it is accepted ment, a Government White Paper, a num• by this House, as I think it will be, it ber of general propositions about security is accepted on the assumption that these which are very wide in their character and general phrases will be applied only in capable of very varying application. I this narrow scope--'-that they relate to the feel that there is some danger that this eniployment of Government servants in White Paper might be regarded as a kind the handling of secret information and to of charter of what may legitimately be nothing else. done in the name of security. A practice The third reason why I do not want might arise of people saying that anything to see this White Paper regarded as a which is covered by one of these general document of general authority is that the phrases is, ipso facto, legitimate. An generalisations in it are necessadly so appeal may be made to this document vague that in themselves they carry very in many cases where it is not appropriate. slender guarantees, if any guarantees at I do not think that this is a fit document all, of the liberty of the subject, and that to be used for any such purpose. everything depends upon the way in There are at least three major reasons which they are applied. In fact, in this for my saying that. The first is that this work, general rules, general statements is not a full Report of the Conference of al;>outthe class of person who may be Privy Councillors. It is a Government regarded as less than reliable, can never statement based on the full Report which be a substitute for the exercise of intelliwas submitted to the Government by the gence. They can never be a substitute Privy Councillors. While I have no doubt for discriminating.knowledge on the part that the Government have done their of the •investigating authorities and for best to balance it, to reflect the attitude the readiness of Departmental heads and of ·the Privy Councillors the fact remains Ministers to take the very worrying and that this .is only a potted edition of some difficult decisions which they have to do ' parts of the full Report. I am not com- in every individual case. Standing by plaining about this, because quite clearly, themselves, these general stateipynts ,a.re 26 H t4 . [MR. YouNGER.] .1263'{1fP1isolid'ated Fund Bi'il- 21 MARCH •1956 Pubiic Services (Security) .. 'i264 dangerous. I shall . examine some • of -.. This is not entirely a new •thing to them in ~ moment. . . mtroduce into our security procedure: i I have read one or two letters in the would refer to one sentence used by Earl Press from people, writing with the very Attle~ on the occasion in 1948 which I best intentions, who are worried by this .m~~t1oned. Hi:ivingdiscussed the <iangers document, suggesting very precise and ansmg from the double allegiance felt concrete safeguards which should have by m~ny Co~munists and, at any rate been in the White.Paper. Most pf them . potential, Fascists, Earl Attlee said are under a misapprehension about, the " ... the only prudent course to adopt is to real problem here. The intrinsic diffi- ensure 'that no one who is known to be a culty of the problem of security lies in mem1?er of _the. C(?mmunist· Party, or to be th f h I'k h ass~::1ated with m m such a way as to raise ~ _actt at, un 1 e t e operation of the !eg1t1mate doubts about his or her reliability cnmmal law, we are not concerned with 1s employed in connection with work the ' convicting someone on a precise offence ilatur~ of which is vital to the security of the _in which case we demand proof beyond' State. ~[OFFICIAL REPORT 15th March 1948. ' ' • ' reason~ble doubt. What we are seeking Vol. 448, c. 1704,J to do 1s to take preventive action which, Ther~ :Vas tp.e _doctrine of guilt by we _hope,· we are taking before any association betng mtroduced. precise offence has been committed. . • _Agood d~al more precision is given to . The information on which we ·act ·is It m the White Paper. For instance, para• m most cases, I think, somewhat less graph 4 says: than conclusive. Perhaps mainly for the . "This risk from Communists is not, how• reason that it is not information about a ever, confined to party members,. either ()pen o~ undergroun_d, but exten,ds to sympathisers precise offence but information about the with Commumsm." !flUChvaguer topic of· whether a person is of !1typ: who n:ight be likely to prove That is a much vaguer conception. unreliable m certam hypothetical circumParagraph 6 says: stances, it is very much more difficult to '.' of the 1:;hiefproblems of security to• have conclusive evidence 'than to obtain day.Qne IS th~s to :dentify the members of the proof of a specific criminal offence. · :!3nt1sh.~~mmun\st Party, to be informed of its act!Vlties arid to identify that wider body There is the additional difficulty, of t~ose who are :both sympathetic to Com• although I supp?se it sometimes applies mun1sm or susceptible to Co_mmunistpressure un_der the cnmmal- law, too, that the and present a danger to security." ev1de~ce cannot be produced. People I would say, in passing, that I find sometimes co~f<?rt t~emselyes by sayii;ig that a rather oddly expressed ·sentence th_at,after all, 1t ISqmte unlike a criminal and I should like some comment upon it trial. There is no inherent right on the from ~he Home • Secretary, if possible. part of anybody to be employed on -highly The right hon. and gallant Gentleman secret matters. It is not a basic human talks abo_utthose who ~re sympathetic to right to be allowed to liandle, top secret Communtsm or susceptible to Communist documents, so one can be much more pressure. He then says that they must cavalier about it. . It is true that merely present a danger ~o security, as though to transfer someone•from secret work to t~ere was some quite separate considetaother work. is not like sending him to t10n, apart from sympathy with Comprison, but it must be. remembered that munism or susceptibility to Communist it may ruin a career just as effectively. pressure, which constituted grounds ·for Therefore, the House must take the matter the decision_that they were danoerous to very seriously. security. "' I wanJ to say a few words about certain of the points of doubt and danger which seem to me to arise here. The first issue that I want to discuss is what is commonly called " guilt by association." That is a phrase which has become familiar to most of us in reading ·the acconnts of the security troubles which -have occurred. in the U'nited States and the campaigns led by Senator McCarthy. ·• 26 H lS '. Finally, and_perh~ps still more worthy of our cons1derat10n, there are the sentences in paragraphs 14 and 15. Para~raph !4 says: . . • • "The Co_nference also makes a series of re~ommendations _which turn on the risk presented by those m regard to whom there is no evidence that they are themselves members of the. Communist Party, but evidence exists (!t Co{!lmunist sympathies or of close association with members of the Communist Party." 000024 I �1265 .ConsolidatedFund Bill_;, 21 MARCH 1956 _ Public Seri;ices(Securitff/,\ .. ...'1·266 _ There has often been a suspicion in th<? past that the difficulties of distinguishing Paragi:aph 15 continues: a Socialist-perhaps • particularly a "The Conference is of the ·opinion that _.in deciding these difficult and often -bor~erlme Socialist of rather Left-wing ,views or- of cases, it is right to continue the 12ractice of a rather ·agitational temperament-from tilting the balance in favour of offermg greater a Communist have proved too great for protection to. the. security of the_ Slate r~ther the authorities. When the matter was than in the d1rect1onof safeguardmg the nghts debated in 1948 references were made by of the individual. They recommend that an individual who is living.with a wife or husbaJ:"ld Conservative .hon.. Members, then ip. who is a· Communist or a Commumst Opposition, to an. occasion • when Earl sympathiser may, for that· reason alone, have Attlee, then _Prime Minister, gave in to be moved from secret work, and that . the same principle should be applied in other cases Spain what was described .as the Communist salute. The person who raised of a like i:tat)ire." The House will agree that that opens a that matter was unaware that the Co_m• door· very wide indeed, for it _relates not munist salute .in Spain at that time was only to Communist sympathies on the also the salute of all the elements making part of the person under investigation but up the Republican side in Spain, arid that association . with somebody-not . only there was no necessary. Communist connotation to it at all. I am sure that one somebody who is a party member-who could find many other examples where may have Communist sympathies. this confusion is likely to arise. • Mr. S. Silverman : And without the ·when we come· to .the question of second requirement of the •provision in family . connections, we . are on very paragraph 6 to ·which my )ight hon. dangerous ground indeed. I suppose that Friend the Member for Grimsby (Mr. i+ll of us agree that if one came to the Younger) has already drawn attention. conclusion that a woman was very deep Mr. Younger : I agree with my hon. in the councils of _the Communist Party Friend. We have to recogrijse that a very and that she might •be a grave danger dangi::roussystem could b~ operat~d while if employed in the service of the State, it still remaining within the terms of the would.be only a 11.rntterof common sense paragraphs that I have quoted. One of for on,e to ..bve: some cj.oubts about her living . with her in . the same the_things that we want from the Gover!!· husband. house. • • ment today is an assurance: about• theJr . Mr. Silverman : Why? intentions in this matter. · It is an extremely -difficult thing-;-no • Mr: Younger:· My hoii. Friend mt!~t doubt some of us have had sufficient have· a very_ curioi;is conception. of reexperience of security work;· during .the lationships ~ithin f~milies if _ht?_ thinks_it war if at no other time. to know this:_. is possible; as a matter of common sense, to reach with confid~nce any conclusion absolutely to ignore family relationships about people's sympathies, . for they of this kind. • • chano-e from time to, time and have a This :is not a ·thing newly recog~is~d in differ~nt significance from one- period to this Report ; _it was also re9ognised in another as political situations change. . 1948.• When ·my right ho_n. F:r~end th.e • ·We all know; for instance, that there Member for Colne Valley (Mt. Glenvil are at any given moment m·any topics fCall) was at 'the Treasury, he. was _que~:tioned ·on this· subject and _rep1~edquite upon· which Commu~ist Patiy . _:p<;>li~y happens to coincide. with t~e pohctes of sirnpfy;_arid,· I think, very· v.:l~ely;that many non-Commumst bodies. Perha~s wlieti considering cases of civil servants the most striking instance at present 1s who might have Communist· wive~ each that throughout almost. the whole of the case rnust be· taken upon its Dlerits and Arab world it js often impossible ·to that he was: not. prqpared· to ·•give any distinguish a- Communist ·agitator frC!m·a answer of general app1ica,tion.: nationalist agitator. They may, essentially, -•I ,think that ,that is the sound line to be miles apart in motives, but • the adopt, though,·. •goodness . ·know~. it is propaganda which they put out- and, the difficult enough to carry 1t O!lt m eaClJ,; causes which. they ·advocate. are. for the individual case in practice. . I would t;tot like to think that -therabher greater detail moment .identical. · we· have··had'' a··1ot· of ·experience of which is entered into in this Report coni• that kind iri this country iri 'the past. pared withthe sta,tement·in 194ffodfoartes [MR.YOUNGER.] 26 ff 16 • • ~11611{f!!!JonsolidatedFund Bill.::.. -21,MARCH' 1956 Public Services(Security). 1268 that some sor,t of overall rule has now been . adopted. I would- like an assurance that ill these family matters every case will be treated on its own merits,, A,t the end of paragraph 15. there is the slightly worrying phrase:· there is a slight doubt in the mind of a superior ·about the promotion of one of his subordinates, the superior may inevitably have to give the work, as it were, the benefit of the doubt. • ,One really cannot make a comprelien,, ... the ·same' principle should be applied sive .list of the sort of vices which are in other cases of a like nature." relevant to security. •There jg some sort That means· cases of a like nature with ·of 1.istgiven here in paragraph 10 ;· 'it ·those of wife ·or husband. I do not lcriowspeaks of serious failings such as drunkenhow far the Government iritends that ness, . addiction to drugs; homosexuality, phrase to extend.· Does it include brothers or any loose living. Those are not, aria arid sisters? Does it include lodgers? -do not claim to be, an exhaustive list, but 1 know it is very difficult for _the Govern- I do hope that the Government will nQt i:nent -to give a precise ai;i.swer,but I make the mistake of thinking that •tlie hope that at least tney· will' give us· an sins which ·affect security are only what I idea of· their approach to 'tliis problem. might call 'the more Rabelaisian sins. • I : T,he sec.o_ri"d major poi~t 19 which .I can think of other defects of character just w t t f .. 1 th bl f as .likely to make· .somebody liable to an O re ~r: re ates to ; ·e pro em' O b_lack_mail or pressure from a S".'Urce·as character defects as affecting security. ...., This is dealt with mai_nlyin paragraphs the ones .•n:;ientionedthere. .For instance, 10, 11 and 12 of the Report_:_what may I would have thought that a more usual he called the relation to secur1ty risks of and just. as important matter was being defects of character and·. conduct:.·.• "I s~riouslr in debt. _ . __ _ __ suppose it is quite true, as is• said here, Mr. Raymond Gower (Barry): The that any defect,·of character or' conduct r:ight hon. Member might carry this' argumay make-a perscm·som~hat ·more.liable ~ent even further. • Often_· the ·most to Communist blackmail than an 'brain~ effective wor-kers in -this field where one ary citizen. But I 'should have tibought considers ·whether th~re is a threat -to that. quite apart from the p~sioilities of security are· people with •very· strong blackmail, this subject of defects of char-characters, though misguided. _ • acter is something which 1s relevari.t•to Mr. Younger: That is a fair point~One the •holding of all confidential posts, whether they be in defence'Ministries, in of the· real •problems necessarily is that t~e Treasury, or in private employment some of the people liable to be most such as in the banks : you cannot ignore dangero.us are idealists of the highest the question of whether a man is, gener- personal character and integrity who ally speaking, of good character or not. happen to pe serving a different loyalty. The only one of these defects mentioned • In the Civil"Service, as elsewhere, the problem of trying to ensure that you do in the Report- on which I want to say a _not have people of .{?ad character em- word is homosexuality, not because I ployed in your organisation is really not think it is given undue prominence here so muah a question of making intelli- but because, in my view. it has been given •~ence. inquiries ,t~rough·security aut,hori, undue prominence in investigations in the ties as a question of good personnel United States, where it has been treated management and good human relations. as somethfog on quite a different plane_in I believe that in no organisation, whether security from almost any other form of . it-be in industry, in trade, or in the Civil character defect. _Service,can one have good. morale if •• I do not believe that that is right. I people do not know the men and women believe many of those who talk as though wi.th whom they are working on a human they thought it. were right are really, in level, and ar!' not in a position to judge the woi:ds of Samuel Butler, trying to them as one ci-tizenshould judge another. " Compound for sins they are inclined to By damning those they have no mind to.'' • I do not think there need be any snoopIt is worth reflecting, also, that in so far ing or spying· on one another in this at all, i~ the human relationships in th,e as there may be •something to be said orgamsation are good. Of course, there about homosexuaiity being more of a are certain-types of ·work where there is security risk than other defects, the reason a very high degree of secrecy where, if lies probably in lhe very curious state o{ 26 H 17 000025 �Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sw /'acces a /'information :21;MARCH 19$6 .Eublic Services (S~cw1t:9,·~270 . .. _[MR.You~GEF..] . • . .. promotion. On that, 1-,wouldlike to ask •the crimi~wI law relating '. to homo- .the ·,right hon. and gallant .. Gen~lemati .~exuality, :wh,ic)lis something to which l whether-he envisages that the appeal pn;: :hope the JfQuse ,will be giving. attention . cequre which•is applicable .to people who before we are very much .olp.er.. • .are asked to resign or who-are to be. disOn this matter of character-defects and missed will also be available ·to those the obligation .of Departmental chiefs .to .whose promotion is blocked. know about their staffs, I hope , the I can conceive of very unhappy situaGovernment w.illbe able to ten us some~ tions where it might be d~ided that the thing about the type -of directive·they are proper course to. take ,was not dismissal proposing to give: It is clear .from the or resignation, but that the person con-Report that they are aware that there is cerned could not be trusted above a cera · danger of tale bearing· and malicious tain ievel fo the service and, therefor~. gossip. .ff ·they emphasise; as they do, .the full procedure might never be put into -this responsibility resting on·Departmental operatioq._,What w:ouldhappen, however, -chiefs,they must have something·in mind. is tlmt.promo_t~onboards _would.neverreIf the Home Secretary can· clarify it for commend him. I think it should be an •us, L shall be very glad: .. • jnstruction •in the· public service that if a I want to emphasise how important it clear µecisio_n.i( made ·t~1at.somebody is is that we sh_ouldnarrow as far as possible not to be promoted for this.type of reason, the field for inquiry and. action in these the appy~ls procedure •should be made matters. In paragraph 9 of the Report ,available to him also. it is recognised that there are specially • I want the Home Secretary to tell -us sensitive areas in the public service which whether, in his view, •the appeals prohave to be watched, more carefully than cedure ·has.worked well. : I understand others:-the Foreign Service;_defence,the tqat.he is not proposing to introduce anyafomic energy organisation. It . is tliiiig which .has-notalready .been i~1opera,ipimenseJyimportant that w~ should liqiit tiqp for several years. At :the end of the practice of what is called "positiv!:' paragraph 116 ~here is a reference to the •"'.etti,ng"and detailed inquiries,_sufficieI!tJywi<;Ieningpf the tei:ms of reference. Can to make the .process manageableJ(or .the he tell us what that means? Is it only a services involved. reference to the fact that in paragraph 2f •, • · • · , , it is proposed to extend· the appeal. pro.. _J beiieve that nothing-is ·much the cedure in some form or other to persons tinemy of intelligent wor:tc,inthese matters outside Govei;nment service who are ~n• as. mass. operations. The •1.arger tqe gaged on Government.contracts? If that number of people the security services are is l,\ll,it .means, we welco!lleit. called ·upon to investigate, the less can I certainly welcome. an extension of they ensure that every case is Jooked at some kind of appeal procedure to indus•by a highly qu~lifiedperson, and the more try, where industrial'firms are' working on difficult it is fo give sufficienttime to each matters .involving State secrets. It is not inquiry.·· •• • • really clear and perhaps the right hon. and In my view, what went. wrong gallant Gentleman is not himself yet clear princ.ipally it1..the United States in this exactly how he ,is to do it. Can he tell ,whole matter. Qf security; was that. they us whether, in the case of persons not emdid not _succeedfo. limiting the :field in ployed in the Governmerif service, it is which it was essential to have a very intended that a Minister shall be the strict measure of security ; it was allowed pers9n on whom lies the responsibility for to spread to the whole public service and the decision? .In the Civil Service itself far outside even to the point where actors it is the Minister who is responsible, but cpuld not get minor parts in films because if the procedure is extended to people for they· were thought at so.me time to have whom he is· not directly responsible, will shown some Communist sympathy. he be answerable? I think we ought so far as possible to Mr. Charles Pannell (Leeds, West): av.oid dismissals, particul~rly if there is My right hon., Fr:iend will appreciate that a~y doubt -in any case, and to use, instead, we are talking about a very restricted the pr9Cedure of trans(er -to other work. field.~.Jt is the easiest thing in. the world There is a reference in paragraph 13 of for the upper ranks to find. f,;1µltw_ith tbe. Report .to the pqssibi_Iityof blocki~g the work of the ~qtftsme°',on the f~~ory :q69 Co-µsolidated Fund Bill- '.'J2'7l~onsolidated 26 H 18 -floor and to get , rid- ·of. him· for the Much of what bappenecf'..i,n: the United •. flimsiest of reasons on the,mere suspicion •States could have beeh avoided had tliere ·'1:hathe may be married to a member·of been in existence a reasohabie seciµ'ity the Communist Party, or· living in sin . system in the years before agitation broke with a woman· who is a member of. the out. . We are -prepared to suppor.t the •Cbmmunist ·Party. I hope that my ·right Government in tackling <thisproblem so hon Friend will appreciate and emphasise far as· necessary and no. more; but we that this .classic defence.of liberty should will, of course, watch with the closest be extended. to the fitter on the factory vigilan~.e how these procedures operate .. floor and the.labourer on the broom, and in practice,· because some of the prothat it [s -not so extended at present. visions to _whose dange~ I have called There can be the resort to all sorts of attention are clearly open to abuse. What ·curious subterfuges to get rid of people we ask the Home Secretary today is tha,t • . on the flimsiest sort of suspicion. No he should give us all possible suppleamount of denial from the benches mentary information and, above all, opposite will get over that difficulty. evidence that the Government are as con. scious as are we on this side of the • . Mr. Younger: I agree that there is a pitfalls and tha,t they are , very· grave danger. I was about to say possible properly concerned for the rights of the that the number of persons involved, that .individual citizens. is to say, employed in inpustry in relation to Government 'work, is probably far 4.25 p.m. • greater than the total· number of peo'ple Lieut.~ColonelJ. K. Cordeaux (Notting• ·covering the whole of the Civil Service. ham; Central): I could not help feeling "Precisely because they are very often that the speech of the right hon. Member •·people in a humble stafion of ·me, they , for Grimsby (Mr. Younger) was slightly feel that they can easily be dismissed. -overweighted on the side of t,he freedom They are not in established employment, .of the individual, important as that is. :and it may be possible to turn them out There is . one thing• which is even more ''at relatively short notice, with ·practically important, and .that is the safety of the ·no reason being-given. country.. I very much agree with him ' I recollect that the ijrst ti;ffie.this topic that we need not more powerful but .was raised in its pr~sen_t.form _wason the more efficient security services.. I could ·occasionof some di.smissaJs.,froma Royal wish that he had dealt with that aspect :Dockyard, in 1937. Reference to that of the matter rather more than mereiy was made in our 1948 debates. In its with the question, important though it is, own way this is quite as important, and of the freedom of t~e individuat 'in some ways more important, than the The right hon. Gentleman -also said, many branches of the Civil Service, and I as. of course, we fully recognise, that the welcome the fact that appeal procedure . recommendations in the White Paper an'd, ·of some kind is to be extended into this indeed, all the matters which it discusses, sphere. I hope th.at the Home Secretary are but a .very small part of the subjects -can tell us •a little more •about his with which the Conference of Privy Counintention.· _cillorsdealt. It is perfectly obvious that Those are. the points. I want to put for security reasons that. must be the case. to the Government. This is distasteful .Tl,leonly .thing that thi;:White Paper could . subject, because it l.nvolvesinvestigation have done for the p~ople of the country . of our fellow citizens and action which, in was to give them some reassurance that some cases, is certainly beiieved by the the tragic events with which it· deals are victim to be victimisation. But we all not likely to occur •again. The public know that the danger exists aQd we must •would have been more satisfied if they attempt to meet it rationally and effi• could have .had that reassurance, even the ciently. I believe that nothing e!).n· be reassurance-that the State was "not more more certain than that an inefficient gravely threatened than it had been security system which fa riot properly· and before. rationally supported by 'the Government The right hon. Gentleman quoted from merely invites occasional glaring failures paragraph 8 of ·1he White Paper; which • • • •which excite-·pubHc ·alarm and lead to .·says: , ·spy mania and witch hunting which we •• •~Agains't the .1;/acl(ground'~f this g:i'neral -sawin the United States. ' •• • analysis, of which' only a v~ry brief outlinQ so. - • '21 • MARCH •1956 Fund Bill- ·Public Services (Security) ' 1272 0 a 26 H 19 000026 - �I 'Docilinen t d1vulgUeenvem:n:irlrrtorst1r-f'aeces a ./'iR~-ioo--.1. 1273. C01tsolidatedFund-Bill- 21 MARCH 195.6 . [LIEUT.-COI:,ONEL CoRDEAUX.] ;· PublicServices(Security.,1'214 more than was the case in 1945. Cer- has been given, the.Conference .address them- -tainly; 1945 ·was a turning point, when selves· to an examination of the Government's . ,there were some • people whom the security arrangements. Their main conclus'ion is that there is nothing organically wrong or security services should have considered unsound about those arrangements." and not regarded in a complacent "Organically" .is a rather vague word. The one synonym which· could be found· in a dictionary would be " fundamentally.'' Are we to believe that our security arrangements and security services . have • been fundamentally sound? I want to suggest that they certainly have not. Paragraph 4. of the White Paper very truly . points out that our security services, since the· the war, have been faced with a type of problem quite different from that which faced them previously. Previously, as paragraph 4 points out, they had mainly to deal with the person who might be called a pro~ fessional spy, an enemy generally acting for gain of a monetary or some other kind. Since 1945, we have had to deal with a quite different type of enemy, at any rate as a rule. That is the type of man who puts a loyalty to a political ideology before his loyalty to his country. He may be a member of such a ·party, he may be a fellow traveller, or he may be only a sympathiser, but he is the type of man with whom we have to deal. But that is not a matter on which our security services should have had to be instructed by. the Conference of Privy Councillors. It is surely elementary an9 something which they should have realised themselves in 1945. Mr. Younger: Is the' hon. and gallant Member not making much too much of this point? He is now suggesting that the security services had to be infornJed by the Conference of Privy Cquncillors of the issue to which he refers, but there can be no .possible evidence of that. This is not. a new issue. It goes back,· beyond 1945, for at least twenty and. possibly thirty years. There were people before the war who were· very sincerely Nazi, and who fell into the category about which .the hon. and gallanf Member is talking. Lleot.;.ColonelCordeaux: I would not entirely agree with the right hon; Gentleman about that. We have to deal with that type of agent in these days infinitely 26 H 20 manner, as when Nazi Germany·was the principal 'enemy. After 1945, when orir potential enemy became Russia, the security services should have regarded them if not with suspicion, then at least with an inquiring eye. • .. However that may be, they. did not appear to appreciate that point in 1945, and, WO['Sethan that, they appeared to be· absolutely incapable of learning, de~pite uhe fact that they had had some very severe lessons, wh~ch surely should have taught them. I do not..want .to delay the House by inflictiin:gon it · the long history of these pairticular cases,. but there ··were .uhree of· them-the· three a,tomiicscienttsts, Nunn May, Fuchs and Pontecorvo, These cases had '.occurred• in 1945, 1949, and 1950 respectively, and t,he poin( about all of them wasthat they had one thing .in common. A' proper inquky into the background· of these three men would have revealed the fact that in all three cases they were all utterly unfitted for tlhe positions whi'ch they held. So far as can possibly •be seen from the i iries made afterwards, re~ su11s of' came . to light •·in •this Ho-use, no such • proper inquiries were made at all.. • The last of these cases occtirred rn 1950, the case of Professor Poriteoorvo, whioh was, tihe \Vorst of all, _onlya comparatively ·short time before we ._hadthe Maclean and Burgess case. Even as a result of t,hat, apparently, our security services had not learned their lesson,-because we were told in the White Paper on the· Burgess and .Maclean case that, in January, 1949, it was known tha-tthere was a leakiage from the Foreign Office to the Russians. But no inquj:ries were made about the antecedents of Maclean before he joined the Foreign: ·Office. There may have been a vocy great number of sus,pects; I do not ·know. We were then told in the WJ;titePaper in April, 1950, the following year, tha,t the suspects had been narrowed d9wn t:o only two or three. Tha,t was after 16 month6 of intensive inquir.i'es,we must presume, a·nd still, although Maclean was one .of these two or three suspeclls: no· 12?$<~onsolidated FmuJBill~ 21 MA:RCH 1956 PublicServices-(Security), .-. 1276 .inquiries had .been made into his ante. this matter which I think it is important ~dents. The follo-wingmonth ,the sus- should-not be overlooked. ·1 am facili-:. pects haii;l been narrowed to . one-,- tated in my approach by the circum-• Maclean himself--;and stiJ] no. :i'.nquir,ies stances of this de:bate, separated as it is had been madt;,. If bheY,• had been made, by an interval of time since the matter of course, they would have rev~Ied the was last discussed in this House, on 7th fact thait he. was a member -of the Com- November last, for· since then there ·has munist Party, and a well~known Com- been the inquiry wh1ch the House itself munis,t• sympathiser, only a •very short quite properly asked for, and there ha_s tirrie berore he actuadlyjoined the Fort?ign been time for reflection. Service. These inquiries were not made. My main purpose in intei:veningin this The White Paper went on to tell us that, debate is to make a very special plea for later, .inquir-iesdid reveal that faot after a dispassionate review of this pr.oblem Maclean had left this coun-try. with a sense of balance and a sense of I would submit that, in view of these proportion. What the House is ,now confacts, it really is impossible to say that sidering are not merely .the circumstances there is nothing organically wrong or associated .with the Burgess and Maclean unsound about our security arrangements. case,. disturbing as they were-and one, All I would ask of my right hon. and can appreciate that, when the matter was gallant Friend is this. Could we not have last debated, those disturbing revelations. at least an assurance that a drastic over- should have· charged the atmosphere of haul of our security arrangements will debate with a degree of shock and anxiety be made, or rather, is now being carried -but the issue which we are discussing out, to ensure that the people responsible today is of wider character.' It is not only for these lapses of security are not leftBurgess and Maclean ; it is not only the never mind whether they are in the upper Foreign Office, detached to some extent or the lower grades-any more in posi- and different as it is from the generality . tions in which they c_anlet the col).ntry of Government Departments ; but we are down in the same way again? I believe now considering recommendations which that if we can get this assurance from my have a -vital importance and effectupon a right hon. and gallant Friend it will go whole range of Government Departments, further towards satisfying the people of involving virtually the whole of the Civil this country than any questions of per- Service. sonal liberty and freedom •not being t recognise, and in this I am sure that interfered with, important_as these are. I echo· the view of •the overwhelming Finally, if we do get that assurance, we majqrity of civil servants themselves,who can at least feel that from uow on, and have indeed through their representative as a result of these inquiries, we have tr_ade unic;m bodies repeatedly made it reached a position when we have learned abundantly clear, as hon. and right hon. our lessons, albeit at such terrible cost to Gentlemen on both sides of the House the nation. • will be aware, that they themselvesrecognise, the need-the unfortunate necessity 4.35 p,m. Mr. E. C. Redhead (Walthamstow, in present circumstances-to ensure that West): In the light of the traditional re- the security arrangements are vigilant, straints which are laid upon a •Member. effective and adequate. of this• House when he first addresses it, The right of the State to protect itself it may seem a trifle strange to elect to against potential traitors is undeniable. speak on the subject of this· debate-a In anything I say I do rtot seek to quessubject which is fraught with possibilities tion that right. Nor do I seek to defend, of a highly contentious character. It is excuse or condone those who, in abuse not, however, my intention to approach of their trust, are caught in acts of the subject in a highly contentious way, flagrant disloyalty. Nor, indeed, do I and if I should seem to err in that re- wish to make easier the path of those who spect, I hope that I may have the indul- may be tempted to·follow their example. gence of the House on the assurance that But I wish to urge on the House the such will be completely unintentional oil necessity of recognisingthe extreme rarity my part. • of that. type of case. • I desire only to .draw the attention. of It may be true that security arrange,the Hous~ to one or two considerations in ments have not hitherto sufficedto avoid 26 H Jl 000027 �lJocument divu,glie errverta de la Loi sur /'acces a 1278 ·of the character that these more sensa. [MR. REDHEAD.]· • " some getting through the net. It is per- 1ional events ·would suggest· They are haps pertinent to say that other coun- restive under the demand ·that there tries, ·whose security arrangements are should be ever increasing · measures of much more severe, still have not found security-and let us remind· ourselves them sufficient to prevent some of their that this is the third operation since the traitors-as they would think them-from ·end of the war. getting through the net, and we, in our I wish emphatically to say that this turn, have been only too glad .to avail White Paper gives. rise in my mind to ourselves of the evidence provided by .quite serious misgivings. I. appreciate ·those traitors. • that it does not purport to cover the That there should be such cases is, in whole of the Report of the Conference. my submission, no grounds whatever for In those circumstances, it may well be extending security arrangements in the that it has suffered somewhat in the Civil Service,·or in· the public services process of extraction of precis .and paragenerally, ih such a way as to endanger phrase. . My' right hon.. Friend the Memthe conditions of the whole, the majority ber for Grimsby (Mr. Younger) alluded of whom· _are loyal public ,•servants. to some of the points, and I shall listen Nothin•gcould be further from the truth, with great interest to the replY. o:f the and nothing could· do greater damage, :right hon. and gallant Gentleman on than 'to create, by what is said or done qehalf of the Government • I wish onJy µow, the impression that the Civil Service to refer to one or two points... According is riddled with Communist conspiracy, or to tlie White Paper, the heads of Departoverstocked with potential traitors, moral ments are to 'enjoin .supervi~ipg officers as to ••the • necessity. of vigila,nce; of perverts and.delinquents. • • reporting what they know ·a,nd.can. dis. It hl).sbeen my privilege to know the cover, not merely of the political assoCivil Service and have a close association ciations of those. iu their .cba,-ge, but of with it for nearly.forty years.· For thirty the .personal c}laracter and life of those years of that· time l was. proud· to serve -individuals. as.. a· member. Admittedly, I did not -belong to the " upper crust," which is These -are all perfectly ·prop.er things .sometimes erroneously spoken of as •about which a supervising.officer should though it constituted the whole_of the know something when judging the fitness Civil Serv,ice... Mine indeed w·as a very of those who work under him: But when much more humble grade: I mention this is done under the impetus of special this personal aspect only to give point to instructions .under this particular heading, the conviction and the assertion that the I suggest there is a very grave danger ·civil Service consists of a body of men that that which starts oil with the best and· women, the overwhelming majority • of motives, may degenerate into the kind .of which has a high regard for its duty . of thing which has poisoned the atmo• a:nd its loyalty to the State. Those civil sphere of the pub.lie servi~es of oth~r servants have a high regard for the good countries ; and I am anxious that 1t name of the service in which they serve, :should not happen· in this count~y. and when incidents of the kind of Burgess •We see these words used, "Joose and Maclean occur, they are as wounded living " and " association with Com• and hurt in their pride in their profession munists." • I have never been able to as is any hon. Member of this' House. •understand what is meant by that latter It is this vast majority which ten4sphrase. Indeed, if it is to be taken at fo the excitement, and in the more lurid its literal face value, there would be aspects of the Press accounts, wlien ·precious few hon. Members of. this 1ncidents of this character (Y'_,cur...:.._to be House who would escape high ·suspicion. overlooked in our consideration. Security It is not a • complete answer to the is a vital and important ·thing, but I assertion that these provisions, pressed in submit it is no less important that what this way, will give rise to tale bearing, we do in this regard should take due and informing against colleagues, to say cognisance of that vast majority. The that the ultimate decisions are taken by -morale of these people is important. They .Ministers themselves with the help of the .res~nt the suggestion that their service .is .three advisers. •1277. , <!onsolidatedFund Bill- I. I, II ·I 11 :l'l I ·:1 f 26 H 22 21 MARCH 1956 , ·1·17.9,lfYonsolidated Fund Bill~ Public Services(Securit.\, I I -2.l MARCH 1956 • -Public Services (Security), orma 10n in 1280 I would not question for. one moment point to which I want t9 refer, is in .the grea,tcare and impartiality with which relation to the so-called ·appeal tribuna1 the ultima,tedecisions are arrived at. But of three advisers. . The White Paper in many cases, ,that is far too late. The recommends that its facilities should be damage has. already been done. The extended to those who are affected by . poison in a man's life, both official and .these processes outside Government social, has already been introduced. The employment,. - To my hon. Friends who civil servant is suspended while his case may draw some comfort and reassurance is under review, and he is sent away on from that recommendation, I would say a period. of leave. His nei~hbours .that they. ·should be cautious in their whisper be1tweenthemselves. This is not acceptance of it until they .examine its fanciful. I have handled some of the effect. • cases which have arisen in this conI do not wish to . say one word in nection, and I know what a damaging criticism of the- eminent gentlemen who effect it can have on the minds of men whose only crime is that they thought constitute the tribunal. I have no shadow there was reality in our principle of free- of doubt that they struggle hard, with dom of thought and freedom of ex- complete impar.tiality,to be fair in all the cases which come before them. But there ·pression. is one fact which hon. Members must Paragraph 15 of the White Paper has remember. An unhappy officer may be already been referred to, but the last innocent of any intention of acting dissentence is worth quoting again .. I hope loyally ; he may have been the victim of tha,t the right hon. and gallant Gentle- a whispered allegation by some one who man will address hiinself to that para- has seen.him talking to .a Communist, or graph wiiththe intention of giving a clear reading ,the Daily Worker, and has drawn assurance about it. The paragraph states nhe worst possible conclusion ; or it may that " they., ...:....thatis .the Privy Coun• ·be that he is .suspected of having associacillors-:•tions which cast doubts upon his relia" recommend that •an individual who is living bility.. He may _then elect to go before ·with a wife or husband who is a Communist the tribunal. But he does not know upon· ot a Communist sympathiser may, for. that reason alone, have to be moved fr'om secret what evidence the allegation is based ; work, and that the same principle should be he is not allowed to know that·evidence. . applied in other cases of a like nature." What is more, he is not allowed any form • That is a very dangerous doctrine. _.It of advocacy or representation. opens up rue mo.stappalling and alarming I know that there· are difficultiesabout possibilities. It is one which,. if, it be the •situation.' The 'civil Service trades .implemented, must be implemented with ·unions' have repeatedly pressed upon the utmost care. . I wish to know how successive Governments·the view that in far iit is to extend. these circumstances men who find them• It conjures up possibilities of ,this·kind. selves in such a situation, which may A civil servant with long service and, an .jeopardise the whole of their- offi~ial impeccaibleofficialrecord may have a·son careers or even bring them to an end, or daughter who, in youthful ind.iscretion, , should have the opportm1ity'of advice and and against parental desires, joins the representation oy then: appropriate trade Communist Party. Incidents of that kind uriiort. I hope that .the right hon. and will happen e:venin the best regula.ted.of gallant Gentleman will consider that households. Is such an incident to make point. I submit that it coljstitutes a very .that civil servant suspect in his .official serious deficiency in these arrangements. conduct? •.Is that man riot only to suffer Eloquent tribute is frequently paid to .opprob_dumin the process of the investiCivil Service.. It is often referred to ,gation of his background bu.t also ,to ,be the -I think with justice-as the finest Civil caught under the equally , nebulous and in the world. If the tangible .questionable paragrap4.whioh talks of the -Service -expression of that high regard is not as . possibility of unfavourable effeots upon clearly evidenced in certain respects as an officer's promotion prospects? • it should be, I nevertheless hope that in , I do not wish to weary the House, or .this regard-both tllis House and the Govto take advantage of its indulgence, by ernment will treat' the Civil Service as if .traversing all the . points . which raise .they really •believed in· that tribute. -I serious doubts in this matter, The last ,say that because it i,s important to have 26 H 23 000028 �Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur /'acci!:sa /'information 1281 II ,1,1 ,, ,1 ,Consolidated Fund.Bill- 21, MARCH 1956 Public Services (Security. -l282 it·. is impossible to overweight the im[MR~ REDfJEAD.] regard to a body of men and women wha portance of the liberty of the subject ih constitute an honourable profession ; who .a matter such as this. we· -in.Parliament are as loyal as any other section of the have no-. heavier responsibility than. to community, and are entitled, not merely ensure that as. few inroads as possible on their own behalf, to expect the most are made into individual liberty. Our meticulous care to be taken in this matter prime duty is to- protect the individual by the Government;as their employer, but against the Executive. also to expect the Government to set a Therefore, in' common with the hon. standard and example' in upholding the Member for Walthamstow, West, I view traditional concepts of human freedpm some· of the statements in ·this White and civil liberty which exist in this Paper with mis,givings.. It _is a· mastercountry. , piece of understatement to say that the If I have _transgressed in any· way, procedure envisaged and invol-vedis alien either through the length of my speech or td our traditional principles. In· many in anything that I. have said, I can only respects it runs counter to practices whieh ask the House to pardon ·me. I hav~ • _have been built up in this country over done so only because l should have hun<lr'edsof years, in the fight for liberty.. reg~rded myself as lacking ii) my duty We naturally regard these steps with if I had not sought to speak thus for an alarm. Today, we have an increasing honourable and loyal Civil Service, number of instances of decisions being made behind locked • doors-decisions • 4.56 p.m. . Mr. Anthony Marlowe (Hove) : I am ·v,;:hichaffect one of our fellow subjects, extremely happy to have ,caught your ·very often without his even knowing what eye~ Mr. Deputy-Speaker, because it has been _decided. affords me very considerable' pleasure to I want to examine one. or two more. o·f be able to offer the congratulations of the sentences which occur in this White the House to the hon. Member ,for Paper. Paragraph 15 says: Walth~mstow, West (Mr. Redhead). We " . . . it is right to continue. the practice of heard from him one of the most remark- tilting th_ebalance in favour of offering greater able maiden speeches which we have had protection to the security· of the State rather the good fortune to hear within the life- than iri the direction·,of safeguarding the rights time of this Parliament. • The hon. Mem- 'of the individual." ber speaks with such an ease and assur- That is c~ntrary to the long-established ance, and a knowledge of his subject, that 'practice of giving the accused person the bad he not told us that he was addressing benefit of the doubt. It means that the the House for the first time, I shottld not balance is to be tilted against the have recognised his speech as a maiden individual. speech. While no one. denies that the powers The hon. Member follows a number of which are sought by the Executive in this distinguished predecessors at Waltham- White Paper, ·are essential upon •.tht stow, West, and, therefore, carries a heavy grounds of."security, it. is' absolutely vital responsibility. I would remind the House that we should ensure that those power's that both his immediate predecessors in are operated in accordance with the pri~due course made their way to the Upper ciples _of natural justice. It do~ n~t House-and it may be that he will com- come within the four walls of what .I hav,e plete the hat trick. We shall all be very always understood to be natural justice to glad to .hear the hon. Member speaking tilt the balance against the individual. 1ti in this House upon any future. occasion, there is any tilting to be done at all in and I hope that his promotion to the the balancing or juggling, it should cerUpper Chamber will be long delayed. tainly not be against the individual. The My hon. and gallant Friend the Mem- scales of justice should weigh evenly, but ber for Nottingham, Central •(Lieut."' Jf they are to be tilted they should not be Colonel Cordeaux) criticised the right tilted in favour of the Executive. hon. Member for Grimsby (Mr. Younger) The White Paper goes on to say: for having-as he put· it-overweighted " . . . in order not to imperil sources of the importance of the liberty of the •sub- information, cjecisipns have sometimes to be . ject. I cannot subscribe to my hon. and taken without revealing full details •of the sup.gallant Friend's criticism; In my view, porting evidence;" ' 26 H 24 ' ' -128'3/tf onsolidated Fu,id Bill-",- 21 MARCH 1956 .Public Services (Securit;y), 128!4 That r·aises.a number -of-difficult·points. selected for a potential officers' .course, First, who decides,whether or not it is a and who, before that course is completed ·case which can be dealt with on the and they go before the War Office selec~ ordinary basis of e.vidence?-If the matter tion board for a commission.. are sudlis not properly safeguarded it will be- denly notified that they are no longer on come a common practice not to bother the potential officers' course and rhat the about evidence at all, but always to -reason is a suspicion of association-with shelter behind this· idea that the sources Communism. , • ,. . cannot be revealed. In a large number of These are very unfortunate case~, .cases, it simply .is not ti:ue. There are because in these cases there is no appeal .many cases wh~re it is quite possible t9 tribunal. I have discussed with the War reveal sources of information qr 10 give Office a case of a'young man who went to evidenc~ without endangering the security Oxford before doing his National Service. •pf the State. • While • he was at Oxford he · joined a . Dozens of cases were tried during the Communist organisation •or club. When war, in both civil and military. courts, on National Service he suffered this very where the sources of information were fate, that he was not allowed to go before given in evidence ; .some of them were a War Office selection board and was -tried at the Old ~ailey with a jury, so nevei;:given any reason. . When he went that the twelve members of ·the ,jury went to his commanding officer·and asked why, at large into the world afterwards know- the commanding officer said, " I do ndt ing perfectly well what bad happened, know. •It is an instruction from the War and in most of those cases never.was there .Office. I have only had one. or two any question of not ,producing the simil~r:.cases before. The· only ground sources of information. Indeed, as tQey ~hat one _can suppose is security." That were dealt with under die ordinary pro- 1s all the man w.as told. • ·cesses• of criminal law, the sources of Many young men join foolish clubs information had to be 'disclosed:· In a when--they are undergraduates, but it 'is great numher of ·cases it can be done most unfortunate· if they are to be without danger. I agree that there are b d d f h f I • 1· cases in which it cannot be done, buf it ran e or t e reSt O t 1e1r ives merely because they have done so. In that proshould not be thought to become the cedure there is no kind of appeal, nor is common practice· that because this sort the -'man. concerned officially informed. of rule exists, every case should be dealt He is simply withdrawn from the officers' with on the basis of not revealing sources course arid returned to his unit. In such of information. cases a man ought to be given an opporOn this paragraph, I am concerned tunity at least •to defend himself. He about taking cases as proved against a ought to be brought not necessariJy·before man on standards which would not be a tribunal, but at least a competent accepted in a court of law. Again, one authority which could give him the opporagrees that there may be cases in w~ich tunity of explaining whether he. is still that is essential, but they must be kept tainted· with the organisation .which he to the very minimum, and wherever the had joined as an undergraduate. I hope ordinary standards which would be that the Government will consider that acceptable to a court of law could be point, because it deserves.the considera~ adopted without dange.r to the . security tion of this House. , that ought to be d.one. We -all recognise that some .of these There is· one other point w1th which I powers have to exist, but we have our want to deal and which is not strictly prime duty to see that they are exercised within· the White Paper, but which I only in cases of extreme urgency. We should like the Government to consid_er. are here to defend our liberties as far As I have said, there are today far too as we possibly can, and we must never many cases of decisions being Titade be- surrender them more than is absolutely hind locked doors. In addition, there are essential for the security of the State. other cases involving another procedure 5.7 p.m. which is akin to the subject under disMr.- · W. Griffiths . (Manchester, cussion today: There have been raised Exchange): I have often heard the hon. in this House two or three cases of and learned Member for Hove (Mr. National Service men who have, been Marlowe) during the time that l have 26 H 25 000029 �Document divufgue en vertu de la Loi sur f'acces a /'information l285 ,ConsolidatedFwid Bill.;;.. 2li MARCH '19'5'6 Public Services (Securit)\~·(1286 [MR. GRIF.FITHS.] -happened to individuals who have been 'been in the House, and more often than proceeded • against under this security not I have failed to agree with him, but -procedure. today I agree with most that he has said. • The ·first is the case of a Post Office He bas· touched on some· very important en•gineerin the city of Manchester who, matters indeed. sp far as I could discover, was certaiqly I am one who regards this White Paper not engaged in work that ' could. be as being almost wholly a deplorable docu- -regarded as highly _secret. Nevertheless, ment. I am very sorry indeed that my ·he was suspended from his job and hailed right . hon. Friends the Members • for before the " three wise men " to whom :Vauxhall (Mr. G. R. Strauss) and my hon. Friend • the Member for Lewisham, South (Mr. H. Morrison) ~ave Walthamstow, West (Mr. Redhead) has subscribed to it. I am not so surprised referred. Incidentally, I said a little that the noble Lord, Lord Jowitt, did so. earlier that I, was rather disappointed that f>fhosewho subscribe to this policy are my right hon. Friends had. subscribed to here setting their hands to a further incur- ·this present document; but f may say that sion into the liberty of the subject of a I am particularly surprised that the docu• most serious nature. ment envisages no change in the rights We should remember the experiences in of a:ny individual brought before the other countries, including countries which tribunal to be represented by an advocate are regarded as part of the free world. or by a trade union representative. As ·an example of how far one can go in We !Jave all had experience of people these matters, I am reminded of the story who ha:ve had to appear before a judicial • 'told to me by a friend of mine who was or a quasi-judicial tribunal of any kind. a year or two ago a lecturer for a time at They may be b:r-illiantmen in their own Princeton University and who had the sphere but have no ability adequately to astonishing experience of discovering express themselves when appearing before 'there that in their security-procedure they a tribunal such as this, although the conhad found it desirable to incorporate into sequences to their future may be the University of Princeton members of immensely serious .if their case • is not 'the F.B.I. with 'the object' of observing the properly deployed anq properly heard .. I behaviour of the students of'that Univer- ·,hope that even now my· right hon. and sity. Further than that, he told me that hon. Friends will pursue this so that while they had reached the stage where the we are reconsidering the procedure we 'tlistinction of being awarded a Fulbright might at the ve:ry least see that a man scholarship was no longer ·.achieved on brought before the tribunal has the right the basis purely of academic distinction. to representation, Jt had become very important to pass the • The man from ,the Po9t Office to whom security checks with the attached F.B.I. refer took the line, rightly .or wrongly, before being awarded that scholarship. Ithat his political views 'ly'yr'ea matter for I am sure that hon. Members in all parts hims-e.lf •alone. When he got to the of the House would consider features of tribunal he <,1:sked wha,t way he was that kind to be undesirable in Great supposed ,to have in failed in his duties. :Britain. .and what were the charges against him. Much of what I am going to say has T,he tri1bunal,which is bound by certain been said in an admirable manner, which terins of referenc_e,'was obliged to tell I could not possibly emulate, in the speech him that all it could put to him, and all •made by my hon. Friend the Member for tliat he was called upon to answer; was Walthamstow, West (Mr. Redhead) who, the queS1tiort," Are you or are you not I think, put the case perfectly. I wanted ·a Communist?" He refused· to reply. to remind the House of what has In short, ihe took rather the same kind of happened in tµe past to people on the line t'hat Paul Robeson is taking in the lower levels of the Civil Service under the United States at the present time. procedure that has been employed ,b_y Mr. Robeson's passpo.vtis being with• successive Governments. If the House 1s •held by the United States authqdties. going to approve this document, we ·might He could have it if he made a declaraas well realise clearly what we • are tion of his political belieJls,but he refuses approving, and I should like just briefly to do so. • So did this young man :in the to ~ve three examples of what .has city of Manohester. He may have been ~6 H 26 • l287.1!J¥onsolidated Fund Bill-'- 21 MARCH 1956 ,unwise to do so, but the fact is that he • refused to answer as -to · his ·political beliefs. He said that it was not a matter for anyone but himself and again asked what the charges were against him as to his work. However, -the tribunal is not there to go into such matters, and nothing further could be done. -He was told that the tribunal found him not fit to occupy the position he held, and be was relegated to an inferior position, with con'sequent loss of earnings. Public Services (Security). , 1288 was laid down in 1948 by the Labour Government, and· about that I had serious misgivings at. the time. But let it be clearly understood that the procedure embarked on in 1952 went much further than that of 1948, while the present White Paper envisages a very much more serious extension of the procedure than was the case in the other two. • Let hon.· Members consider the kind of questions that people have to answer in these matters. This case concerns a -The second case concerns a man who man employed in the Risley atomic for .a period of six months in 1953 was energy undertaking. He had to fill in a employed as a temporary assistant in- questionnaire and was asked by the •for_mationofficer in the Air Ministry. He security officer questions of the fo1low•, wntes: ing kind. There were the elementary "I realise of .course that there is a need for questions about date and place of birth ; security measures. iri a Service Ministry, and all addresses since birth. with dates of I could have no objection to ,inquiries into , my loyalty if they did· not ·violate my right to -removal ; all •. schools and colieges live a private life. It would therefore seem attended,, full-time and part-time since to me entirely reasonable that, in the interval the age of four ; !lll occupations, enibetween my interview· and my appointment my 1 d dd reliability should be questioned, and I w~uld P oyers an their a . resses and _departnot expect to be _appointed if there were any ments in' which employed· since leaving _doubt of it." . , . .. . school at age of 15 ; and addresses of -After he was appointed, however, an ·societies.of which a member-includ•·along ,to his lodgings came an officer ing such things as his .allotment as_s9_from Scotlang.Yard who inquired of his ciation. Indeed, he was questioned as . landlady about his personal habits and to where the plot on the allotment was. asldng whether she knew anything about. He had to say what church he attended his politics.. It went further than that. ,, and give full details of his interests and This man lrn.i1cdfrom the Midlands. The activities there. He bad to give full police of the Midl<J,nd .county from which information regarding the great amount he came also. inquired in his town of of general work he had organised and trad~smen, of friends and of members taken part -in with others in the church. _of the family-all in a manner calcu- He was asked about the function of the lated to raise in the minds of people.who church. • knew him suspicions of the wildest kind. He was also The man had no opportunity at ·all of " Questioned persistently as to wl;tether I hearing about _itor knowing about itany political affiliations, whether a Com, in fact, he discovered only by accident had munist, Fascist or belonging to any such that these enquiries were being made. society." Surely such a procedure is quite deplorable, and I suspect that-although I He was asked when he was marr.i'edand long he was likely to remain at his _have chosen to· refer briefly this after- how present address ; heigiht, colour of •hair noon to three ca~es which hap,pened to and eyes, verifica:tfon of signature, etc. come to my notice-this has gone on in He was then asked simi:larques,tionsconvery large number of cases concerning cerning his father a-nd mother, each quite humble people-not people in brother and srster, half-brother' and halfwhat my hon. Friend referred to as the sister ; about his wife, his wife's parents, highest crust of ,the Civil Service. brothers, sisters and so on. The third case· is one to which I have Mr. W. R. Wil!iams (Manchester, previously referred in the House arid Openshaw) : One would n~ed an encycloconcerns the new procedure adopted by paedic knowledge to am,wer all that. the Conservative Government in 1952. Of c'ourse, as my hon. Friend the MemMr. Griffiths: Funther, he was asked ,ber for Walthamstow, West has said, this the name of the head of his department; is the· third • development , in security . asked 1:10give his frank opinion of the procedure since the war. One procedure -head of his department, how he iot on a 26 H 27 000030 I, i, �Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a /'information I I ).. 1-289 Cq1JsolidatedFwid B.ill---: 21 _MARGH .1956 Pub,lic Services (S11cur.ity.,'1290 . . [MR. GRIFFITHS.] . . national administrative machine contained ,with him·; wJrnt politics were. discus·sed q .Jqrge • number: qf ·comrp�111is.t.symp 1t7 in the offiye. by members of the- staff. tlµsers. Jt was a v�ry difficult,tas� for the f.{e was asked about. nhe geqeral political So_ctalist Government, ,having . regard :-to viewpoint of the office, and ·whether any the views held in this country. 1tbout ,the of the office staff • held extreme vi:ews liberty of the subject, to ensure that those politically. w�o were our.friends during the war and I have ·referred to that case before in who in peace _beca�e om;: enemies, were the House I know but all these are not retained in. positions. in _which secret matters extreme, seriousness, and I information bec_ame _available . which, if hope that we are to hear from the ·Home llsed improperly,, might endanger the Secretary-and from any other spoke�- State. man on the Front Bench on this sideThe then Socialist Prime Minister, now a little ·more than we have heard so far the noble Earl Attlee, appointed three in support of • this document, in order advisers to help him over some of those to justify this extension of the powers difficulties with which the Labour Govern­ of the Executi:ve into the. affairs of ihe ment found themselves faced at the time. individual. • Ifl remember rightly, he asserted, what I am sure · would be whole-heartedly sup­ 5.20 p.m. . Dame !rene Ward (Tynemouth) : I ported by the House, that he was certainly should like to make one brief observa­ not going to tolerate a Third International tion about the very pungent speech we · in· this .country. I know very_ little about heard from the hon. Member for Wal- • the work of the security machinery, but it thamstow, West (Mr. Redhead). He w&s must have caused grave concern when a Httle pessimistic about the Civil Ser­ Burgess, whose Coinniunist leanings and vice a-nd i:ts ,reaction to the White Paper. sympathies were very well known_ i� I happen lio represent a very large London, became an established member number of civil servants. I do not mean of the Foreign Service in 1947. I J;iave no • to say that they are my voters. They doubt that it was a very difficult decision are my oonstitments. No doubt a great for the Socialist Government to take to many of them voted against me. A great appoint tqose . advisers, ·but. tlie, " three ma-ny civil servants also reside in the advisers " mac}:J.inery arose oµt of the very constituency of my" right hon, and gallant real danger with which the security of the Friend bhe Home Secretary. nation was faced after the change-over to a potential enemy of •our frienqly ally, • These civil servants are a very hard­ Russia. working, happy and courageous body. I do not think they will be unduly disturbed I rather regret that that point bas not by the introduction of this White Paper • been sufficiently emphasised in the coun­ with its outline of the further security try. There is no doubt that people were measures which the Government have in and • still are seriously perturbed about mind. I have such an admiration, as most what was known as the Burgess-Maclean hon. Members have, for the Civil Service incident ; the more we clear it up, the and the Foreign Service that I think those better will people be pleased. That is why Services will be just as anxious as we are I· welcomed the all-party Conference of to protect the security of the State. It Privy, Councillors and• the decisions that gave a wrong impression for the hon. it has come to. Indeed, though I take full Member for Walthamstow, West to advantage of the liberty-of-the-subject assume, however charmingly he put it, ideal, in my view it is very wise to tilt that the whole Civil Service would. be un­ one's security in favour of the State, duly disturbed by the meas.ures proposed because, if the State is infiltrated and penetrated, that is the end of the indi­ - by the Government. ·• • liberty of the subject. vidual' I want to re-emphasise one of the points made by the hon. and gallant Member. for _ I have only one other point to make Nottingham, Central (Lieut-Colonel Cor­ and this is my only opportunity for deaux) which has not been sufficiently making it. It is a difficult point; but. I emphasised. At the end of the war, be• want it put on the record. I am sorry cause Russia had been our. ally for a num­ that it will have to be replied to -by the ber of years and then subsequently became Home Secretary because- it is not exactly, a potential enemy, all ])epartments of the his responsibility, al 1 26 H 28. Public Services (Security) . 12�2 21 ·MARCH . .-1956 1291 .•nsolidated Fund Bill� . , I refer to paragraphs• 10, H and 12 of resl?�ns1ble been . �e!-11-ovecj from _his the White ·Paper, _which I fully support. pos1t�o°: ·o� respo�s1b1hty? I do not-thmk I think the country will be wholeheartedly that 1t 1s m_ the -mt�rests of a sound and behind ·the Government in the implica- secur�. Foreign •Service to recemm_end _th� tions · of these three paragraphs. • If I try, retent10n of a man· of the character of in all humility, to ii,-tterpret the views of Maclean: the country, I think I can say that _people I hope that my right hon: arid gallant were more shQcked by the �ehav1our of Friend appreciates that the Government, Maclean while he was in Cairo _tiha� t�ey by not giving an answer, have implicated were to know that we had a traitor ms1de everyone.. That is most unfair. to th_e the Foreign Service.' The cou�try J;ias a Foreign Service and to those who are not great appreciation .of the digm�y o� t�e culpable. If it was not the Establishment Foreign Service and a great _Pnde: m it. Department at the Foreign Office, was tt People found it· absolutely mexphcabie political interference? I put the question that a lllan who behay�d as Maclean_ did directly. I appreciate that when we are -'-this was outlined .in very great detatl ·on discussing these great matters of security the last debate by the right hon. Member it is in the nationai. interest that both for Blyth (Mr. Robens)_-shoul� have sides of the House should be agreed, but been retained in the Foreign Service and speaking as a mere woman, I must say in such an important post. that sometimes this "old boy." business me down, and I want to know who The Government have never satis­ gets took the decision about Maclean. factorily cleared up this m�tter. Believe If it' w·ere a political decision, is it not me, it is most important Ill the fut1;1re foterests of the Foreign Service, for which fair that that should be stated? I do we all have such an admiration, that the not want to know the name of the Minis� matter should be cleared up. That is why ter ; I am not interested in that. I want I want to pufit on record today. This . to be sure that in . dealing with such matter is linked up with the three para, matters, which affect character and graphs of the White P_aper. Wh�t has reliability, no political interference or never been cleared up 1s whether 1t was influence can be exercised from one side the responsibility of ·the Ambassador, the of the House or'.the oth·er to retain peopl� chief establishment officer, or of the in· posts for which they are riot suited. Foreign Secretary _-of the day, • that I say to my right hon. and gallant Maclean after a· period of rehabilitation, Friend, with all the emphasis which. I was· re-e�ployed by the Foreign Service. can command, that the Government have I tried to elicit the information about the left a very nasty taste in the mouths of Ambassador in a Question the other day the people ·of this country by· nbt telling addressed to my right hon. Friend the them how and why Maclean was retained Minister of State, from whom I got a very in his post. Reference has been made to dusty answer. The answer was that, in the iower ranks, and I remember asking fact .all that the Ambassador had done the Postmaster-General about a young girl was' to report on the condition of who had gone, full of life, into the Post Maclean's ·breakdown. If that is so; I Office and had not declared that in one assume that the Ambassador did not of· he� previous jobs she had been in suggest that after rehabilitation Maclean trouble over some cash. That was a should be re-employed. child of seventeen. Did the Postmaster• It narrows down to the other two, the General exercise discretion on her behalf? Establishment_ Department .and the chiet Not a bit of it. Out of the service of the establishment officer or at political level. Post Office she had to go. If we are to I have met and • admired during my show m·ercy and justice over the very experience many, of the chief establish­ grave and appalling behaviour of Maclean en ment officers in our Foreign Syrvice. Was -1 myself see no reason fortothat-th_ exercise ought Departments .. other it the decision of the Establishment Department and of the chief establish­ mercy and justice, too. People always put this point to me:· ment officer. of the day? If it was his decision,·and if it was not taken at ·any they do not understand how • Maclean other level at all, I want to know whether ·could have· been retained in our dis­ there had been an alteration ·in the Estab­ tinguished.. and • • admirable -Foreign lishment Department. Has whoever was Service, . We admire the nien ·and women 26 H 29 000031 �'..ti9-3.. bonsolidatelFuriaBill-=- 2.1-M'ARCH 19'56 Public Services (Securit'1, "i294 . [DAMEIRENE WARD.} -···.. _ thing ab·out such-failings· as. drunkei:n~s 'of impeccable character wh? ser-,e m·tlie or addiction to drugs,,·ot loose hvmg ;Foreign Service all 1over the -wo~ld;and, generally, is' that they lay ·a mart open ·,apart from -this-·one instance, ~: do not ·to blackmaiL Surely these are serious think -one of them would subscribe to _a things: in themselves-things _which a 'suggestionthat Maclean should hav~ been superior . offi~er: or ~he establishme1;1t_s retained. .It is no.t -only a quest10n. ~f Department m the Goverqment _service bis being given a seconµ chance: Imagine ·ought. to know about, quite apart from bis meeting, in Washington, the former any question of blackmail.' ,First Secretary .-of:the Fre':ch_.Embassy • The hon. Lady has asked a number of in Cairo after such an incident ·had questions of the Governm~nt... She asked 'occurred? I know enough about ,the who was responsiblefor allowing B,urgess \Foreign Service to realise· what a bad and 'Maclean to continu~ in. the Foreign ijmpression•that would make. Office. That is-a question for the Gov• · I hope that befci~e these events are ernment to answer, but I would hazard brought to a conclusion we shall be _tt?ld a su0 gestion 'that it is prol:>a,bly 'difficult who was culpable 'and whe~her the m- to pin respqnsibilHy• on ?DY -~rte indi. dividual was moved by the votes of the vidual.. When we·are·dealmg wrt!hpeople !people or by the process of the Gove~ti- in the higher grades like· this, there ~re in:ient working·· on sound secunty probably a great many p~ople, includrng principles. the man's political superiors, "'.ho have a say in. •the matter.· I support the White Paper. ,Everyh !body is happier that we have got -our : Surely the lesson to be lea!ned is_t ~t new arrangements and that. we_ can the management of the p~bhc _service1s emerge from a bad dream. ~nd work for· ex:tremelyimportant, and· tn this ~ase at iward in our own trad1t10n~ for, the least it broke down: • However 1mpor• security and protection of the State as a tant security .may •be in other respects, whole. · that' is ·an· important matter quite apart from seci!rity. 5.35 p.m. . It ·is important that we should try 'to Mr. J. Grimond (Orkney and Shet- keep..the procedure which the Conferenc~ land): Like many other hon. Members, I of Privy Councillors has r'ec_ommend~i:l have looked with a c.ertain distaste.at the down to .the 'ininimur'n numbers of cases White Paper and .at .some of the pro- and grades. We should restriof it to cesses it recommends, but we_ m.m;t ·people who· are liable to c~me in contaot recoonise that an extremely serious prob- with secret documents and other secret O lem exists and that serious • cases of information, which, if thef were to leak traitorous behaviour to the country have out would be severely damaging to the happened. It is essential that we should country. try to segregate what is really serious and • · Like other hon. Members, I do not try to deal with it, and tpat we should at all happy about some of the· thin~s not allow our suspicions to wander over feel which happened to lower grade pera general •fi~ld,. spreading unn~CfSS~ry sonnelhave in the service. I can hardly be• alarm and brmgmg unnecessary m1ustice to all sorts of people who may prove to lieve that some of the instances about which I and others have heard, such· as be entirely innocent. the treatment of people in th~ Post qffice, I agree very much with the_hon. Lady • have been necessary on ·security grounds. the Member for Tynemouth (Dame lreQe Nor am I. happy about the appeal pro• Ward) ; it seems to ~e that at leas! in the cedure in these cases. The more I ·look Burgess and Maclean·ca.sethe roam fault at the matter the more convinced I am was not the security, but in· the ordinary that the British system of law and tqe handling of the people involved. It cer- course of justice ·is extremely good, ~nd tainly surprised me thflt Maclean, as I once we get away from that and . mto understand it, ·was almost pressed to rather vague realms of suspici<?~iof aJle~ return to work in the Foreign Office after gations· whi<;-h~te. nor proved . and _o~ the incidents in Cairo. : • evidence which ·1s not produced, .we tnget irito 'difficulti<:5:•I. do ~ot · I ani surprised, th~refore, at .~e word; evitably deny that m,ustfac~ th~se d1ffict1lt!~s ing of paragraph· 10 of the White Pap~~• ortnat they;eptdblem· exists ;· ~f. course tt which· seems to in'.1.ply :that the- set1ous 0 ,.12~6fllonsolidatedFund,Bill:'-;- -21,MARCH.-1956 PublicServices(SecuntyJ.. 1-296 !-foes. But I suggest.that.w.e should .keep • applied? We ought to now.how the 'pro• .~e. proce9ureAown.to the minimum and ·cedur~ is .,being. handled, and I. should :to tibe really important ~ses. • ·: ., have thought that -it would be possibl~ I go further and .say tli~t such casds from 'time to time'. to •get. that type of ·ought to be· deaJt_with .Mlsticalfy espe• information, :_ • • , • • ' 'dally in th~ upper, _highergrades 'of' the I sympathi_severy ·much·with the Conpublic se_r".ice. • But I~agree.with the hon. ference which investigated these matters. ·and lear_nei,lMember for Hove (Mr. -But it 'has, -perhaps; been rather too imMarlowe) in thi-9kin:gthat in some cases pressed by the dangers of Communism as even in the higher grades-not .in .,a11 .such-, After· all, Communismis not illegal cases, but in some-.the evidence could in this country ; it is not a crime to be a ,be mac(e· mqre· generally available. •I Communist -in opinion: What is a crime .think the proc:edure, _:without being is to give information away to a foreign legalistic, could,'be fairer ·to those •in- Power. I am •not· sure that this point volved.. I1,1evitably,people . \\;)lo :come comes out sufficientlyclearly in the White under this sort of suspici<;msuffer,a·great P~per. Conimunj~m may, possibly lead deal though they may not be guilty. •It a :man in· that direction; but it is not in is extremely -difficultto safeguard them its.elf art offence. I~ is_important that against injustice. . , ;_.. . . this should be clearly stated in the House. I should like to feel mo.,recertain than •••'I have had inquiries adaressed to me, I do now: that when investigations take as 110 doubt have other .hon. ·Members -place, we are kept informed as to how as to whether a certatn man has had ·any the procedure is working ~and whether Communist affiliations. , If one feels ·that as much justice as possible ·and whether he has had C::ommunistaffiliations at one to. the people concerned. . • :· time or· another, or has taken an interest in Marxism •,or perhaps: Joined: a :Com- S.43 p:m.' -. :,, ••' _munist club, does one say, "Yes; ·he , Mr.-Raymond ~1'1'.er_(Barry): I am has •had,affiliations with Communism"? ,sure that hon. Members on both sides One knows full well that it may be mag- would tend to agree with the hon. M~mnified into something.much more serious, ber • for -:Orkney and Shetland (Mr. tha,n,was in fact the case. It '.is difficult Grimond):'thai: this'procedure should be .f◊r .the_. people supplying the :information ·kept as narrow as-possible and in a very l;ls well as. for those about whom it ..is liini,ted··sphere. I· would certainly •agfe6 supplied. .The more there_is a ·regular with the hon. ' Member - also that the and :11nder.stoo:d procedure, and the more c,;mduct·of Made.an ·'•in _particular was !hat it is •brought .into. the_,open. where scandalous. but I think 'the hon. Member 1t can.,be_understood, .the.better... :·.. • would' agr~e that it'~iigh:tperhaps be even . • •• • more •dangerous to· make this a kind of • Furthermore, there is. the eff~d on" a court ·of'inorals.' this is. an unfortunate man's.. family • and · relations. Even procedure even as•'fat ·as it goes. in dealt.hough they are quite' innocent, they are ing with matters of''public security, but almqst bound to suffer through inquiries if we,were to fotrodu:c:ethe extra element of this kind, for news gets about. ,: If a ·of -morality ·it-.would. be extended even man loses promotion. or is moved in his inore· dangerously._•. • work, everybody knows about it and apart from the effect on his character the Mr.. Grimond: I agree entirely. What whole fa,rnilyis bound 'to suffer also.. If •I_was, trying to say was that lot of the we are ·to -get drastic enough. action in Maclean trouble. should have been solved the serious case's, let us be sure that we in the or1inary pro<;:esses of the Depaitcatc~: only ih_eguilty. ment as a.'matter'of persoimelha~dling., - :.:As the right _hon.Member·for Grimsby Mr. Gower: I· certainly would not (Mr. Younger) said, what real~ matters disagree with that. • ·, is .how the procedure outlined in the . Last week-end, a' friend of mine White, Paper is to .be applied. Would it · remarked with reference to these matters l:le-possible· for the House to be given . that he ·was surprised at the concern, a report ·.as to th~ procedure and .prac. which had been expressed. He said that tice 'Yhich grows up in the Civil Service public servants are in a far stronger -yvhenthe rec~mmendations,of the Con-, position than one of his Qwn:employees, ferei;iceof. Pri:vy·Councillors come. to. be whom he coul_d:dismissevenif he did not a 26 a 31 26 H 30 000032 �Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur /'acces a tn orma ton _j ., .1297.. Consolfdpted Fund Bill-,- -21 .MARCH 1956 Pub1ic Services (Securit4,\ il:298 . [M:R.Gow,ER.] • . · .. ;:·. : . ·has, I' am ·sure,. already satisfied-himself ~like the look of,,his face or simply if. he that it would be extremely difficultto get .tho:qght the man was a .Communist.. Our a Bill through in this form. There slio,uld ,feeling is that the. State should be the be room for. reconsideration. In this best of all .employers and should set a 'tribunal, Wliyshould, there' not. be, a particularly high . example of employ~ 'limited righ~ o( representation by soiic;(inent. Furthermore, public servants tor or counsel?' There, is precedent for :usually , enjoy". stability of ;_erqploy- this, even where secrets of State are conment. It is the kind of employment cerned. It shoµld be by no means impos- • -which goes through their whole career. siple to allow a person or civil serv~~t I;or thes~ reason~ we have taken a· par- 'who is questioned as· to his mtegrity to t1cular view of the problem, aijd that is nave .the right to be represented· by an ·why we need tq examine very •_closely advocate. I hope ,th~t the need for this such a procedure as this. , kind of thing ,will be limited in time. I • nope 'too that if any slight amendment The wording in paragraph 15 of the of ,the kind· I have mentioned is possible, White Paper is the kind of thing I have ·,fullattentidn wiff be given to it. • •... in mind. It is the· sort of wording we do - · not want to see often in this country 5.47 p.m. . when it says: _ .•.. . Mr. Wedgwood Beno (Bristol,· South" to continue the practice of tilting the ·balance East): Like some. of my hon. Friends, in favour of offering greater protection to the I watched tµe. Home Secretary .dealing security of the State rather than in the direction last night .with questions sent him by of safeguarding the rights of the individual." people all over the country: Iµ the We reject that doctrine genersllly. It is ·questions I shall _pilt .to, him tonight, I one that we. can suffer only in extra- ,hope he will be ,able .to answer as ordinary circumstances. I disagree ~ith tharmingly and· .attractively as he did my hon. and ,gallant Friend the, Member then • ' for NOttirigham,·cel1tral (Lieut-Colonel ~ ..• Cordeaux). I thirik it "is our duty to place I:welcomethe spirit in which the House br more emphasis on the right of t}le has approached this problem. It is ·a indivi.dual•than ori the_.safety of the State, great tribute to the good sense and wisdom of hon. Members that we should be able except ·when that •safety is ·,obvio:uslya : to debate this matter without any sense of primary consideration. That may have excitement, quite· coolly and calmly_and been the case after the war, and perhaps ~t~llis, but both sides of this·House surely with due regard to the rights of indivih h h • • d" • • duals. I am also grateful that security . ope t at ,t ose con itlons w1ll.not always in this country has never become a matter ~btain. If there is at present an emphasis of party dispute: One •of. the. gravest upon the danger from. Commpn~sm,'there difficulties in the United States-it arose $.re patent reasons for it. It ·;s •feasible ihat at other times other groups would from the long period in opposition of the · • ·1 d Republican Party, looking desperately for represent a s1m1ar anger. .. . an issue-was that it did become a matter Examples of the doctrine to which I of.party dispute and was thus inflated and have referred-" tilting the balance" and inflamed until clear thinking on security paying more attention to the security of matters was made very difficult. . the State than to the individual-have • .1 b · fl d 1 ith the three happened before and generally,speaking . . w_ant. ne ,Y to .ea w . .. ' .• . main issues wluch seem to anse from the !hose ha~e not been the h~pp1e_st periods W,hitePaper. The first is the objective of 1n our history. The happiest times ~ave security. In most defence White Papers been when the balance has been tilted there is some kind of reference to what the ~he other way. When we_recall the great defence policy is designed to defend. It efforts that were made m th~ supreme is very unfortunate that the Government's emergency of the last war, part_1cu!a:lY to White ·Paper completely lacks any recogpreserve th~ freedom. of the 1_nd1V1dual,nition •of the dilemma which is inevitable even when 1t ~as ,a difficult thmg to ~o, when a free society tries to protect itself w~can rt;eogmse the dangers of pressing from subversion. That dilemma has been this doctrine too far today. dealt with by every hon. Member who ha~ · It is a pity that we are not considering spoken in the debate. We are all aware tonight a Bill which is subject to amend~ of it ; the natural liberal instincts of us ment. My right hon. and gallant Friend all set against the necessitiesof' protectio~. 1 • ;?6 H 32 . 1299 (.nsolidated Fund Bill-'- 21 MARCH 1956 Public Services (Security) . . 1300 Yet there is no mention· of that in the I believe it is a very common illusion to suppose that many spies become spies White Paper. • I fear· that a civil servant seeking to because of blackmail. I should like to defend himself before " the three wise know whether there are any examples at men " of the tribunal would find very aII in the knowledge of the Government • little in this, the· only published document due to that cause. ·The second question one. comes to is to· which he could refer, •which would support <him in his' claim that he. was that of the Communist Party member. , I only pursuing ..a normal independence of think that any Government considering thought. I regret that is the case, because security would be bound to regard a of course the real security of a free society Communist Party member as a person, in the present state of the world, unfit for lies in its freedom. obvious reasons to be entrusted with • Many· hon. Mernbers who thought in the past that. we could get greater security security information which was essential by tightening up the machinery ought to to the State. But the much wider issue, look at .the·Soviet Union, which, in my and the one in which I think there is sincere submission, with all its security most criticism of the Government, is the measures, is far less secure than we are question of Communist sympathisers. There is a very great differencebetween in this country. Our security in the long run rests on· the consent of the governed regarding. a man as unreliable because of ,to be governed. If we were ever to-try what he thinks and regarding him as to substitute enforced uniformity of unreliable because of what .he has done. thought that would •do the greatest pbs• My view is that, far from increasing the sible damage to our free. interests.· I security of the State, if we had a lot of therefore start by noting the lack of any police inquiries, a lot of dossiers and files . reference to this matter in the White designed to 'show what· men in the Civil Paper. Service have thought in the past or think Now we come to the second subject, now, we would be· likely to encourage not the objective we are trying to achiev~, such great caution on the part of those but the nature of the dang~r that ~s civil servants that their ca{lacity for free feared. The White .Paper lists three dan· thought and independent mquiry would harmed and, as a result, the gers. It lists, first, the man,with a charac- be serio1,1sly ter defect. Secondly,it lists the man who State would lose some of the benefit of is a. Communist and, thirdly, the man who th~ir services. .To take an exaggerateµ is a Communist sympathiser. I want to example, far from dismissingany member say straight away that I absolutely. agree of the Foreign 'Office wh9 had read Karl with hon.· Members who this afternoon M~rx, :my inclination would be to dismiss have said that character defects should anyone who had not read Karl Marx. . really find no place in a White Paper,on Mr. Ede (South Shielqs): 'Sack the lot. security. Mr. Benn : As my right hon. Friend .. I wanno ask the right hon. and gallant says, ,that would be a very drastic step Gentleman a perfectly .straight question on this, subject:· He may not be ·able to to take. Then we C!Jmeup against the answer now, but I hope he will not think question of character defect and the m:w it an improper . questipn. . Is there any living with-somebody who is supposed to known case of a. spy who has been a spy be a Communist.sympathiser. ,[Interrupsqlely because of ~lackmail..w~ich _was tion.] My hon. Friend forgets that if a made··pqssible ~Y his OWf\ cha_racter9-e• civil servant whose wife was a Communist fects? .. There. is an extremely mterestmg sympathiser left his ·wife· he might be report on: this. matter whic}i was pub- in trouble , on the .ground. of character lished in the .Unitecl States and quoted defect. I think · the answer to the by :Pean Acheson in 1:iisbook which really extremists ·on security is -ridicule. I ·hope deserves great and serlous study.. He that the sense of humour which is quo.tesMr.Seth Ricliardsqn, the Assistant supposed to· be one of_ our British Attqrney-Qener~l in the Hqover Adminis;- characteristics will always-preventus from tration and .chairman .of the .Loyalty becoming too absurd in our inquiries into .the views of civil,servants._ R:eview Board, who_.saiq: ; . " Not. one single , case or. evide~e directed Mr. Silverman: Not on the' basis of tpwards a .cas.eof \,'lSJJi9µage has been discloi;e,d ·this White.Paper.· in that record." • < 26 H 33 000033 �.. i30l ,ConsolidatedFunaBill___; 21 MAR:CH 1956 PublicServices(Securiolj i':302 • l\'lr~Benn :,My hon: Friend quite rightiy I put these points most sincerely to the says that the White Paper shows little • Government because I believe that, when trace of humour and, one may think, in the immediate pressures of the Communist some ways even less wisdom. We come world relax, sooner or later all •these to the third part of the problem. The praotices will have to be replaced by our safeguarding of the free society was the traditional practices. · first, and the seco_ndwas the dangers to I finish with a quotation from a man which we ar~ exposed. Now We come who was jointly responsitile for security to the methods to be employed by the measures in tJhe United States with Government in searching out security President Truman, Dean Acheson, a"very risks. It has already been pointed out, distinguished American and, I believe 'a a.nd l think it is worth re-emphasising, very great Amerkan Secretary· of ·state. that the loyalty boards are not designed He referred to the three Presidential in order to catch spies, but it is purely executive orders made in the years 1947, preventive work1950 and 1953 which were adopted to deal " Prevent us, 0 Lord; in all· our doings " with exactly ,tJhisproblem, and he devotes in its true sense is what the security board a great chapter to the problem in whioh is designed to do. Therefore; we are he finishes with these words : only undertaking all these inquiries to • "I was ari officer of that Administration ~nd expose certain people who might be share witll. it the. responsibility for what I am ·• · now convmced was a grave mistake and. a dangerous to us. failure to foresee consequences which were in• What ha1>pens.so far as one can make evitab_le. That responsibility canont be escaped out from hon. Members who have spoken, or obscured." • • and, we all have experience of this, is With. such an authority to support me, that the police make inquiries to find out I ask the Government to look again ·at all' about a man, all tllat is good, bad the White Paper before it becomes the and indifferent. That all goes down established practice of this coun~ry.. higgledy-piggledyinto the record1 depend• • · 5•59 p.iµ. . "n • d ;. f th · a h co · . , mg on ~ e JU gmen. 0 ' e m n w O m-. Mr. W. R. Rees-Davies (Isle of piles the record. Lt is made availabl~ to the board which decides whether the Than et): I should like to take the opporman 1s suitable to be employed fur,ther tunity of touching on a few of the points ot not. Then we come to the stage when which have been made in the debate,-parthe man is informed of uhe decision, ahd ticularly about the procedure which has he· has an· opportunity of appealing . to been laid down. I do, nor wholly· agree "the three wise men." . Here I think with the· arguments which have been ad~ there are very grave defects in the dressed to the House that the Government machinery provided by the White Paper. have not provided adequate measures in this White Paper. • It is argued thaf one cannot have an accused person, interrogating witnesses Before I do that, however I want ·to because they might be doi,ng secret work deal with a matter which, I believe, is for the security forces. That migbt be also of very great importance and which true if a Communisit·is confronted with has not been referred to' so far. The non-Communist police spies. At such a terms of reference provided for !'he Corr, hearing the value of the police. agents ference of Privy Councillors were : would at once disappear. But if tJhey "To examine the security procedures ·now · d b h d applied in the public services and to. consider cannot be cross-examme Y t e accuse whether any further precautions are called for himself, is that any bar· to their being arid should be taken." • • cross-examined by someone acting for the I am most deeply concerned about the accused? We come back to the question personnel employed in our s~cret ser~ of the right of advocacy on behalf of vices at present. I believe thf.J,tif they are someone _wihois brought before the board. not very careful the Government will lose Secondly, it is said that we cannot.have now, or very· soon, some cif the best a public trial and, 1n most ,cas_es,me~ are intelligence men, foreigners and Englishnot charged but are hr.ought up on sus~ nien, employed in those ·services; and for picion. • Is there any re!!S-011 why a pri_vate this reason. Quite rightly, as a general trial should not be made more effective principle, the Civil .Service works not and more· in accord with judiciaj. pfo,:- riiuch on si.;ifabilitybut upon ·tlie stai,v:t· cedures which· we have in trhis country? ard of service which· has oeen S(;}t over - - ., ~o ~ BOl (.onsolidated Fund Bill- 21 MARCH 1956 Public Services (Security). . 13.04 years and by the precedents which ther~ I wish now to say why I support the by are retained in its traditions, White Paper, even paragraphs 15 and 16, It so happens that the men who are w~ich_b~vebeen so severely criticised, i employed upon security work may be thmk 1t ,1s'Yell kno;wn that _I have myself temporary civil servants not permament been assoe1a,~edv.:1tha wide range of civil servants. This work may be the recomme:ndat10~s.1n t~e rule of la~, 9.IJ only work they do, and they may come reforms m a~mm1strat1velaw and m tnfrom any country in the world. There b;-1nals?a;1d m ma:1y other matters a~sois real danger at the moment that in the c1aited_v.:1th the liberty of the subJ_ect. quite proper comb out of the Civil Service Wh)'. IS _it,.th~, that, broadly speakI1:g, in. order to· try to get rid of a certain I think 1:t1s nght to say that th~ s~cunty number in each Department for r.conomy of the Sta.te may mean. that ~ne Jeopar_reasons we may so purge ourselves as discs so;11eof the most _precious ~ss~ts to lose some of the most useful, men. of. the liberty of the subJect? It 1s for 1 • • this reason. In one of our intelligence services there are several men who are under notice to In the .Secret Service, in espionage and go within the next few months. One of in security work, it is well known· that, these is one of the greatest coding expert~ as distinct from a person who lias mere in rhe world. I need not say more than access to certain documents, man that, a 'i:nanwi,th remarkable knowledge employed takes, and understands that he of cip.he_rand codin_gwork, whos·e entire . takes, what may be described as the trade d risk that he will never in a court of law a 1,Jltlife has been devoted to intelligence or before an adequate ·tribunal be able work, and who has been working for the past ten years in the service of this coun- to explain his dismissal or. have it try, is a man w.hois irreplaceable.. When explained. He realises that. It is a risk I tell the House that. he is a temporary of his occupation. In ordinary circumcivil servant with a salary of only £SSO stances of employment, an employer, if he h H dismisses a man, has not to assign reasons a year t e ouse can see how easy -i,tis for the dismissal: none whatsoever. One to lose so1:1ebodyreally valuable: can employ an office·boy or a domestic ,.I turn to the question of the further servant or· a factory worker and may precautions which, I believe~ should be dismiss·him and give no reason. taken~ There are in this country and ,in There js no obligation as such upon the the Middle East a number of men with Civil .Service to state reasons for dJslife-long .'experience, aliens -and. English- .missal, . J _thjnk it is an admirable premen, who can be •of the- grea;test assist- cedent that it has so developed that, in ance to us at preselllt in strengthening fact, it does give reasons. It is admirable our security services in the Middle East. • that there is a tribunal to which dismissed I know none of those services, but I know that there are people, certainly the Turks, civil servants can go, and before which the reasons, such as they are,' can be and people of ot,her nations, who are stated. I agree with the argument made highly critical of the extent and scope of that if we set up a tribunal we should our security measures in that part of the by_all me.ansmake it effective. We must, world in the light of the upheavals that tl,1.erefore,give a right of representation have recently taken pla~e and are taking by .solicitor and counsel.· I must agree place there. with that. • I hope, therefore, that in considering · However; in security I am by no means these questions of security we shall apply sure there ought to have been any such this principle, that for this work suit- tribunal or any right given of represenability shall be the sole and supreme ,tes,t, tation or of reasons to be stated, for this and realise that we cannot take irito is really a question of the policy of the account questions of precedence and pro- Minister. If one is deciding between one motion·which apply to the normal grades ~PYand another, or upon the employment of the Civil Service ; and tltat we shall of one person or _another on a task of see that we do secure and retain suitable secret diplomacy, it is not really a riien 'in our security services, thus pro- question of whether he has given .so many tec~ing our interests and ensuring the years of service or not ; it is a question of qiamtenance of the great reputation our whether he is the most suitable person ~ritellige_nce serv~cesin ,t.liepast J1av~won. for the job. If ~·.man wants to take up a 26 H 35 . ' . 000034 I I �Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur l'acces a l'informotian . .. 1305 ponsolidated Fund Bill-.. - 2LMARCH ,1956' Public Ser>?ices (Securit~ 1306 , [MR. Ri:;Es,-DAVIE$,] ... l worked_with 1?urgessfor-long.enough. employment of that sort, he must accept to , kno:w h,1shabits. ·Anyone -who had . all .the dangers associated with it, includ- . close contact with- .him could have jng the possible loss of employment. realise\:!.not only. his brilliant intellect but. I think it is important that' that vie\v the .:defectsof his conduct and behaviour: should be expressed in the House, even and could .have judged. how unreliable he although it is one I express with' great might ..become. in .certain circumstances.· misgivings. because of my own very Therefore, I say that there was a failure s~rong feelrngs a~out •the principle of the of the normal ,operation of judging people·. liberty of the mdividual and of fair on the part of superior officers. A weak- . !re~tment. A!l I am really saying is that ness in public administration is the failure 1t 1s a question of an understood· and ~f,members of one class to judge objecaccepted risk, and that .it is a matter tively and courageously members of the within the determination of the Minister same class. I should not be at all surprised if that was not the real explanation in charge. of what happened in this case. • This White Paper, of course, touches The truth is· that most of -this· trouble on_ly_the friage of the subject.. I hope Mm1sters gave. deep 1nd anxious thought , comes from. university graduates. It is' to ~he whole scope of our security not the humdrum civil servant with the ~ervrces. I hope they bore in mind the bowler hat and umbrella, who ca,tches the· unportance of seeing that the finest men 5.20 from Victoria, who is the unreliable and wo~en, not only English subjects civil servant. He is not the one for whom • but subJects of other countries who are this White Paper is published. It seems friendly disposed to us, are able to be that life in universities encourages riotous employed and to continue to be employed living-and love of social life and parties, s3:tisfactorily,a1;1~ judged not by the yard- and these people come into the Civil -Serstick of the Cml Sernice, on the basis vice infected with their • experiences as I hope that that is of _the length of •their employment; but undergraduates. entirely by their suitability individually neither ,preaching a class war nor being for the work which we wish them to do unfair to university-trained civil servants, for the security and benefit of our country. but the belief in the Civil Service is that all these people !lang, together, that they 6.8 p.m. , , do not let each other down, 1tndthat:they Mr. Douglas Houghton (Sowerby): The all gather round and shield their own close interest which has been taken on class from ,the critical ga,ze of those who both sides •of the House in this White might expect better of them. Paper, and also the anxieties expressed There is no doubt that a lower-grade on both sides of the House, lead me to civi'l servant stands much greater risk ·Of make a suggestion to the Home Secretary being bundled out for unsuitability or about future action. undesirable behaviour, than does a . This is <;ineof the concluding chapters member of the administrative class. m the affair of -Burgess and Maclean. I There is not the slightest doubt about did not seek to intervene in the earlier that, ~nd I speak from long experience debates on t,hem for two reasons. · One, i:n connection with the public sei::vice. in conduct and character are, of was that I had a representative post on Defects· course, important, not only in relation the Civil Service National Whitley Coun- to security risk but to suita:bility to be cil, and the second was that I worked in retained; in the public service. Certain close assodation with Burgess for three standards are required in tlhe• public years. I have always found it very -diffi- service and should be insisted upon, but. cult to believe a great deal of what was we have to be careful not to make the • said about him. I certainly wish to asso- cure worse than the disease. ciate myself with the comments made by Another weakness of administrati:oh is the hon. Member for Orkney and Shet- the speed winh which general conclusions land (Mr. Grimond), that the trouble are drawn from particular cases. I could about Burgess was not the failure of our give· many examples of how elaborate security arrangements but the failure of precautri.omshave •been taken in public his superior officers to judge him courage- administration to· close gaps or guard· ously and objectively on, his· behaviour. against weaknesses or difficulties· which 26 H 36 1307•· .,solidatedFu11dBill-'--' 21 MARCH ·t956· PublicServices(Security) . ~308 have· appeared only rarely· or even, .i,n One can understand that tbe •represensome cases, only ·once. In the White tatives of· the staffs of the Civil Service~ Pape.: there is scarcely a genera.Jisation feel themselves at'· a great disadvantage for .which a plausible defence cannot be , in• trying to reach agreement with the found. One might say, "Look at all Official Side of the National Whitley of them. Ye•s, that seems reasonable. Council on difficult matters of this kind The country must not be put in jeopardy. upon· wliicli it can be said, "The House The public se,rvice must be like Caesar's has 'decided, Parliament has approved wife," and so on. But when we come • the White Paper, and this is the frameto apply these thrngs we run into work within which our discussions and diffiouJ.tie:.s. •hope of agreement must take place." The Civil' Service is now being asked Criticism has been made of the existto accept new conditions which will ex~ ing procedure regarding the "three wise pose civil servants and thei'r personal men" and the ban on trade union or lives and associations to closer observa- legal representation on behalf of an tion and scrutiny.· It may not be so· accused officer. Reasons were given for difficult to impose new conditions when it at the time, but probably the House recruiting new people to the publtc ser- would wish to examine it afresh and vke. After all, those who apply to enter wish to' see all the new rules and reguthe .p11blicservice can expect to satisfy lations when they have gone through the all reasonable requirements and tests of machinery of the National Whitley their suitability and reliabilrty, but these Council'-.to discover whether the . House new principles will be applied· to serving can then recognise the ~pplication of the ci,vil servants.. We c~n all imagine what principles embodied iJJ.the White Paper we should feel like if we had been in of which we shall shortly be asked to an. occupation, trusted servants in a approve; responsible sphere of the public administration, if, i'n applying the new conditions Mr. S. Silverman : We are having a· laid down in the White Paper, offensive· general discussion of the White Paper tests and interrogations were to fo11ow: ,on the Third Reading of the Gonsolidated Fund Bill. . The House is being We should ask ourselves ·how para- given no opportunity at all, as far as graph 15 of the White Paper is to be I understand it, to express approval or applied. Does it mean k•nocking at the disapproval of the White Paper, except door and aski'ng to see our wives when individually. we are not at home and an interrogating Mr. H~ughton : I accept that that is officer saying, "I have come to find out the technical position, but certain conwhether you are a Communist sym- ·clusions will be drawn from the fact that pathiser. I know you will not want to the debate taken place. I agree discuss th•is on . the doorstep, so please that we musthas not get those conclusions may I come in."? Is the House going to wrong. stan<;lfor that?. I am trying to impress upon the House Throughout the White Paper we shall that the next step is the discussion of see difficulties of application. I suggest the new rules mentioned in paragraph 11 to- th~ Home Secretary that when the of the White Paper, which states: procedure mentioned in paragraph 17 of "The measures necessary to carry out these the' -White Paper has been completed, reoommenda•tions will involve alterations in the· result of •it should be published in existing procedures. These alterations will be notified to the staff associations concerned and another White Paper for the information an opportunity given for representation to be of hon. Members.. The difficulty about made before the alterations are promulgated White Papers aqd documents of this in full." kind is that the House parts with them, I am asking that the Home Secretary· having expressed doubts and anxieties should assure the House that when the and approval and satisfaction and vary- time comes for the promulgation of the ·ing opfnions about them, and then leaves new ·and more comprehensive regulations, it· to the National Whitley Council t9 they shall be published in a further work out the rules and regulations which. •White·Paper so that the House may see will give effect to what are then judged them and, if it sees fit, provide a further to, b~ the decisions of the House. • short period of . parliamentary time to 26 H 37 000035 �I Document disclosed una'!!'fme Access to lnformotion "Acr-Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur raccesjf /'information ,. - 1309 Consolidated Fuf!d Bill-c- 21 MARCH: 1956 .· [MR. HOUGHTON.] , • ,. discuss them. At the.;mpment, the Civil Service is in 'no_·position to .,offset :the general conditio'ns. which may be laid down by the 'Government-;with' some tacit consent, arid no more,-·of.theJiouse :.,-as a 'basis for neg9tiation and -.discussion on these ne;wregulations.. 'I hope -sincerely that this will prove· possible, because it would be a reassurance to the public service. • • I concJude by saying that I am sure that no one in this House, and, I hope no one outside, will think that he sees·in this White Paper a portrait of the Civil Service or a portrait of any but the rarest misfits and undesirables who have passed all the tests •and all the conditions for entering the public service: As my hon. Friend the Member for Walthamstow, West (Mr. Redhead) said, in his remarkable eloquent maiden speech, the -House will wish, notwithstanding -the attention it is having ·10 give to the White Paper, ·to renew its confidence in the public service generally. The House will wish to assure the service that noth_ingwill be done which will-give undue offence to the public service in carrying out the recom• unendations .of the ·Conference on the further measures to be taken on security grounds. . • Public Services (Securi. 41310 , disappearanpe. of the two former .Foreign <)ffic,eofficials; • • • • It,is obvious from' many of.the spe~ch.~s today that m~ny hon.· Members· are ,of the opinion that there is to .be a::big departure from the policy· 'folloWed by successive Governments. "I •assure ·the House as sin~erely as possible' ,that there is .no departure from the policy which successive Governments have laid down. . Tµe impression· .con:vey~d :t9 me by m_ost·of the speeches during the debate on 7th November was that what really disturbed hon; Members. was a reai anxiety that there was a defect in our security system which was having serious effects. In other words, that Jhe menace ,threatening this country. was what I call the ideological traitor.·. I do no_tthink' I ain misinterpreting the impression _which that debate gave. . • • Indeed, it was because of the genei:~l feeling then that this inquiry w·as held. It was urged upon us by hon. Members in aU parts of the 'House that somephingwas radically wrong. • •That suggestion was made by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Lewisham, -South (Mr. H. Morrison), and also by my hon. Friend the Member for Hexham (Mr. Speir) and by, the hon. Gentleman the· Member for Hammersmith, North (Mr. Tomney). The 6.21 p.m. _impression made upon me at tlhe time was The Se~retary of Stat~ for the Home that the anxiety about security was upperDepartment and Minister for · Welsh most in the mind of hon. Members and Affairs (Major Gwilym .Lloyd-George): not the fear that we were riding roughWe have had an interesting debate and shod over the liberties of the people. To some valuable speeches. I wisli particu- put it another way, not that we were doing larly to add my congratulations to those too much but that we were doing too offered to the hon. Gentleman the Mem- little. The real worry was that we were ber for Walthamstow, West • (Mr. being too liµeral in our aP,proach to the Redhead) on what •everyone will agree problem. T1his was why we had. the was a thoughtful and informative maiden inquiry. speech. I echo the view of my hon. and The Conference included two •of my learned ,Friend the Member for Hove (Mr. Marlowe) that we shall look forward right lion. Friends as well as myself; a to his interventions in future if they_are former Honie Secretary and my •rioble Friend, who is peculiarly ·concerned with of the standard which he offered today. certain aspects of securit:y. I hope I can I ~ould not help thinking, as• the hon. say,· whilst ·preserving due modesty, that' Gentleman was speaking, that the original the composition of the Conference was statement about security was made by his such tnat we might expect it· to inspire predecessor· in this House, the .present some confidence in this House. It was Earl Attlee. One thing which has -im• greatly strengthened by the addition of •pressed itself upon me during the debate the right hon. Gentlemaµ the M~mber for has been that it is a sequel to the one Lewisham, South, who is not only. a held on 7th November and that the White former Home. Secretary. but a.,.fonper Paper is a· sequel to the. one which, the Foreign Secretary, as well. In addition., then Fqreign Secretary-•presented. on the we had :the benefit of the n9ble Lqrd. 26 H 38. 000036 �Document 1scosed un er t e Access to rnforrrffifii5nlfcr• Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur /'acces /'information a ,:1311{jjj_11solldated -21·MARCH 1956 Services ·n12 -Earl Jowitt, and of.the.right hon. Gentle- Communists and, I· w0uld emphasise, ·man the -Memberfor Vauxhall {Mr.·G_..R. ··those associated:with.them_..:paragraph·15 .Strauss) wh9, in his former capacity, as -has come in for -some criticism, but I _Min}ster of_,Supply,_·had such· a·-wide • would emphasise "those associated with experience of· th:e problems with which .them "-are not employed: in the Civil the Coriferen<.ehad to deal. Service where they are in a position to get .: ·It Is obvious th.at we c~~ld not publi~h hold • of :secret information. Another the full Report. As my· right hon. Friend important point to be -remembered is .said in answer to a •question, we have "where they are in a position to get ho_ld p'ublished in the White ·Paper as much of secret information." That is a view as it is proper to do. I admit that it is which, I think, is accepted not only in this extremely difficult to •produce a White Hous_e_but by most people outside. ~Paper of .this .kind since it is undesirable · I remember an article in the Daily to disclose so-inuch of the· material, -but .Worker which followed the publication of -I hope it will give -satisfaction-to those the White Paper. The White Paper ·who, on 7th November, expressed doubts .brought- down the wrath of the Daily -as..to the secU:rity-services. • • W orker..,?What brough~-down that wrath · 'If is --true'•that·:,theConference''.recom- was not the threat to the rights of private mended cert~in' ·changes· which; ·were 'citizens, or the incursion into. the private ·designed to • ·strengthen our security 'lives of individuals. It was that, for con·systein. As the White ,Paper states; the ·venience. ancl brevity, we explained 'in Conference was satisfied· on -the general _paragraph 5 that the term" Communism" .issue.-that there w:as-·nothing orgartically was -used throughout the White Paper to .wrong with our secu~ity servi~es, and. I cover Communism and -Fascism alike. hope -that. this will allay .the anxiety of That is what really annoyed- the those.who have the -impressionthat th1<te l)aily Worker, but,:we were, of course. is something fundamentally unsound with right to use tha.t -term for brevity. the.system. -. • • . . I have thought it right to remind the On the suggestion that w~ are taking ·House of these two findings of the Coil.'much wider ·powers, may I point out .that .ference because, on the face of it, they •sev_era;I speakers·in the debate last Friday are a· complete answer 'to •most of the • suggested that, we should take far' wider points made in the d_ebatelast November. ·powers for detaining\ suspects than we They- have established that the policy have· at present · On that issue the Con- followecj.by successive Governments durfer~nce ·gave a· definite 'and authoritative iiig thiHast 'eight years .has been right and ·answer. :It r"ecommended strongly that -11iat'the procedtites•,to ·give effect to that there should be no amendment of the faw policy·are sound. • ! : ' • • • in ,that respect,· and with this I-am sure • Thei;e. has: bee~ ~ore ~m'.phasistoday _,thatthe whole House• will agree. 011 a'-rath,er diffe·rent point.,· P.reviously, ' There is' little doubt in any ·quarter of the· House· was f?r more· concerned as to :the House about the menace which we wliether we had got the security which we are s·eeki"ngto combat. However. it may ought to havidor the safety of the coun_bewell to ·remind hon. 'Members of what try .. Today, there h1>s)Jeen far greater the Conference said.. It upheld the view, emphasis-I am not complaining about first publicly stated: by 'Lord Attle~, in it ; .I a_m.Q.1erely statjng the fact-on the 1948, that qne of· _tpe main dangers to fact tnat we are_'apparel).tlYpaying too security is presented by the Communist little ·attention to the rights of the private whose faith' overri{leshis normal loyalties indivicfoal. ·Doubts have j:;een expressed ·to his comitry,_ and induces the. belief today about the justification for the re•that it is justifiable to ·hand over secret • comm¢ndations in • the White Paper information to the· party or to a Com- designed to strengthen the .present security -munist foreign.·Power. • As I .said just system. now, no departure·,at all has been made .·_ It is a very uridenitandable reaction to from. th~t.. . . . . ,. •,. . .· question the-need for measures, some of ' I hope, therefore; that· it· is ·common which are certainly. alien to our liberal ground,,that the·.Government ~re right in -traditions, anc;l for that re3:son adopted pursuing the policy adopted ·by·successiv:e -with considerable reluctance. However, Governments in.recent years of making.it I should like to make three points in reply one of their main objects to· ensure that to those who may still feel that such Fw1d.Bill,;;.;_ . Public (Security} . 26 H 39 000037 �I Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur l'acces,i:J/'information '1ft 1313 CimsolidatedFund Bill-:- 21 MARCH 1956 PublicServices (Secur(. • , :.> •1314 • [MAJORLLOYD-GEORGE.l • • ,_' .. The Conference had no• intention of '' "measures are unnecessary. First, however sugg~ting • thait anything short of .. tt:ie distasteful were the measures which sue.- fullest, possible investigation should be cessive Governments over the last few made in an.endeavour to resolve doubts years have bad to fake, we cannot sit or of dei1ying t~ a civil:ser-vant tq~ right back and do nothing while our security is and opportunity to state his case. It is imperilled .by a mena·ce, the existence of frequently very difficult to decide wh~ther which is accepted on all sides. . the S~te .is jusitified.in .trus,t,inga, man . Secondly, while some of our counter- with iits secrets. I can assure the House measures, it is true, are alien to our liberal -I say thjs with knowledge~that •the itraditions, so is the. menace which they very greatest care .is. taken at all. stages set out to circumvent. That is a point that to make a fair an9 honest appraisal of we must never forget. As my right hon. the facts. The problem· is sometimes to Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer judge the state of a man's mind now, or said in the November debate, Com- to judge how he would react to: a patmunism has set progress back three cen- ticular situation in the future.· •• • turies.. We are now, thanks to Communist . Nor can we afford to neglect the danger activities, back in •the age when a man of a man who, ;hi~self completely innowho holds this new creed thinks it loyal cent, constitutes a.risk; to security because, to be disloyal .and has no scruple about for,example, he h~s relatives behind the betraying his own country. We are, there- Iron Curtain. The right hon. Gentleman •fore, driven into adopt~ngsteps which we the Member for Vauxhall drew attention take only because of prot_ectingthe liberal to that kind of risk during•the ,debate on traditions that we in this country hold atomic energy in April, 1954. :I am sure dear. he was right and that we must treat Thirdly, while I do not for a moment l'_ersons. of that ch3racter as, security under-rate the hardship of those who, be- nsks. .• . cause they are-adjudged to ,be· the dupes I am equally certain that the Conof t:he Communis.t creed, are moved to ference of Privy Councillors·was right in Cltherwork or; if it is impossible to find enjoining us to watch the :risk to security non-secret work for them, Jose their which 'may be caused by the man under appointments in the Civil .Sei;vice, I the influence of a -close relative who is a should like to make one comment .on ~omrµunist. • In any such case, of coµrse, that. Hard as their lo:t.is, we can all we shall do our best to see that the man make a shrewd ,guess as to what their who has to be taken off s1::eret,work"gets lot would have ·been had. they been em- employment in some oth<erbranch of.the ployed in the Civil Service of a ·Com- Civil Service. . . munist Power, and it had been discovered The second general point.that I would that they belonged to or sympathised with make is that if must never be supposed a movement holding views about Com- that when we are dealing with cases of munism analogous to those which this kind, any more than when ·we ~r~ Communists hold about democrattc dealing with the other case to which the government. . • • • • Conference referred-the civil servant I do not propose to discuss the recom- with a serious character defect-we shall mendations of the Conference in detailwork to set rules:· The suggestions in the it would take a very long lime to do White Paper are purely examples of the so-but I think the House would wish sort of defects which might be looked me to deal with one general point. The at, and, of course, it is vitally important White Paper says, on the one hand, that that that should be known. The hon. it is sometime,s necessary to refuse to Member for Bristol, South~East (Mr. employ a man on secr~t duties bec,ause, Benn) asked me whether I had ever after the fullest investigation, doubts known of a spy who had become· one about his reliability remain, and, on the because of character defects. other, t)lat in deciding borderline cases it-is right to continue the practice-I say Mr. Benn : Nd, because of blackmail. "to continue the practice" deliberatelyMajor Lloyd-George: I am sorry ; I of tilting the balance in favour of offering have not got an example of one:of·those, greater protection to the •security of t·he ·.but I. could tell the hon .. Member of State rather than in the direction·of ·safe- ;quite a )lumber. who came to· serious guarding the ri!§hts of the individual. trouble because of very serious defects, /,16H !10 000038 �ocument 1scose un er e ccess o Do_cumentdivulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a /'information 1315' .solidatedFund Bill- 2f'MARCH 1956 Public Services (Set11rity)' , .1316 though I have not got a case of black- May I say, further, that there-is no danger :mail in mind at the moment. • I could in this country of witch-hunting for the' not give an example bf blackmail with.:. sake of· witch-hunting. It is obvious, of out some research;but for people coming course, that there is a great deal of to what I •inight call a " sticky end " information which cannot in any circumbecause of character defects, I could give stances be disclosed : every hon. Gentlea number of examples. It is a well- man in • every part of the House known fact that many of the finest spies appreciates that. • were chosen because they were the type Most of the attack on our security of person who might encourage character services has not been that they were too defects, if I may put it that way. • severe, but that they were ·not severe Therefore, ·character· defects of one enough. -The effect of the debate on 7th for:m ·or another are of tremendous • November was not to criticise the security importance.. I am not _saying that services b"ecause of the ghastly methods spying and blackmail necessarily. go they used, but to suggest they were not together ; there ca:n be the blackmailing really strong enough. of a person who was not exactly a spy. The right hon. Gentleman the Member fo any case, it is a •danger, though only for Grimsby (Mr. Younger) asked for one' of· the many dangers which· are some figures about purging. • I have the obvious weaknesses, •I should. have figures for the last five years. The total thought, in • any system of sec:urity. of those purged was 62. Of those; nine Furthermore, I am certain that still the were in the •higher executive or higher best protection we can give to the indi- ranks, and· 53 were in the lower ranks. vidtial is to contiriue to rely upon the That is a total of 62' out of a nonresolve :of Ministers to consider these industrial figure of -650,000 • and an cases 6n their inerits and to reach in each industrial figure of 400,000. case the best judgment which.it is possible I do ·not think that those results bear for a htiman bein_gto reach. .. . out any attack on the Civil Service. I Questions have been asked of me am very happy, ·as Wf! all are, to endorse today about the terms of reference what has been said today about the Civil mentioned in paragraph 16 of tb,e White Service, and I feel that those figures give Paper .. _It i_s_important to remember that_ some indication of the position. On the in this particular case,. as in_ so many, whole, there is no laxness in the security th_estaff side. would be involved°and con- services, but it could not possibly ·be· imitation, :will have to take place with ,held. against them that the security services them. As soon as this has been cione; were making life intolerable for many the House will be informed. I do want people. I think those figures prove that •. to make t_his•perfectly clear: it is not The White Paper, has, in· my submisaltogether • against the interests of the sion, •• esiabiished three -·propositions : individual involved when the powers and first, that our 'policy - o_f regarding the terms of reference are extended; because Communist. and Comimuiist sympathiser it may enable far more information about as· a menace to our security is the right a particular person to be bbtained which policy for any Government to follow ; could •well be to his ·advantage. It does . secondly',· that our existing· procedures !:1Ptrtec_~ssarily• work one \Vay. In:.any are fundainentally' sound; thirdly, ·that in c;ase, it ':"ill q~the subject of discussions following our • policy and in applying· with 'the :staff side, and then the House our_ procedures it •is right _that the will 'be informed. ,• • Government should continue, as they mean to· ·do, within the limits imposed· Thirdly,_ I. would _li¼:e t9 emphasise thai by this new menace to our· national way. the grea,test carn_is taken in_investigating of life; to 'pay due· regard to the position all cases of sm;pects,, .J assure the House of ·the individual. ' that an adverse decision -is not reached • I submit that with these propositions· excypt after the most. ca~eful ·,eva1u_ation established, on the findings of this very of all ·considerations-·telling in' favourresponsible bbdy, and with 'the assur• this is very important:...c..tellingin:·favour ance that the Government intend· to do of as well'as against the suspected person·: an·that they· cart 'to prevent their policies Speaking with ·knowledge, may I say that arid procedures impinging -unfairly on: J.,ha:vethe greatest' confidenc·ein the· skill human" rights, the House can· rest ·content' arid: expetiertce of 01.ir • s~ciuity· services; with.'the firtdirtgsof the inquiry. ' • •. 0 26 H 41 000039 \ �• Ogcument disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur l'acces"'1/'information ...., J 317 , Consolidated Fund Bill- 21 MARCH 1956 POLIC.E FORCES (PAY) 6.46 p.m. Mr. James Callaghan (Cardiff, SouthEast) : Before we give a Third Reading to the Consolidated Fund Bill, I wish to draw the attention of the House to a matter ·which concerns the police service, and to ask the House whether they will consider that the case I • wish to make does not require further consideration by the Home Secretary. • • • I should like to preface my recital of the facts by saying that I have no desire at all to bring this matter before the House of Commons. In my view, all matters concerning pay and conditions of service in the police forces should be settled through the normal negotiating machinery which bas recently been set up for them. It is the intention of the police themselves that they should settle these matters through those channels. I have been asked, however, to raise this matter this evening because the police feel that the proper channel of negotiation on this question of police pay has been blocked and that, accordingly, their only recourse is to bring the matter to the House. The House will know that there was an increase in pay conceded to the police service following the arbitration tribunal award of December last. The Home Secretary brought in regulations on 16th December to give effect to ,that award. I ought to say that the arbitrators doubled the offer which had been made by the official side of the negotiations, an offer which had properly. been rejected by t·he staff side ; and, clearly, the view of the staff side was supported by the arbitration tribunal. ·• That last factor, if I may say so, is a count in this particular complaint, that at no stage have the negotiations been conducted in accordance with- modern ideas of negotiation which should have infiLtra-tedthrough ,the mind even of the Home Office in 1955 and 1956. We -regret very much that we had to go to arbitration. We were delighted with the :,;esult, because we thought ,that it did justice to the police service. During the course of the hearing, it became clear that although this claim on behalf of the· police bad been put in in Jtine,. the hearing was taking place in ,26 H !'I~ Police Forces (Pay). 1.. • i318 November, and the arbitratots' awa.rd was to be made in December, the police could· noit have their claim back-dated earlier than to the date on whioh the Home Secretary made his regulations· tihat is to say, 16th December. ' It was a remarkable tihing-indeed, a very rare thing in my experience-that the official side at the hearing, contesting the claim of the police, expressed sym• pathy with tthe point of view, put forward on behalf of the staff side, that there should be a measure of resJ:.rospectionfor any new scales which the arbitrators might award. In fact, a date was· mentioned by the official ·side during the course of the hearing. The official side spokesman said in the arbitration court· that his side thought tha:t any new scales which were awarded should take effect from 81lh September. Because of tihe delay in getting the arbitration _ and making the regulations, the new scales did not take effect u.ntil 16th December. In their award the arbitiators refe~red to this matter-they were independent arbitrators appointed by the Home Secretary-and said: • •~: ' " T~e Official side, however, expressed their syrnpat,hy (which we share)"• that is, the arbitrators" to~ards some m~s'ure of retrospective opera:. tion being given to any increase of pay awarded, although they did not concede •that 1Hh June, 1955, was the agreed date, even if retrospection was legally l:'ermissible." . We are, therefore, faced· with. the position .that after a long struggle . the police were awarded scales of pay by arbitration far better than the official side was prepared to give. The police got the award after a delay of many. months, after a statement by the official side that it thought that the delay was of &ucha nature· that the scale should be backdated, after the arbitrators themselvessaid that in their view there might be some measure of retrospection-at any rate. that they had sympathy with it, I do not want to put the case too high. Nevertheless;we are faced with a situation today in which these scales of pay have been fixed by reference to 16th December, and everything before that date has been completely ignored. I understand that in the Consolidated Fund Bill the Home Secretary could have made provision· for money which would have met this retrospective claim. • I want to • 000040 "' �Document d/Sc/osed under meAccess f8lfl}OffTIUl)Jil kl Document divufgue en vertu de fa Loi sur /'acces a /'information .. Fund Bill21 MARCH 1956 Police Forces (Pay) 1320 know w y the Home Office has not made introduced this machinery,, the Home provision for retrospective pay for the Secretary really ought to take the police police force which, on all sides, has been into his confidence and explain why it is conceded as justified; and I think that 1 not possible to do this. We hold the have maµe my case about that. view that it is possible to do it· in, the We saw the Home Secretary, who re- Consolidated Fund Bill, which ·presents ceived us very courteously indeed, and the very opportunity for meeting this parwho expressed sympathy with our case. ticular claim. He was not the first Home Secretary to We therefore put two considerations to do so. ·Three years ago the then Home the Home Secretary. First, why has it not Secretary, formerly Sir David Maxwell been possible to meet this claim when Fyfe and now Lord Kilmuir, told the the Home Secretary has at his disposal Police Federation that he, too, was sym- the machinery of the Consolidated Fund pathetic about the defect in the Police Bill? Secondly; wiU the Home Secretary Act, 1919, which makes it impossible for ask his officers to conduct future negoretrospection to be given earlier than the tiafions as though they were negotiations operative date. Three years have gone and not just statements handed down by, and although I ·am told that through from on high. When reasonable cases Lord Kilmuir the Government at that are put forward, people expect reasonable time promised to introduce legislation, ~rguments in return. no legislation has been produced. In We now propose to take the matter consequence this situation has arisen. We further. We intend to ask the independent went to the Home Secretary-arbitrators to consider this particular Sir Ian Fraser (Morecambe and Lons- dispute. Can we have an assurance from dale): When the hon. Member says the Home Secretary that if, in their tum, the arbitrators translate the sympathy "we," who are "we"? • they expressed into positive recomrnenda• Mr. Callaghan : I thought I had made tion. for which we shall now ask, he will, tb~t clear at the beginning of my speech. in the next Consolidated Fund Bill, which I am speaking on . behalf of the. Police will come forward in Ju]y, ask for the Federation, whose consultant I am in sum of money required to meet any .claim these matters. I have made that clear COilCededby the arbitrators? on previous occasions. I think that the That is the case which I have put position /is well known to the Home shortly and succinctly,. There is very Office. much more I should like to say. It is The present Home Secretary listened known to all my hon. Friends that in to us for about an hour. We put our all industrial negotiations, back-dating is case, against which no argument was conceded. Only a few classes, teachers, , produced. The response to that con- members of fire brigades, the police,. and sidered case was a letter from an under- a few others do not benefit from retrosecretary in the Home Office which was spection. The Police Federation asks dated 9th March> 1956. The substance that these facts should be made known to the House and that the obscurantism was this: of the Home Office can be made known "The Secretary of State has carefully conso that hon. Members can form their sidered the view expressed by the deputation, but he has reached the conclusion that it woulo own judgment. not be possible to give retrospective effect to 6.59 p.m. the December award." The Joint Under-Secretary of State for That was all we got. the Home Department (Mr. W. F. There wasno attempt to argue the Deedes) : While by no means accepting case, no attempt to say that the represen- the latter part of the remarks of the hon. tations would be considered, or that they Member for Cardiff, South-East (Mr. could not be considered because of a, b, Callaghan), I agree that the case resolves c,. d, or e, no attempt to say that we itself into two issues, whether the pay should have made the case in another award to federated ranks of the police way. There was a blank standing on service on 15th December could, by authority which made a mockery of nego- regulation or any other means, be made tiations. There is a very strong feeling retrospective, and; whether provision to in the. Police Federation that, having make such pay awards retrospective is 1319' !nsolidated ' ' 26 H 43 000041 �----------------------z:oio'ocaummieennttidTi',is;cclioosSEe0duumnd1f.e~r tile Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Lai sur /'acce!flti /'information ".;-.;:,'I 1.321 .Consolidated Fund Bill--:. (MR. DEE[;?ES.] 21 MARCH 1956 • desirable and our intentions on any such legislation as might be needed. It is generally accepted, and I think that the hon. Member will concede it~ . that retrospection cannot properly b'e given by means of regulations. That has been done in the past in very isolated instances, but it has become the Government's view, and it was also the view of our predecessors, that Statutory Instruments should not be made · with retrospective effect without expressed statutory provision. That being so, alternatives have been canvassed. The most significant was .the proposal of the hon. Member himst;lf to give retrospective effect to the December award by the introduction of a Supplementary Estimate in advance of legislation. That is an issue which has been very thoroughly explored and I want to mention only one difficulty, but a particular one, about implementing it. Such a Supplementary Estimate could cover only the Exchequer share of the retrospeptive payment. It would not meet the problem of empowering police authorities to make the payment. I will not elaborate that point. Use of Section 228 of the Local Government Act, _1933.to •Police Forces (Pay)'.- • •• :322 indemnify police authorities would not meet the case. Mr. Callaghan: If that is the case, why cannot there be adopted the procedure which is used for chief constables who get back pay because their own salaries are not covered by regulation, and in respect of whom the Home Secretary sends a circular to local authorities asking and advising them to make appropriate provision for those cases? Mr. Deedes: It is done by omitting specific awards from regulations, but that could hardly be done generally for all ranks .in the police. . On the occasion to which ·the hon. Member has referred, my riglit hon·. and gallant Friend said that this was a matter affecting . a much wider field than the police and the Home Office and he would have to consult his colleagues. . He is doing that and we hope that that may lead to-It being Seven o'clock, and there being Private Business set down by direction of The CHAIRMAN OF WAYS AND MEANS, under Standing Order No. 1 (Time for taking Private Business),.further Proceeding stood postponed. 26 H H 000042 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur l'acces /'information a ;. DEPARTMENT OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS, CANADA. / 1 �jAl' NUMBERED LETTER •... .,. TO: THE UNDE�-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR EXTERNAL AFFAIRS, OTTAWA, CANADA. t t Reference: t t t t t I t CA:I DA t t t ♦ t t t t t ., t I LONDOU • t I t t t t I t t t t t t t t I I I ♦ t I II t t t • !\-S� •. Ne:,: .•..•.....•.•....•..• FUI •••••••••••••••••••••• e /1 Security:.. •• � , HIGH C 01: ,1ISSIOliER OF THE THE OFFICE ........ . , ........... FROM : ........... I f t t I t t I I �r: . .];�.t. � �.r:. li<?.•.�t��-. 9f.. :P.� �-�J'.!11;.f:r..+.q" J..�!5 Subject:. -��.J?!)!:t ,qf,. �h� .. Q!).11.f.�r�.11�.�..�:f..-t:r.:1; YY. ..... £· . Date:....... .1:1?-. P. . ,1. ., .. 'J...Q ., , ...... F.nclosures: .... g1 ..... .... � : Air or Surface Mail: . /rJ-.r:...... , ....... , Poat File No:, . . , ... , .. , ... , , , .. , .. , , • • • Ottawa File No, ,,,,, ?o Su References On r,Iarch 8, 1956 the Prime l,.tini ster mad e the following statement on the Report of Privy Counci llors on Security: 'tihe Prime I.lini ster (Sir Anth ony Eden): Sir, I will, with permission, make a short statement on the report of t:e Conference of Privy Councillors on security. "A ';hit e .l:'a er i s being p ublishe d summarising such o f the conte of t1e report as can pro perly be made public, and copies will be available in The Governme nt h ave the Vote Of.fice inmed iately. decided to �ive effect to a ll the recommendations wh ich the Confere nce have ma.de. us,e� f-w I �,� RL�P Internal Circulation "I s'1.ould li ke to express the Governr:ient 1 s gratitude to the noble Lord, the Lord Chancellor, and the o ther noble Lords anc right hon. Gentlemen in this ouse who took part in the conference for the thoroughness and despatch with which they have pe rformed their t ask. 11 1 • Gaitskell, in a short reply, reserved his comments on the rep ort u ntil he has had an oppor­ tunity to look at the White .t'aper, but he joined with the Prime r.•inister in thankin.:, those respons ible for this report. Enclosed are twenty copies of the statement 2. on the fi r�dinss of the Conference of Privy Counci llors on Security (Cmd. 9715) which you may to the attention of the Security wish to brin panel and other ofi'icials concerned with t1n.s lso i1 ttac_1ed are copies of leaders from p.'oblem. the Times and .11.ancheste1" Guardian of Ii.arch 9 on this subject. Distribution to Posts We hope to be able to comment in the near 3. future on the enclosed ihite Paper and shall send you any additional information we may be able to obtain. J v � � I� C ff Ext. 182A <Rev. 2/52) AL AD HOUSE 000043 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a /'information \95: tlAR\9 \ . . ., I , Ali 8 • 5 l J: ' . .I ...' 000044 �• 1 THE 1.1ANCHES!J.. EH GUATIDIAN, !,.arch SECURITY Security in the public service depends chiefly on two things•knowledge of any possible threat, and prudence in acting on that knowledge. The White Paper issued yesterday deals with the outer rim rather than with the heart of the matter. Of the conclusions reached by the Privy Counsellors' conference, it gives only those which can safely be made public. It says little about ways and means of finding out a possible threat. As Mr Macmillan said in the qebate on Burgess and Maclean, each department is still responsible for its own security. Is this arrangement to continue? It may be unsatisfactory; one does not know. Again, the White Paper says little about the weighing of information on possible threats to security-except that the Governmenf • is going to be very careful about it. The conference rightly holds that a mere "sympathiser" with communism may present a threat if he has access to secret information. (Or again, he may not; one must know something of his personal character in order to judge.) But" sympathiser" is a vague term ; everything depends on the 'prudence with which security is run, and prudence wqrks both ways. So too with the recommendation that departments should watch for the kind of loose conduct that may make a man unreliable whether or not he has any thought of spying. The danger is not so much tale-bearing as failure to act on common knowledge. The bad behaviour of Burgess and Maclean was so public that the Foreign Office must have been aware of it for a long time. But the "positive vetting" now applied to entrants may do a good deal to avoid this kind of threat from the start. The conference, in sum, agrees that the Government should go on casting its net wider than the small group of persons with declared Communist or Fascist allegiances. The way the White Paper puts it is rather unfortunate. It is right to continue the practice of tiltinir the balance in favour of offering l!reater protection to the security of the State rather than in the direction of safel(uardin.1t the ril!hts of the individu1L There is a risk of confusion here-the sort of confusion that has done great damage in the United States. A man's right to hold a particular job is not the same thing as " the rights of the individual." As Justice Holmes said, no one has a constitutional right to be a policeman. As an established Civil Servant a man has a right to fair treatment within the terms of his contract, to a properly conducted appeal against an administrative measure, and so on; he has no inherent right to promotion or to a particular post. As a citizen he has a right not to be deprived of his liberty or his character without due process of law. In practice the Government ran probably be trusted to shift or dismiss an unreliable man without blackening his character ; but it is something to gui3.rdagainst. On the other hand, some steps may be proper in the public service which would be improper in the country- at large. The conference rightly comes down against a general , power to detain people without charge or to stop them from leaving the country. That seems no reason why certain public servants should not, for instance, be asked to state where they •will be when they are absent from the office. Administrative safeguards of this kind need not interfere with the country's liberties. 12, 1956. �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loisur l'acces a /'information TIIB TitillS, 1 arch 12, 1956 • When Rights Conflict The conclusions of the Conference of Privy Councillors on Security are refreshingly calm and sensible. Their restraint and temper contrast well with the hysterical nonsense which was poured out in many quarters, some of which ought to have known better, during various stages of the BURGESS· MACLEAN story. As everyone who has had anything to do with it knows, the enforcement of security is no easy matter. There quickly and constantly occur occasions when what have hitherto always been considered inherent rights of any British citizen, including the right to the fullest and most obvious fair play, conflict with the right of the nation to be protected. A strong leaning towards the side of the individual still dominates the thinking of most people. It is part of our Liberal tradition. It would be a sad ·and dangerous-day when we had to begin instinctively to lean the other way. But Communism is a conspiracy as well as a political movement. And, as the Privy Councillors say, the State is driven to protect its security. The degree to which they advocate tipping the balance is reasonable. That the fact a man is a Communist should in certain circumstances affect his promotion is a frank acknowledgment of a problem which is bound to arise from time to time. It is also good to have it said in simple words by such authority that sometimes doubts about a man's reliability need to be decisive, "although nothing may have been proved against him on standards which would be accepted in a Court of Law." The staff associations who are going to be notified of the proposed changes are bound to be under some pressure to resist them. There will be a healthy desire to keep any encroachment by authority within bounds. The doctrine of "security risk by association" is certain to arouse fears and suspicions. But it is vital to every law-abiding man and woman that the State should be protected, and no one can say that the dangers to be guarded against are not real. In the final analysis the true safeguard of individual liberty is the climate of public opinion. The things the Conference have refused to recommend and the rather heavy weather they make over reports on defects of character show how little danger there is of the mark being overstepped. Our Victorian grandfathers would not have been one quarter so hesitant in such matters, especially where the public service was concerned. Parliament will be well 1 advised to accept the findings of the Privy Councillors as the PRIMEMINISTER has done, also their main conclusion that there is nothing organically wrong or unsound about the country's security arrangements. It was never these which were the gravamen of the case against the Government in the BuRGESSMkLEAN affair but the lack of frankness after the damage had been done. 000046 �Document di~c/osed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes /'information a .;··.; ,.:. i l • .Statement on •tbe Findings of the Conference of Privy· Cou~~illors ()p_ Security .i ' ·Presented to Parliament by the Prime Minister by Command of iler Majesty March 1956 l ·, .. -;,· LONDON. "HEf 'MAJESTY'S STATlONJ;:.RY SIXPENCE 'OFFI~E .. NET Cmd. 9715 000047 �Document di,cjosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a /'information .. ) 1. On 23rd November, 1955, the Prime Minister informed the House of Commons that a Conference of Privy Councillors had been set up with the following terms of reference;-,'~To examine the security. procedures now -applied in the public services and to consider whether any further precautions are called for and should be taken." . The Conference consisted of the following Privy Councillors:The Lord President of the Council; The Lord -Chancellor; The Secretary of State for the I;Iome Department; The Lord J owitt; The right hon. Member for Lewisham, South (Mr. H. Morrison); The right hon. Member for Vauxhall (Mr. G. R. Strauss); The Permanent. Secretary to Her .Majesty's 'Treasury. ' ' 2. ·The Conference have presented their Report and their ·recommendations have been considered by Her Majesty's Government. • 3. The Prime Minister ·stated on 29th November last that if there were steps which could be made public as a result of the Conference, there would, of course, be a report to Parliament. The Report of the Conference includes a close examination of the security procedures in the public :services, and it would not be in the public interest to publish the full text of the Report or to make known all its recommendations. But in compliance with the undertaking given by the Prime Minister, this White Paper gives the substance of the Report in so far as it can properly be made·public, including a number of specific recommendations. . 4. !he report st_artsby an ~nalysis of the general nature of the security nsks with which this country 1s faced to-day. The Conference point out that: whereas once ~he main risk .to b~ guarded against was espionage by foreign Powers -carped out by professional agents, to-day the chief risks ·are presented. by Communists, ~nd, by 9tller persons who Jor one reason or an_other are subject to Communist influence. The Communist faith overr~de~ a_ m~n's normal loyalties' to· his country and induces the· belief that 1t is Justifiable to hand over secret information to the Communist Party or to the Communist foreign Power. This risk from Communists _is not, however, confined to party members, either open or underground but extends to sympathisers with Communism. ' . 5. At one time the Fascist i~eol?gy ~lso presented considerable security nsks. A:Ithough to-day tJ:ie _chief ~1sk is that presented by Communism, the security arrangements mstltuted m 1948 were directed, and will continue to be ~irected, against .Communism and Fascism alike. In this paper for convemence and brevity the term " Communism " is used to cover Communism and Fascism alike. • 6. One of the c~i~f problems .of security to-day is thus to identify the mem?ers _ofthe Bnt~sh Communist Party, to be informed. of its activities and to i_deµtify that .w1:derbody _of th<?~ewho are both •sympathetic to Commumsm, or susceptible to Com~umst- pressure and present a danger 2 , to secu;ity, Thereafter steps must be taken to see that secret information ~not handled by anyone who, for ideological or other motives, may • betray it. 7. Her Majesty's Government agree with this broad analysis and will continue to base their policy on .preventing persons of this nature from having access to secret information. 8. Against the background of this 'general analysis, of which only a very brief outline has been given, the Conference address themselves to an examination of the Government's security arrangements. Their main conclusion is that there is nothing organically wrong or unsound about those arrangements. They make, however, certain recommendations, the purpose of which is to strengthen the system in some respects. Her Majesty's Government propose to give effect to all the recommendations which the Conference have made. 9. The Report of the Conference deals with the public services generally. But it is implicit in the Report that the Conference recognise that in certain areas of the public service-notably in the Foreign· Service, the Defence field and the Atomic Energy Organisation-the need for stringent security precautions is greater than elsewhere, Her Majesty's Government accept this view. • 10. Some of the recommendations of the Conference deal with what may be callt;d the relation between security risks and defects of character and conduct. The Conference recognise that to-day great importance must be paid to character defects as factors tending to make a man unreliable or expose him to blackmail, or influence by foreign agents;- There is a duty on Departments to inform themselves of serious failings such as drunkenness, addiction to drugs, homosexuality or any loose living that may seriously affect a man'_sreliability. 11. There is a natural r'eluctance to make adverse reports on colleagues and nothing could be worse than to encourage tale-bearing or malicious gossip. Nevertheless, it is important to impress not only on Heads of Departments but on supervisory officers generally that it is their duty to knpw their staff and that they must not fail to report anything which affects security. This covers both evidence which suggests Communist associations or sympathies, and also serious defects or failings which_might jeopardise the security of the section of the public service in their charge. The Government accept this recommendation, although they recognise that the measures necessary to give effect to it will require very careful consideration. 12. While confining themselves to the security aspect of these defects of character and conduct, the Conference also record the view that in individual cases or in certain sections of the public service, a serious character defect may appropriately be the determining factor in a decision to dismiss a particular individual or to transfer him to other work. 13. The Conference aiso recommend that it should be recognised that the fact that a public servant is a Communist not only bars his employment on secret duties, but may also in some Departments have an unfavourable effect on his pro~ects of promotion. • 14. The Conference also make a series of recommendations which turn _on the risk presented by those in regard to whom there is no evidence that they are themselves members of the Communist Party, but evidence exists of Comnninist sympathies or of close association with members of· tp.e Communist Party. 3 49666 B 2 000048 �■. Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loisur l'acces a tn ormatton ••IL .. .. ►, 15. The Conference is of the opinion that in deciding these difficult a,nd_. often borderline cases, it is right to continue the practice of tilting the bala,~~I in favour of offering greater protection to the security of the State rather than in the direction of safeguarding the rights of the individual. They recommend that an individual who is living with a wife or husband who is a Communist or a Communist sympathiser may, for that reason alone, have to be moved from secret work, and that the sarp.e principle should be applied in other cases of a like nature. 16. The Conference recognise that some of the measures which the. State is •driven to take to protect its security are in some respects alien to our traditional practices. Thus, in order not to imperil sources of information, decisions have sometimes to be taken without revealing full details of the supporting evidence. Again, it is sometimes necessary to refuse to employ a man on secret duties, or in those cases where no alternative work can be found for him in the pubfo; service, to refuse to employ him at all, because after the fullest investigation doubts about his reliability remain, even although nothing may have been proved against him on standards which would be accepted in a Court of Law. The Conference agree regretfully that these counter-measures, although they are distasteful in some respects, are essential i~ the security of t?e State ~s to. b~ ensured. But they recognise that it is also important to convmce public op1mon that the measures taken and the procedures in force will not be exercised unreasonably. For this reason the Conference approve the Tribunal (commonly known as the Three Advisers) set up in 1948 to hear appeals from civil servants threatened on security grounds with transfer from secret duties or, when that is not practicable, with dismissal from the Service. This machinery should continue; and the person whose continued employment in Government Service is called in question on account of Communist association or sympathies will be able to have his case considered by it. The Conference also recommend that the terms of reference of the Three Advisers should be widened so as to enable them to present a fuller report to the responsible Minister. , ~hdrawal_ ?f a_ passp'?rt coul~ not be. relied upon to pr~vent. a United K.:u'Jgdom c1t1zenm conmvance with a foreign Power from leavmg the country. 20. For these reasons the Conference recommend that no additional powers should be sought to detain suspects or prevent them leaving the country. . ' .. 21. The second matter is that the Conference reviewed the existing procedures for the security of secret Government contracts involving persons outside Government employment. The Conference have considered whether persons subject to these procedures should be given the same right as is enjoyed by persons in the public service of having their case considered by the Three Advisers. The Conference recognise that this is a difficult matter, b~t are in favour, if .suitabl~ arrang_ements oan be made, of access being given to the s_ametnbunal m certam types of ,cases. They recommend, however, that m the ,first instance this matter should be discussed with the National Joint Advisory Council. .,,Arrangements for such discussion .to take place are being made. 17. The measures necessary to carry out these recommendations will involve alterations in existing procedures. These alterations will be notified to the staff associations concerned and an opportunity gi'v'.enfor representation to be made before the alterations are promulgated in full. This paper is therefore confined to giving the broad details of. the decisions reached. on tho~e recommendations which can be properly made public. 18. Two other matters should be mentioned. The first is that the Conference considered whether additional statutory powers ·should be sought to enable the Government to detain suspects or prevent them from leaving the country. 19. The Conference point out that, while an individual can be arrested on suspicion that he is about to attempt to convey secret information to a foreign Power, he must be brought before the courts on a charge without delay.. The time required to collect evidence upon which a charge can be based is often long, and the Conference dismiss any suggestion that power should be sought to detain persons for an unlimited period without preferring charges against them, on the grounds that this would run counter to this country's traditional principles of individual freedom, and would be most unlikely to be approved by Parliament in time of peace. They also come to the conclusion that legislation which would permit arrest and detention, without a charge being preferred, for a short specified period, say, fourteen days, would not be much help. The Conference also consider that the 5 4 49666 Wt. 1625/1188 K40 3/56 F,O,P, 000049 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulg'!e en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a /'information "Printed and published by HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE' To be purchased from York House, Kingsway, London w.c.2 423 Oxford Street, London w.l P.O. Box 569, London s.E.l 13A Castle Street, Edinburgh 2 109 St. Mary Street, Cardiff 39 King Street, Manchester 2 Tower Lane, Bristol I 2 Edmund Street, Birmingham 3 80 Chichester Street, Belfast or through any bookseller Price 6d. net Printed in Great Britain 000050 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Documen~ divuJgue en vertu de la Loi sur /'acces a /'information '11HE MANCHESTEH GUARDIAN, r.mrch 9, 1956. SECPRITY Security in the public service depends chiefly on two thingsknow ledge of any possible threat, and prudence in acting on that knowledge. The White Paper issued yesterday deals with the outer rim rather than .with the heart of the matter. Of the conclusions reached by the Privy Counsellors' conference, it gives only those which can safely be made public. It says little about ways and means of finding out a possible threat. As Mr Macmillan said in the debate on Burgess and Maclean, each department is still responsible for its own security. Is this arrangement to continue ? It may be unsatisfactory; qne does not know. Again, the White Paper says little about the weighing of information on possible threats to security-except that the Government is going to be very careful about it. The conference rightly holds that a mere "sympathiser" with communism m~y present a threat if he has access to secret information. (Or again, he may not ; one must know something of his personal character in order to judge.) But " sympathiser" is a vague term ; everything depends on the prudence with which security is run, and prud~nce works both ways. So too with the recommendation that departments should watch for the kind of loose conduct that may make a man unreliable whether or not he has any thought of spying. The danger is not so mflcb tale-bearing as failure to act on common knowledge. The bad behaviour of Burgess and Maclean was so public that the Foreign Office must have been aware of it for a long time. But the " positive vetting ,. now applied to entrants may do a good deal to avoid this kind of threat from the start. The conference, in sum, agrees that the Government should go on casting its net wider than the small group of persons with declared Communist or Fascist allegiances. The way • the ·White Paper puts it is rather ~nfortunate. It is right to continue the practice of tilting the balance in favour of offering greater protection to the security of the State rather than in the direction of safeRuarding the right.~ of the individu:il. There is a risk of confusion here-the sort of confusion that has done great damage in the United States. A man's right to hold a particular job is not the same thing as " the rights of the individual." As Justice Holmes said, no one has a constitutional right to be a policeman. As an established Civil Servant a man has a right to fair trea,tment within the terms of his contract, to a properly conducted appeal against an administrative measure, and so on; he has no inherent right to promotion or to a particular post. As a citizen he has a right not to be deprived of his liberty or his character without due process of law. I~ practice the Gover;nment can probably be trusted to shift or dismiss an unreliable man without blackening his character ; but it is something to guard a·gainst. On the other hand, some steps may be proper in the public service which would be improper in the country at large. The conference rightly comes down against a general power to detain people without charge or to stop them from leaving the country. That seems no reason why certain publio servants should not, for instance, be asked to state where they will be when they are absent from the office. Administrative safeguards of this kind ne~d not interfere with the country's liberties. �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur /'acces a /'information .s, rarch 9, 1956. When Rights Conflict The conclusions of the Conference of Privy Councillors on Security are refreshingly calm and sensible. Their restraint and temper contrast well with the hysterical nonsense which was poured out in many quarters, some of which ought to have known better, during various stages of the BURGESS· MACLEAN story. As everyone who has had anything to do with it knows, the enforcement of security is no easy matter. There quickly and constantly occur occasions when what have hitherto always been considered inherent rights of any British citizen, including the right to the fullest and most obvious fair play, conflict with the right of the nation to be protected. A strong leaning towards the side of the individual still dominates the thinking of most people. It is part of our Liberal tradition. It would be a sad-and dangerous-day when we bad to begin instinctively to lean the other way. But Communism is a conspiracy as well as a political movement. And, as the Privy Councillors say, the State is driven to protect its security. The degree to which they advocate tipping the balance is reasonable. That the fact a man is a Communist should in certain circumstances affect his promotion is a frank acknowledgment of a problem which is bound to arise from time to time. It is also good to have it said in simple words by such authority that sometimes doubts about a man's reliability need to be decisive, "although nothing may have been proved against him on standards which would be accepted in a Court of Law." The staff associations who are going to be notified of the proposed changes are bound to be under some pressure to resist them. There will be a healthy desire to keep any encroachment by authority within bounds. The doctrine of " security risk by association" is certain to arouse fears and suspicions. But it is vital to every law-abiding man and woman that the State should be protected, and no one can say that the dangers to be guarded against are not real. In the final analysis the true safeguard of individual liberty is the climate of public opinion. The things the Conference have refused to recommend and the rather heavy weather they make over reports on defects of character show how little danger there is of the mark being overstepped. Our Victorian grandfathers would not have been one quarter so hesitant in such matters, especially where the public service was concerned. Parliament will be well advised to accept the findings of the Privy Councillors as the PRIMEMINISTER has done, also their main conclusion that there is nothing organically wrong or unsound about the country's ecurity arrangements. It was never these which were the gravamen of the case against the Government in the BURGESS· MACLEAN affair but the lack of frankness after the damage had been done. 000052 �r Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a /'information Statement•on the Findings ' ... ' of the, Conference of . '' Privy.=Coun~ill9rs '.on· Security Presented ·10 Parliament"by the Prime Minister • by Corhrriandof Her Majesty • • , ~~rch .1956 • L.ONDON. HER· MAJESTY'S ·STATIONERY SIXPENCE OFFICE NET Cmd. 9715 000053 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a /'information a :f\ 1. On 23rd November, 1955, the Prime Minist'er informed the House of Commons that a Conference of Privy Councillors had been set up with the following terms of reference;, , •~To examine t~e security procedures now : applied in the public services and to consider whether any further precautions are called for and should be taken." , •. The Conference consisted of ·the following. Privy Councillors :The Lord President of the Council; The Lord Chancellor; •The Secretary of State for the Home Department; The Lord J owitt; ' The right hon. Member for Lewisham, South (Mr. H. Morrison); The right hon. Member for Vauxhall (Mr. G. R. Strauss); The Permanent Secretary to Her Majesty's Treasury. 2.: • The Conference have presented· their Report and: their recommendations have been considered by Her Majesty's Government. 3. The Prime Minister stated on, 29th November last that if there were steps which could be made public as a result of the Conference, there would, of course, be a report to Parliament. The Report of the Conference includes ~ close examination of the security ,.procedures in Jhe _public lservices, and 1t would not be in: the public interest to publish the full 'text of the Report. or to make known all its recommendations. But in compliance with the undertaking given by the Prime Minister, this White Paper gives the substance of the Report in so far as it can properly be made public, including a number of specific recommendations. . 4. !he re~ort s~arts by an ~nalysis of the general nature of the security nsks with which this cou°:try _is faced to-day. The. Conference point ou! that! whereas once ~he mam nsk to b~ guarded agamst was espionage by foreign Powers earned out by profess10nal agents, to-day the chief risks are presented.J;,y;,.G<;>m);t;tl.lµisti;;_ .and. py,. P!Li.erpeg;q:µ~_, "YPP•.for one reason or another are subJect . to Communist . infl,qence. The Communist faith over~de~ a_ m~n's norrriaT'foyalties' 'tci..hW' country and induces the belief that it IS Justifiable to hand over secret information to the Communist ~arty or to the Communist foreign Power. This risk from Communists IS not, however, confined to party members, either open or underoround. but 0 extends to sympathisers with Communism. • . 5. At one time the Fascist ideology also presented considerable security nsks. -'\!though to-day t!ie _chief ~isk is that ptesented by Communism, the secunty arrangements mshtuted m 1948 were directed and will continue to. be ?irected, against _Communism and Fascism alike. 'In this paper for convemence and brevity the term " Communism " is used to cover Communism and Fascism alike. . 6. • One of the c~i~f problems . of security to-day is thus to identify the members of the Bntish Commun1st·Party, to be informed of its activities ~nd _to· i9eJ1tifyi that .w,qyr, :b0dy of; th<?se·:Who are. •.both . sympathetic to Commumsm, • or susceptible to Comm~~ist ~ressure and present a danger 2 to security. Thereafter steps must be taken to see that secret information is not handled by anyone who, for ideological or other motives, may be~i~\t. • . 7. Her Majesty's Government agree with this broad analysis and will continue to base their policy on preventing persons of this nature from having access to secret information. 8. Against the background of this general analysis, of which only a very brief outline ha~ been given, the Conference address themselves to an examination of the Government's security arrangements. Their· main conclusion is that there is nothing organically wrong or unsound about those arrangements. They make, however, certain recommendations, the purpose of which is to strengthen the system in some respects. Her Majesty's Government propose to give effect to all the recommendation~ which the Conference tave made. 9. The Report of the Conference deals with the public services generally. But it is implicit in the Report that the Conference recognise that in certain areas of the ·public service-notably in the Foreign Service, the Defence field and the Atomic Energy Organisation-the need for stringent security precautions is greater than elsewhere. Her Majesty's Government accept this view. • 10. Some of the recommendations of· the Conference deal with what may be called the relation between security risks and defects of character and conduct. The Conference recognise that to-day great importance must be paid to character defects as factors tending to make a man unreliable or expose him to blackmail, or influence by foreign agents. There is a duty on Departments to inform themselves of serious failings such as drunkenness, addiction to drugs, homosexuality or any loose living that may seriously affect a man's reliability. 11. There is a natural reluctance to make adverse reports on colleagues and nothing could be worse than to encourage tale-bearing or malicious gossip. Nevertheless, it is important to impress ..not only on Heads of Departments but on· supervisory officers generally that it is their duty to know their staff and that they must not fail to report anything which affects security. This covers both evidence which suggests Communist associations or sympathies, and also serious defects or failings which might jeopardise the security of the section of the public service in their charge. The Government accept this recommendation, although they recognise that the measures necessary to give effect to it will require very careful consideration. 12. While confining themselves to the security aspect of these defects of character and conduct, the Conference also record •the view that in individual cases or in certain sections of the public service, a serious character defect. may appropriately be 1.he determining factor in a decision to dismiss a particular individual or 1.otransfer him to other work. 13, The Conference aiso recommend that it should be recognised that the fact that a public servant is a· Communist not only bars his employment on secret duties, but may also in _some Departments have an unfavourable effect on his prospects of promotion. 14. The Conference also make a series of recommendations which turn on the risk presented. by those in reggrd to whom there is no evidence that they are themselves members of the Communist Party, but evidence exists of Communist sympathies or of close association with members qf the Communist Party. 49666 000054 �acumen Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur /'acces a /'information .... , I , 15. The Conference is of the opinion that iQ deciding these diflicult and often borderline cases, it is right to ·continue the practice of tiltirig the·!,ala,nce in favour of offering greater protection to the security of the State rathey ·thari in the direction of safeguarding the rights of.the individual. )'hey r~coinmend 'that an indiVidual who is living with a wife ·or husband wli6 is a Communist or a Communist' sympathiser may, for that reason alope, hl:lYeto be moved from secret work, and that the same principle sh{:mldbe app1iea jn' other cas~s of a like nature, • • 16.' The Conference recognise that som~ of the measures: 'ivhich.the 'll State is •driven to take to protect 'its :security are in: some . respects aHei1 to ou·r traditional practices. Thus, . in, _qrtjer. not. to imperil . s,oun:;es, of information, decisions have sometim"es,tq ~e.:take11.wit,hoµt rev~ling f411 'details ·of the supporting evidence.. Aga,i,n;)f:is;s.o'~etim~s',necessaryto ,refus~ to employ inari oii secret d'rities,• in' those cases ·where 110~ al,terniitiye work can be found for him in the public service, to refuse to emplo'y him at all, .Qecause after. the. fullesL investigation .doubts~,about his:·:reliability'remain. even ..although. nothing may· have been. •,pro.:ed.;~agailist·him.,om. standards •which ,would. be accepted in a Court. ·0f.Law~ •The·· Copference .agree :regretfully that these counter-measures;·alth6ugµ_they. are,distastefuhn som'e respects, are essential i.f ti}e security oLth'e•State js ifo·be,ell§ured,. ,J3ut they recognise that it is also important to convince public opinion that the measures .taken anq the procedures in forql_will,not_,b~\.~:1(,ersis~c! ...uIJ~ ~.blY:;:For ,this reason: the Conference a pprov(?,t!ie ]{i.l?\1Jia}: :(c;~,1Wh9.nly,. . wq)i.tthe Three Advisers) set up in 1948 to he~t,appeal,1Jf5:>T,'~tvjlJ¢tvanj~J!ir~atene,(:i ·on security grounds with transfer fronf~s.e~r~t:µqties"·.qr~: wh.t?il'. (9a(t& n~~ ·practicable, with •dismissal from the Service::·, This /:machinery·· 'sliould continue; and the person whose co'n'tiriued, erfipfoy;rnehf"' itf •Go'vJtnrt1en't Se,rvice _is c~lled in question o~.aqqo'ii,i}f !~f:~9.ih;iµu_tj'ist:Jt~~oc~~fi~)\)\t sympathies will be able· to have his case considered 'J.?l.Jt:t j'h~.Conf~:r~}}'~e also recommend that the terms of reference of· the·· Three •Advisers shopld _be wi~e!1ed so as to enable them ,to !presenti·aduBer, report .td the respons1bleMm1ster. -'· · ·•..•...,:.. ~··,..-.,,."'··· '.'.·,, ,:.,·,,,,,,.,, ,,,.,, a or withdrawal of a passport could not be relied upon to pr~vent a United Kin,g~m citizen in connivance with a foreign Power from leaving the country. f 20~-• For these reasons the Conference recommend that no additional powers should be sought to detain suspects or prevent them leaving the country. 21. The second matter is that the Conference reviewed the existing procedures .for the security of secret Government contracts involving persons outside Government employment. The Conference have considered whether persons subject to these procedures should be given the same right as is enjoyed by persons in the public service of having their case considered by the Three Aqvis'ers. The Conference recognise that this is a difficult matter, but are. in favour, if suitable arrangements can be made, of access being given to the same tribunal in certain types of cases. They recommend, however, that in the first instance this matter should be discussed with the National Joint Advisory Council.. :Arrangements for such discussion to take place are being made. 0 1 .. ,17. The measures necessary to '.ca;r.V·oµt.the~~--r~c.oirip,1evdatioris \Viii involve alterations ih existing procedure~. , 4h_ese"al,for#ior,is~will~b~:ii'qtified 'to the staff ·associations concerned am;!_ ai:i,·_qpportµni~f;gi';·~n Jor)epresen,t~tiqn to be rriade before the. a_lterations ai:~ ,pro!Jlµlga~eq .,iq. fuJI. ,.This_p~per ,is therefore confined to g1vmg the broad details qfAhe decisions reached. on those recommendations which can be. PfOR~rlymade\public.· ' ' ' '. ' '' ' 18. Two other matters should be ,rhention~ed.: ~.• Th~ ;,fi;st is the Conference considered whether ad~itjona! .s,~~t~tqrypowe;s, ~hc,mJd. be sought ·to enable the· Government to detam ,su~p~ct~,or pr~veptth~rn from.!eaving the· country. • • •· • • ' •., • • •. ' ' ,. • " •p ;hat-: ~ ',1.-:; -'.!: ~ ~~l•,. ,,, . , . .19. The Conference point out that~,-while:an 1 individual can be arrested on suspicion that he is about to attempt:-to ·convey secret· information ,to a foreig1,1Power_,he must be brought b~f?re the court~ on. a chl:).rgewithout delay. ·The time required to collec_t:ev1aen~~µpon which Jt charge .can be 'based i~-oft.en long, and the Confere~ce disrhiss••any_suggestjon' tlw,t pow~r ·should be sought'tO' detain persons for an u~1,F~itegperjqq,.wi.tho1.h ptefei::r:irig charges against them, on the grounds that tnis w6uli:r run·countei"tci thfs co~ntry's traditiorial prirn::jples oj individuat f_r~edom,,and. would be. most unlikely. to be approved by Padiam~nt:·,in.:tim~gf •peace. ,They· also come t9 _the conclusion that legislatiori wh.icl).:wQ1,Ild ,p\'!rmjt arrest and detention, :Witho.uta ch[!rge be{ng preferred,. for.-,,ash9rt.;-sp(l<',if,ied,p,eriod,,:say,.fourteen days, would not be much help. The Conference also fOnsider, that:, tlie 5 49666 Wt. 1625/1188 K40 3/56 F.O.P. 000055 �----- ---- - Document disclosed under the Access to lnformotionAct =---= Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a ri!/Jo'rmotion Printed and published by HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE To be purchased from York House, Kingsway, London w.c:2 • 423 Oxford Street, London w.l P.O. Box 569, London s.E.l 13A Castle Street, Edinburgh 2 109 St. Mary Street, Cardiff 39 King Street, •Manchester 2 Tower Lane, Bristol I 2 Edmund Street, Birmingham 3 80 Chichester Street. Belfast or through any bookseller Price 6d. net Printed in Great Britain 000056 �.. .. Document divu!gue en vertu de la Loi sur /'acces a !'information DEPARTMENT OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS, C��ADA . ,. DESPATCH SECRETARY OF STATE .FOR EXTERNAL AFFAIRS, OTTAWA, CANADA. . .. . . . ... .. u.�.s.R. .... ... . . .. .. .. .. . . .. . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Moscow, ' fiefermce: ................. , ................................ , , . . . . . . . . .. . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . .. ... . .. .. . .. . ... . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Secu.r1ty: RESTRICTED I I I I I I I I I I I It It 111 1 t, I I I I I I I I I I I I 114 No: ..................................... '' February 16,I I I 1956. I I I I I I I I I It I Date: I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I Poat File No:, ... , ................... , .. . Ott••• File No, D 9 FEB '}..3 Internal 9 Attached, for the record, is the JPRS translation of the statement by Burgess and Maclean which was handed to representatives of Reuters, the Sunday Times, TAS and Pravda in a brief interview on February 11. i Circu atim ... , Air or Surface Mail:,.,., ..... ,.,., ... , .. ,. References t / Enclosures: ....... , .... ..J. . , , .... , . I ) J I London 2. This event came as a complete surprise to everyone here, including the two British correspondents involvea. Weiland (Reuters) han been asked earlier in the day whether he would be available, ann eventually received a call suggesting he come to the National Hotel. There was no inaication of the subject, ann he was of two minas as to whether he should bother to go, but finally decided to do so. He was understandably somewhat shaken when, on being ushered into the room selected for the occasion, he saw both Burgess and Maclean. Hughes had not yet turned up (we understand he too almost did not go, but decided to arop in on the way to a cocktail party) so there were a few minutes for conversation before the formal statement was h anoed over. Both men seemed in gooa health, and Burgess was quite at ease, although Maclean appeared nervous and anxious to get it over. Burgess did the talking, such as there was. Weiland tried to find out what they were noing, but as might be expected got little satisfaction, except when asked whether they were working in the Foreign Office, Burgess said that if they stood outside the building they woula not see them coming out of it. From this he concluded that they were undoubtenly working for the Ministry but in special quarters. After the interview he hung around in the hotel lobby and joined the pair as they went out. They walken a block or two together, until Weiland turnea off to file his story at the telegraph office. Tie thought Burgess and Maclean probably went on to a Metro Station, but Hughes claims they were picked up by an official car. The British Ambassador thinks the decision to 3. bring these two men out into the open was almost certainly related to the forthcoming visit of Bulganin and Khrushchev to the United Kingdom. Questions on this subject from Harold Wilson and the correspondent of the News of the r/orld during their recent interviews with Khrushchev had probably made the Soviet leaners realize that unless some action were taken they would have a aifficult time with the press auring their 1 visit. They can now parry any embarrassing queries by referring to the statement by the principals themselves as ... 2 Ext, 180A (Rev, 2/52) 000057 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur l'acces a /'information 1956FEB22 RN11: l 0 ., J 000058 �--- ..,\ -- I ....... >,-. ~- ........ -----c:---:---~~~~----:--;c-~-----:------, Document disclosed uncier the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a /'information • - 2 - ·' the· last wora_·. Sir William Hayter thinks •they may also have hoped that by drawing -attention to this case they may rev.ive American suspicions and contribute in some s:m,all aegree to a worsening of Anglo-American relations. 4. Opinion is divided as tb.~ithe likelihood of Burgess ana Maclean turning up at official receptions, now that their pre~ence here has been acknowledged, but if they do the members of the British Embassy will ignore their existence unless it is at a. specifically Anglo-Sovie·t affair, in which case the British would refuse to ~tay if Burgess and Maclean remained. They have indicated that they trust their friends in the diplomatic corps would adopt a similar attitude. Ambassador. 000059 �-.--~ __.... --·-__,,,. , , SECTION L.. .: .. , .. ~ •.• ; . . ' .. , ·.- -5-. Februar;l 12, 1956 . STLTEMENTBY G. BURG:CSSAND. D. -~iI.t\CLEAN . ,_ ·' ... ·_·• on· Feb.ruary 11 G. Burgess and D. Maclean 1 f'ormer memb.ers. ..of' the•. British Foreign Of'f'ice, • met. • · in ·the "National ii_ Hotel : , . . the British correspondents S. Weiland . of' Reuters '.'artd . .. , R. Hughes o:r. the "Sunday Times", and V. Seliverstov, a TASS' correspondent, and E. Litoshko,. a "Pravda 11 correspondent, and -~handed .them a statement. ' , Th.e .text of the statement by G~ Burgess and D. Maclean· is published·. below: members of the British s ta terrieri t., :."Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean, former Foreign Offi.ce, wi_sh to .make the following 11 It·seems to us ·that the doubts.~s to our ·wher2abouts and speculations.about our past .e.ctions may be a·small :but contributing ·factor -tha.t has. l:;)een and may. again be exploited by the opponents. of 1\ng:}.0-Sovi'et understanding. • cc9rdingly we have_. thought i•t· best to issue the following statement. • .. • •• • • . "We both -of us came to· the :soviet- Union to · work f.or the aim,,-of better understanding between- the sov·iet Union -and •• the. West, lj,,av:j,.ngbotl;l of_ u.S:. become convinced from official knowledge in our··p,,.o.s-·s~sion~that neitl;ler· . B.ritish nor, ·still more;d'Unerican policy ·was'@-~ th?J:t tin'lW seriously _working for this a!i.m.. We had, ·in. the position~we -~-?cup~ed, every r~ason to believe that such an UI)derstanding w1;1sess-ential if. peace was to be saf'e. We had every~,rea.son. · to c.onclude that·such an understnnding was the aim of Soviet policy. We had had •every o:r,portuni ty • to know and grounds f' or· fearing tne :r,1-ans . and. the outlook: of· the few but powerful peop;J.e who opposed.·this· understanding .. • , •• • "At Cambridge we had·both:been communists.· We abandoned our political. acti vi t:i,es not b-ecau.se· we disagr-eed with the Marxist·.ahalysis of .the world •situation, in which we still all _find ourselves, but because we thought, wrongly it is now clear to us, that in the public service we could. do more to put these .ideas.into •practical effect· than elsewhere. . •. • , • . "It is probably oµr action in necessarily giving UJ)._political activities by entering th·e public service, that f1?,):B'ely analysed, led the. ·to reign· Of'fice to efay through its. s:p okesman ·- that it ..• "believed" we had been Soviet agents· in Cambr·idge, The .Foreign Office can of course r1believe· 11 anything it wishes·.. The important point, however, ..is that on this question we know, and it does not. We neither o'f us have· ever been communist agent's.-· .. · •• .. • • . • II ·$0· fa;r 'the ground was ·common for us .both. The details of our subseg_ue:ht careers were corilplete·ly d.ifferent and had theref.ore ·:i;etter oe· dealt .with s__ e:parately • • . • '!.As regards Ma,cleani • he worked in_ London and in Paris., Washington and Cai:r o as a regular member of' --t:he· Foreign Serv;ice f-rom 1935 to 1951 and as such was r,iart of the machine, which with the exception of' the war p2riod, •carried out a: poJ.icy unaocei,table not only to .h;lm .ltut to many others. He was·l;)y no means alone :1,nsid~ the Foreign Se-rvice in objecting_ to British foreign policy 1,efore the war, particu~larly as· regards Abyssinia; t}:le Spanish Civil Wa~ an.d Munich,. • But he -was increasingly • isolated in do-ing so after .the· war. •. It became more an4 more difficult to find anyone willing to think or speak of anything but the 11menace of communism" or to understand the folly and danger of J:.merican policy in the Far East and Europe. Further ,rirork in the Foreign Service was becomipg impo_ssible.. • 000060 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur rocces a l"itiJ~r.motion ' ... :..:..~-.:·,. . SECTION A •. ••. ... ....... February -6- :. 12, 1956 . 'LL PAPERS.:(.Cori:t-'·cf) .. :,.•11In May,, 1q51·~. there were: clear signs that, whatever. f1+,t~re·. course he might work out fo~ ..·.l?,:im-se-lf, the Foreign, Office and ::s.ecuri·ty authori t;i.es .had plans· of .the.1:r.·' own.,, • His.· telephones,· -in his··of'ffce. and pri va-t;-e house··,.-·.·we·re u:s.ed ...a:s· ·microphones, plain~clothes pol~cemen followed·· • him wherever he wen.t. anci one of his collea'gu.es •·Wa•s·put up. to act as a provo·cat·eur. - "• . ~:... ,... ·. .•..... -~ • • • . . . ,. . . • . . . · · "Maclean• the re:for.e decide·d ·to ..·g.o.•to ..•..the •S'civie·t: Union· to. ct'o whatever ·he· -'-could to further-· understanding between ·Eas·t- and West from ther;e.-· .. The· difficulty., of :1eav.ing the country . while being tailed by the •:police was .solveo. by a. meeting· with· Burgess ·shortly ·a,f'ter the lattE?r 1 ,s · return from .the .'Wgishihgton Embassy to ' London. The latte!' not : only·. agreed to make.:arrangements ,tof the journey, "Qut to come too. The ri~ks.bf su:cfh:a journey wouid ;have been too great for .Mrs •. Ma.cle 1ari, who was .shortly expecting a child. • She.'and the children· ceJne. to"the Soviet :Union in 1953. • . . . .. ."As 'r_egards Burgess, ·when· he decided·to leave Cambridge, he 'joined ..:_-the BBQ.· Subsequ,e:n:ply,· posit~ons were. , . offered to· him which _he ac·cpeted, :first in. a· deJ?artment of the Secl;'e~ Service and eaoondly·in _the Fo•rE;J.fgn.Offic~:• • • ., • . . ; \ . -' .: ·: ... 1'·Tproµghout,· he sytnpaJhized with Sovie't • policy and became ihcreas·ingly alarmed by the :post--war· :trend of \ Anglo.-.lunE:rican policy. • .Most· ·alarming of a,11 was :::its .failure ..tirst \ \ to reach, and late.r. even to seelc. to reach, a modus..,,,.y,i:t;=ei1d-i=b,f~:ween \ 1 :East and West. • •f • , .. . . ·'.'Neither in the BBC nor in the -Foreign ,. Office, nor· during tp.e, :per:}:od that· he· wii..s assoct a'ted with the Secret .service and al$o M•.I..5-.counter-tntellige~.c·e did he make·· ariy secret from h:i,s friends or ~oll~agues ~i ~he:!;' of· his -<riews• or the fact ,that he ·had been a communist.: . : • . · •·• • • • • . • . . . ~Hi~ atti~ud~ in these positions was completely incompatible :with the a+l.egation that he was ·a Soviet· • agent., • · • '. • · ..,. : ; . '°'This statement of Burgess' posJtion· is : necess.ary· to u.nderst.1;1.nd the situation which arose a week or so after . .-·, his. return to London from Washington in. 1.951 ... - He. ,_.,1entto see Maclean as· Head. of. t:P,e :hneric;=m Department· :i;n ·t:q.e. Fore1gn Office. • They· foun~ that ·their· 'irt' ortn~tion an~· op~niop.s about the :political ·situation, an(:r th€? danger of war were. iri agreement. •· ,:t ., 11 • .. •• • What now· happ·ened was determined by the following f..acts. • Burgess Wh.o some months ·:i;,revfously· had him·self.. • initiate·d .arrangements tq obta;l.n •a nEi-w.job. with a view to leav':i'.hg· the Foreign Office was faced.with the fact that the Foreign Office had indepenq.ently and subseg_ue:htly ·aecided t"hat they. would ·no longer employ him. . It is, of .course:, ·t>bviou:;3 ·that no a'gent· wdula,,t·ake the· initiat.ive. in· a·rranging ·to· leave. the ;Foreign Office.. , : . . • .' • ·• • . . ' "However··whe:p. the bre.ak CffiTle•, B:urgess vvas cw,ubtfµl whether he want~d qr•· ·cop],_d conscientiously· dqi the new .. job he had bee·n arranging. • •• • '· •••• ...__ •• -. • . · .• •-.; / · .. ., • · ... . , •• •• ... "'J.1.p.~.J;'e·fore, when Ma·c:1,.'e~n:t.6:J;dEurgess • that he hims·~lf. had decide~ th8:.t .he could no· lpng_~·r worklf'or· the . ',. Fqreign Ot'f'ice·.· ..and its. po~1cies. ·13.nd·sugg~sted t~a'.t;, they ~hould both •• .... •• .: . :········:!...-• :. • ,f • 000061 �ocument 1scose un er Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a !'information· i 4 0INT PRESS READING SECTION .1\ -7- 1 SERVICE February 12, 1 956 .;\LL PAPERS (Cont. 1 d) g~ t'o the. USSR' Burgess. had --.no diffi~ul ty in agreeing., There alone there appeared _to both to be ·some chance of putting into prac-tice in some fqrm the convictions they had·always held,. _. • 11 • • As the result -of living in the USSR we both of' us are convinced. that we were right in doing what we • did. "We are handing this statement to the (Signed) (1¾ cols. )(Fuli ~ext) ;Donald MACLEAN'• Guy BURGESS ALL ~APE~S 1 2. 2.• 56 ..i,1"'' MOST PAPERS "ONE OF OUR CHIEF TASKS~MUST.BE NEGOTIATION WITH THE JH]\¥""0F EFFECTING GENERAL2 CONTROLL;all:f DISARMAMENT" Christian Pineausis Interview • _ PARIS. ll (TJ_:..SS) Christian.Pineau, t:6.~ Foreign Minister o'f' Fra:nce 1 has gi v,,e'h an interview to the newspaper "Paris Presse Iritransigeantll.. ~•"Replying to· a question about t~e statement of- the Fre~cp Foreign/Ministry on.the exchange of messages between_N.A. Bulganin an~,...D.. Eisenhower, he said: "Whs:> . cou.ld not agree about .the necess?.rty of commencing a permanent.. •• •• exehq.nge. of views with the ·so'0.~t Union so ·as to bring out>· points - ·o:r· view near~r-? -Any s_incer~,,,·comparison of the positions of the West and ~he East_ serv~4 the cause of peace and concord between the peoples~ 11 :;,/ • . • / Ghristian Pineau went on to·advo. ,. . ' cate the strengthening~·o:r the North Atlantic Allio.nee, _ stating that this aJ)l:iance is allegedly ·a -"purely def~nsive • organization". A.,t"'the same time -Pineau emphasized that "one· of our chief tas~~ must.be negotiation with the aim of effecting general, contrq,Zle_d disarmament".. "Agreement on this •i temll.,: he continued,/''would meet_ with a ·-tremendous response in the wor~d • and- would a ter the entire atmosphere in international re1ations .. This is pr cisely why .we are tr_ying_ first of all to achieve . progress n the work of the UN Disarmament Commission. As regards inspection, I readily borrow the.formula of my :friend Jules /Moch: neither in.spectior1 without disa!'mam~nt 1 nor dis. armament without inspection". •• (32/l'ines) _( Full text) .MOST P.APERS (Pr. ) . 1_2.. 2. 56 , ..,,. ' .' :.· .. · ... ' 000062 �Document disclosed under the Access to lnformotion,Act Dqcument divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /7Jcct?siJ i<i'flformotion • ' . ~ ~ SECTION A -IZVESTIA p'ebruary ...8- .... ~-!.. .. -·\·-....,$ ..,.,_ 1.2,._19'56 /.' . h "SHORT MEMORY11JF LMERIC/.N PR0P/,;GJl,NDL.. (By K. Petrov) ; ·µ 11 Izv0stia" readers are aJ.ire2icty f'amili,ar with mat~ri al put .f'orward at the press conf,_~f0:p.ce rec~ntly 4eld in Moscow· on the release by Lmericnn- military ,1¢'rgans of' bo.lloons over the air space of' the Soviet Union., The "c.erJ'all cameras 1 11 . the complicated radio equipment, the instrument·s /o;r'· determinine; . .-the coordinates of' aeri2l photographs wh.:i.chv.ere $'ownto the-j:)urnalists Jef't no doubt of the fact that the USA is· trying to __;,1fi1.E\l-rn a fo..i t accom:)1i of' the notorious "open skies" operation anc1 t,0t obt-..o.in intelligence inf'ormat.ion about the Soviet Union, the Chini!fue ·People's Republic and the European peopl.e' s democracies.. Wq_#J.¢1:': public opinion _h::;-,s. received new evidence of the very_ gross vi,@1..pttions of' the norms of interna.tfon·1;-l •la:w··ny Junerican niili:to.ry n~t11idri ties. The Paris "Combat", like many other We~t.ern newspfy;pers, has b0en compelled to II convincing admit that evidence'.' wci:s ·pwt,<forward nt the Mos·cow pre·ss conference. .l' ·• • _ It. is ng:f(>surprising that this evidence l1as given rise in Washington, in th~'f words -of· the Western press, to great. 11displeasuro and irri tati on"i'./ . Of' course! How could ·washino;ton maintain its mental eguilibrum i];_r?the face of-. such clear rcfut[ttion of the miserable fiction 1;;1bou.t.t)a§'. ho.rmloss enthu-sio.sm, t'Ol" motoorology W1ieb. WJS..:hlvemal~ At~em..cc-:,0. ~-:imcw-:ip:\:n:ier, san:m.owto "~"-thC? rel.:me at.baJloons overthc tm?.s,r;io.oe of the Soviet Un&on o.nd other pence-loving countries for the purpose of aeria;:L-phq~i;'ogro.phic rcconnaisoonce. Yfashington' s embarrassment became still refore npparent when• . news spread all over ,lt.,• ., • • . the world press that not a1,f'single meteorological device had been . found among _the eguipment,/o:f the L.merican balloons. In this • . connection the ·J.rnericfill ,fiewspaper the "Christian --S_cience Monitor" wrote in a tone· of pan~l': "Something- must be done· t_q snvo the proct:tge ot • tho,-. West 11,,J/' • . • :·. • ;f • But however hnrd· the 1.rncrican· ·1eadcrs may tr~ their presti~e cleo.rly will not be S<?-ved. Lpparently .. making f'ul~ use o.f,#'~heir co~f~icting instructions the _pr~s·s launc:hcO • f'alse .ver.sions, ..e~vch more ridiculous than the ~, with Y.!,Oc<;m- . . corn f'or making/'P,ihe evidence tally. Fol' -3evex-al ·,do.ys th~ 1·New York Tires'~ fQt' cxamplot1 .-t 8f. "'· ~ stubbornly repee.ted the hackneyed lie. 11 about the 11st.~i~tly scientific chnracter of balloons· reloO:sed. in "Scotland al)i<l,/other places. in Europe'_'., Bu! :at th:i,s Ji'oint ~he • news:paper wJr/t on to explain that this passion f'or science is, as it appearsl9'verwhelming the - command .of' tJie US military Gir forces, • Thereupon/: 4.'ihe same 'New York Times 11 attempted to give the impression that the /oviet Union is II confusing" two types of aerial balloons ?ne, whi,f . is meant f'or e.erial __ reconnaisoonce, nn~ the o-ther, ,,which is used,fTor dropping provocational propagandn 11 teratureq "What _ 11 is botifering the Soviet Union and E~stern Europe~ 11 it stated, is not tlie balloons released by the United States~ but balloons releEJ.#°ed by pri 'vate organizations.," By such n simple prop8,gando. trirodi t was intended to distrc.ct public attention from tho un• soem:iy activity of' the f,.morican authorities, to ·disavow-the "private organization:1:1 ..and maintain innocence. 000063 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes DEPARTMENT OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS, CANADA. a /'information NUMBERED LETTER �-�­ ;Ill-' . TTnclas ..-,, .... , ..si ,T,fied • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Se cur1• ty .. TO: TRE UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR EXTERNAL AFFAIRS, OTTAWA, CANADA, 1 No:. , 1 ..7., . , ..... , ......... . • • • • • • • • • Date: .. F.�,9 l!\l13.r.'Y.. :J..,q J • .J, � .QQ ........ . 1✓ Ericlosures: .. , .... , ...... , .. , ........ c • • &ference: e O ,I t I I I O I • t I O I I I I t e I fl ti t f I I I • I I O e I I I O o e O I I I I I t I I I � I I I Subject: .... AP�� 13.�?-11cie,: P.:f, ;E1\lr.&;�.� t:3.. ?P.c;l. .. M?-.Ql�.�n .. at Moscow e O O O O I I O t t O I O O I O ■ I I I • I I I I I t I t I I I I I t I t t I O I e ,1 ,• 1 t I a t � •� J • I o I I 1 -, 'll ,o O I 4 • o I I I I ,II O I I Q e II' 0 IP O ♦ I O I t D O O t I O O I t I I I I I I I a I I I I t I I t • 1 • I • • • t t t t I I I Air' or Surface Mail: ............ , .. , .. ,,, Post File No:' I I • ' • � I - • •, • ' ' I • I • I • • • r . Ott.Qwa File No. References The appearance of Guy-Burgess and Donald Maclean in Moscow last week is the subject of a long editorial in today's Chicago Tribune. Copy of the editorial is attached. The editorial suggests that the appearance 2. of the two English diplomats was "intere:stingly timed" _in view of the current controversy between General MacArthur and Mr,. Truman over leaks to the communist Powers·:�during the Korean campaign. The editorial supports General MacArthur's belief that details.of his secret_ Korean plans were, in fact, transmitted to the e _ nemy through the agency of Burgess, at that time Second Secretary at the United Kingdom Embassy irr Washington, and Maclean then head of.the American section of the Foreign Office. Reference is made to the activities of 3. the informants during World War TI, including their association with Dr. Alan Nunn May, who was exposed by the Royal Commission on Espionhage in Canada. Internal Circulation 4. The editorial concludes, as might be . expected of the Tribune: "The moral for Americans ought to be that they· will be prudent to distrust th,eir alleged friends as much as their proclaimed enemies.n- Consul Gen�ral '1 Distribution to Posts Washington t9 Ext.182A (Rev. 2/52) 000064 f, , • • �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act . Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur l'occes a /'information 000065 �Document disclosed under the Access to ln!orr!1~tionAct. Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur /'acces a I information DEPARTMENT OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS Subject ........................................................................................................... . .! ~~ '..\ • ~ '--"...C'½J Date ....................................................................... .Publication .............. BRITAIN'S TWIN H'iSSES •/ Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess, the British diplomats who disappeared behind the iron curtain in 1951, showed themselves the other day in a planned appearance in Moscow for the first time since. their flight. They handed out a statement saying they had never been communist agents, but had come to Russia to work for understanding between the west and the soviet bloc. The statement said that the pair had become convinced from documents passing thru their hands in the British foreign office that Britain, "and still more, the America~.._government," were not interested in such understanding. This "interview," in which the former Britons refused to answer any questions, was another card played by the soviet union in its "peace " propaganda campaign. It was interestingly timed, for only two days before Gen. MacArthur, the former commander in the war against the Communists in Korea, had charged that his secret military plans were reaching the communist enemy, and he suggested that Maclean and Burgess, who were in the British diplomatic service at the time, were responsible for the leak. Burgess was second secretary in the British embassy in Washington until shortly after Gen. MacArthur was dismissed from his command by Mr. Truman in April, 1951. Those who knew him said he "hated Americans." Maclean, after a drunken career in the British embassy in Cairo, was recalled to London and promptly appointed head of the American department in the British foreign office. His appointment dated from Nov. 6, 1950, so that while the Korean war was in progress, and after the Chinese Communists had intervened, Burgess was at the American end of operations in Washington, while Maclean was handling all American reports in London. When the two men disappeared, Dean Acheson, the New Deal secretary of state, said that it would be " a very serious matter" if they proved to be Russian sympathizers. Former Sen. Owen Brewster remarked that Maclean was understood to have "ar thoro knowledge of secret Anglo-American ex<'.hangeson such subjects as the North Atlantic pact, the Korean war, and the .Japanese peace treaty." So Gen. MacArthur's belief that his secret Korean plans were reaching the enemy headquarters by way of Moscow and Peiping, thru the agency of Burgess and Maclean, was solidly founded. That other and equalli important information found its way to the soviet union by reason of the pair is suggested by Maclean's World War II assignments and his and Burgess' friendships. Dr;. Alan Nunn May, the British atomic scientist who was exposed as a member of the Canadian atomic spy ring which passed along all vital atomic secrets to Russia, was a close friend of Burgess, and he had been to Cambridge with Maclean. Maclean had been sent to Washington by the British foreign service in 1944. He ,had. an important atomic post. He was secretary of the combined Anglo-American policy committee on atomic developments,• with a pass admitting him at any time to the offices of the atomic energy committee. This committee controled the war time exchange of information on the development of the atomic bomb. As head of chancery in the British embassy in Washington, Maclean decided who saw the telegrams on all important matters. Later, as head of the American desk in London, he was the man who drafted and saw the telegrams as they were sent. It is little wonder that Acheson, upon hearing of his disappearance, is supposed to have cried, "My God, he knew everything!" That Russia should now trot out this pair-Communists since their universit I I I rln 1 ................... ~.......~.:.....~ ...... �ocument disclose .mdfffffe. ccess to Information Act T e statement said that the pair ha{J_ocument divulgue en vertu de la Loisur /'acces a /'information become convinced from documents passing thru their hands in the British foreign office that Britain, " and still more, the American government," were not interested in such understanding. This "interview," in which the former Britons refused to answer any questions, was another card played by the soviet union 'in its " peace " propaganda campaign. It was interestingly timed, for 1 only two days before Gen. MacArthur,\ \ the former commander in the war against 1 the Communists in Korea, had charged that his secret military plans were reaching the communist enemy, and he suggested that Maclean and Burgess, who were in the British diplomatic service at the time, were responsible for the leak. Burgess was second secretary in the British embassy in Washington until shortly after Gen. MacArthur was dis• missed from his command by Mr. Truman in April, 1951. Those who knew him said he "hated Americans." Maclean, after a drunken career in the British embassy in Cairo, was recalled to London and promptly appointed head of the American department in the British foreign office.\ His appointment dated from Nov. 6, 1950,1 so that while the Korean war was in progress, and after the Chinese Commu-1 nists had intervened, Burgess was at the American end of operations in Washington, while Maclean was handling all American reports in London. When the two men disappeared, Dean • Acheson, the New Deal secretary of state, I said that it would be " a very serious matter" if they 11roved to be Russian\ sympathizers. Former Sen. Owen Brewster remarked that Maclean was understood to have " a thoro knowledge of secret Anglo-American exc:hanges on such subjects as the North Atlantic pact, the Korean war, and the .Japanese peace treaty." \ So Gen. MacArthur's belief that his secret Korean plans were reaching the enemy headquarters by way of Moscow and Peiping, thru tbe agency of Burgess and Maclean, was solidly founded. That other and equally important information found its way to the soviet union by reason of the pair is suggested by Maclean's World War II assignments and his . and Burgess' friendships. Dr,. Alan Nunn May, the British atomic scientist who was exposed as a member of the Canadian atomic spy ring which passed along all vital atomic secrets to Russ.ia, was a close friend of Burgess, and he had been to Cambridge with Maclean. Maclean had been sent to Washington by the British foreign service in 1944. He . had an important atomic post. He was secretary of the combined Anglo-American policy committee on atomic developments,· with a pass admitting him at any time to the offices of the atomic energy committee. This committee controled the war time exchange of information on the development of the atomic bomb. As head of chancery in the British embassy in Washington, Maclean decided who saw the telegrams on all important matters. Later, as head of the American desk in London, he was the man who drafted and saw the telegrams as they were sent. It is little wonder that Acheson, upon hearing of his disappearance, is supposed to have cried, "My God, he knew everything!" That Russia should now trot out .this pair-Communists since their university days-suggests that the Kremlin believes the appearance will serve several purposes. For one, a mass .:ifevidence lately has pointed embarrassingly to the extent of soviet espionage, in other countries. Lt. Col. Yuri Rastvorov, who deserted the soviet intelligence apparatus in Japan,\ testified in Washington last week that: communist spying proceeds thru every Russian embassy. Vladimir Petrov, former third secretary in the soviet embassy in Australia, who alsd defected, testified\ to the soviet espionage network before a royal commission. H(l said Maclean had supplied reams of material. This picture does not go well with soviet propaganda of the peaceful and law abiding nature of communism. Furthermore, the Russians know that Britain is as embarrassed as is the Kremlin. It is chargeable with having sold out ils American ally on atomic secrets and in the Korean war. So the soviet union has Burgess and Maclean deny the charges, believing that some good can be had from a bad situation because Britain should feel grateful. The moral for Americans ought to be that they will be prudent to distrust their alleged friends as much as their proclaimed enemies. - l , I I �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes /'information a ---~ 1 1 •·-~-- SERVICES ~;RIJTISH INFORMATION A N . A G ··EN C Y O F T H E ___,,, _____ 1 ...,,_,.r-'" OFFIC!AL.•TEXT....~-~,,_4'":.~ 1• •-·~ •• ~-;:,--:-· (By Ceable ~_.....,. ..•• -,,,. ........__o,, ... ..__ A,_·?- -~ ~ .Jf ·. ~ / # \ ----~----~--- • . ---= .... 1 L ----- -t,t 1~ ;;:.n~ ·•• GOVERNMENT B I I T I S H =-=-~ _,,,,,,,,_-··•"~-"".,,,.... /) ,n) - --,--- ~• J T. 6 __. 1)1'_/1-.~·J February 14, 1956 .,,,..,-.- New York, N. Y. ~r""r p't ..,=~-4-y~ /4o statement by the Foreign Secretary l the Rt~ Hon. Mr. Selwyn Lloyd, CoBoE•, U,A,~,M1}/IJ-1f., • a~ Qo C., M.,P-. , .._in-the--House of Commons -~... ~~ • on Monday; Feoruary 13, 1956, on the '<{r\.\J"\>\• ~ appearance in Moscow of Messrs. Burgess 1,.,,~• _ \✓\~\o and MacLean. ..... 9 .,.). l~--i • . . (with supplementary questions and answers) )/ ·o\- ~o~ 9~'<'~ y\~ ~<i> • . Mr. H. Morrison: To ask the Secretary of State for Fo~eign Af'fairs whether he can make a statement with regard to the appearance of Messrs. Burgess and MacLean in Moscow on Saturday last. Mr. Selwyn Lloyd: ·Yes, Sir, I have certain comments to make on the appearnce of these two men and their press conference. First, it brings out.into clear relief the consi~te lack of can.d.Qr_ of the Soviet aut.horitj es in tb.§ir statements abg_u.t__the_l;?_@.. In aa.dition to what had appeared in ~W'V'ret press suggesting tha_t the whole story was. Western anti-Soviet propaganda, in Octooer o'f'. las-t year before .the -Glehat_e_ ..i-n-the House about the· two. me!_l.·,. my· Right Honorable Friend the Chancellor of the ,Excheg_y~f:.______ ~.... (Mr.:. Macmillan) asked Mr. Molotov in Geneva for information about • them.~ Mr. ~!olotov .sai.d:--t-ha-t-he. was g_uite unable to provide any. As recently as the 12th of January when the Ri~ht Honoraole Gentleman·the Member for Huyton (Mr. H. Wilson) saw Mr. Khrushchev he. put the g_uestion. M~.Khrushchev was reported to have replied: • "Are they in our country then? I have not heard anything of them • from any Soviet officials, nor have I ever met them, so it stands to reason I cannot-know what they are doing. 11 The House nmst f'orm its own opinion about the ver.aci ty of those state.men ts in view of the latest development. ·This kind of conduct shows how difficul~ it i~ to esta,p.l..iab. the relatio~s of mutual tru~t which .the Soviet Union profess · so1"nuch Lo de"B1re ~ , ~--------- contents that it · ............. The second comment I have to make is with regard to the of the statement itself. The House will have noted is designed to be used for prop~ganda purposes and that the This material Is filed wlih the Department of Justice, where the required registration statem:ent of B. I. S. under 56 Stat. 248-258 as an agency of the British Government Is available for inspection. Registration does not Imply approval or disapproval of this material by the United States Government. New York Offices, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York 20, N. Y. Telephone Circle 6-5100 Chicago 11, 720 N. Michigan Ave. : Washington 4, D. C., 903 National Press Building San Francisco 15, 2516 Pacific Ave. Los Angeles 13,448 South Hill St. P-7 · 000068 �r Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act ✓ Document divulgue _envertu de lo Loi sur /'ocJr:J~~md \~~~~\ - 2 - two men were not permitted to answer any questions. In fact, no credence can be placed in their word. There is nothing in the statement which causes me to modify that view. My third comment is that there has been a certain amount:.i,- , of speculation as to the reasons which have led the Soviet·· Govern..:...'.'. ment to change . :their ground and to announce, through this inter;_: •••,· view, the presence: of these men in Moscow. One view is that it was to fo~estall awkward questions during the visit of the Soviet leaders t·o· this country and to~ 1 e,ar the-air That may be so. Another view is that after· the visit of my Right Honorable Friend the Prime Minister and myself to Washington and the close accord we reached with the United ·states Government on so many matters, the Soviet authoritieswisn~q;::~o cr~~e· diEiFus·t arid -t;,o_drive a wedge. If this is the explans3,tion they will not succeedo · g • ' ·:.: i> • • '• ••• Mr. H. Morrison: May I ask the Right Eonorable Gentleman whether ·there was anythi.ng to prevent the res1gnation from the Foreign Servic~ of these two persons and of their conducting propaganda on the lines of their opinions in our own country? May I ask him whether it is not the case that during the war and since the war all British Governments have sought the most friendly.relations with. the Soviet Union in the cause of. peace? Finally, may I as1':·-whether .there ·is· now a:ny evidence that these :tw·o :menwere ..·:.- ,. agents. acting on .behalf' o;f a foreign power or the ..Communist Party.?--_ Mr~ Selwyn Lloyd: With regard to the first question it is tha,t: there. is ._nothing· to prevent. anyone in the For.eign Serv4'p~ _fr:om resigning and .conducting such prb"paganda iri: this couht:t?Y. .With regard to the second g_uestion, the answer· is defi:r;titelythat-:in---:-my view all governments since .the war have sought. mo13t genuinely .to .seek improved relati_ons with ·the Sovie·t Union. With r(?g_ard. to the third, as to whether,:there. is any evide:ac-e tha.t these men 2£ere Sov;Let Agents,.· as was. s~ Wllite Paperi~:! suspicion of .the person responsible for a kn·own . . .. • l&akage.- of information_ to the Soviet authorities was narrowed down. • to MacLean before he qepartedo. This ~as confirmed by- his departure and subseq~ently by what Petrov has saido With regard to Burge.ss., ,no .suspicion attached to him befqre his departure but strong: suspicion f·ell on :·him when he departed,. and .that also has been c.onfirme<f_ by ·:what .Petrov has said., a fact- 1/ · Mr. Daines: May I. ask whether the Foreign Secretary noticed in the .-statement from Moscow that Burgess claims to have served in the Secret Servic·e and MI ..5? Is it correct or in.,...... correct?,· Mr. Selwyn Lloyd: I do not think that is exactly what Burgess- ·claimed. The fact is that he was employed in a Department which, at the outbreak of war, dealt w.ith· pr·opa·ga.nda to neutral· count:ries. ·It was ··a:n organization which later came to--be known-as S. O. Ee * Cmd. 9577, Foreign Repor_t concerning the disappeance Office officiels. London, September. of two former 1955. -- • ~.\ �Document disclosed under the Access to Information A~t -------, Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a /'information (COPY) PERSONALAND CONFIDENTIAL OFFICE OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR CANADA CANADA HOUSE, LONDON,S.W.l 16th December, 1955. Dear Hamilton, I am sending to-day a reply to your letter No. DS.1?23 of December 9th requesting the terms of reference, composition, etc., of the Conference of Privy Councillors appointed by Sir Anthony Eden as a result of the Burgess-Mac.lean debate. I must apologise for not having followed this up. I had a word with Pat Dean to-day on this subject, and he confirmed that there would be rio published report of the Conference's findings, other than specific recommendations which might require action by Parliament. He appreciated our interest in the subject, however, and said he would like to think over the possibility of letting us have some account of the findings, even if it is not. feasible to pass on the report itself which, as you know, will be made to the Prime Minister. Dean also said that he hoped the Conference would be able to complete its investigations before the end of January. I shall get in touch with him again after the New Year to see whether something can be worked out. Yours sincerely, (Sgd) Hamilton Southam,·Esq., Department of External Ottawa·. Ralph Affairs, 000070 �.� Document disclosed under the Access to Informa Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur /'acces /'i a DEPARTMENT OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS, CANADA. NUMBERED LETTER • ; THE UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR EXTERNAL AFFAIRS, OTTAWA, CANADA. OFFICE OF THB HIGH CO ·ISSIONER FO . FROM: ............................................... , ...... UNCL SSIFIED · ................................. . Security No: ....... Date: ..... i f -� l: . . . . . . . .J:?.�{l. )?�.<? !=¥. °t?�,l;', .. +.9. 55. .. F.nclosures: ... r:V,q . .( ��-�. ,qc;> P.���) .. . Air or Surface Mail: .... Post File No: . . ¥.. , ....... , .. . #-fi., �?3.Ed� ............ . _µ��o - 4o Otta•• File No. References ttached are six copies of the extract from Hansard of November 23rd giving the Prime 1inister 1 s statement about the appointment of a Conference of Privy Councillors to consider security precautions, together with the subsequent questions and answers in the House. You will note that the terms of reference for Conference are simply: To examine the security procedures now applied in the public services and to consider whether-any further precautions are called for and should be taken. 11 0 You will also note that it is not intended to publish a report of the proceedings, but that if the Conference should recommend changes in the law "or anything of that kind", such recommendations will be referred to the House of Commons. Internal Circulation Distribution to Posts Ext, 182A (Rev. 2/52) lso attached for your information are copies 3. of a leader from The Times on this subject on November 24th. �r Document disclosed under the Access to lnformotibn Act Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a /'information ;, ...... j .. ~ ) #,. r' .... f~ ~ ~ ' c. 0 .,. .. - .... 1 / r . > f ... ' I T r- 1. ,... 000072 J. �Iff~ument d~c/~5fd ijnd r the Access to Jnt,rmotion Act Dot"'e.ntaJv~I~ v d~r{'6u:ffJqi,Jormotion .. -/ '.,-!r-+ I' I ; . ' . ,., - . L"Ll~~·~· .. :__ .. COPY. From 11Hansara 11, 23rd November, 1955. , ' -~r ,' ~· •• h ,,_ ..!f()l.r07"".~ iPUBLICSERVICESSECURITY(CONFERENCE OF FR.IVY COUNCILLORS) . The Prime Minister (Sir Anthony Eden):: •. I will with permission, Mr., Speaker, make a statement about the· .appointment of a Conference of P~ivy Councillors to consider security precautions. I have discussed the matter with the right hon. Gentleman ~he Leader of the Opposition, and the Conference will now consist of the .following Privy Councillors_:: My noble Friend the Lord President My noble and learned Friend My right hon. and gallant The nobl·e and learned of the Council. the Lord Chancellor., Fr:j.end the Home Secretary. Earl, Lord Jowitt. The right hon~ Gentleman the.Member for Lewisham, South (Mr. He Morrison)® The right ·hon. Gentleman the Member for V~uxhall (Mr. G.R. Strauss). The Permanent Secretary to Her Majesty's Treasury., The terms of referenc·e for the Conference will be:: "To examine the security procedures now applied in the public serv~ces and to consider whether any further precautions are called for and should'·be taken.u • Mr,. Bellenger:: Al though I can understand the considerations which have led the right hon. Gentleman to· set up what iis almost a closed shop, may I ask him whether there will be any report to Parliament as a result· of the deliberations of these gentlemen? .. The Prime Minister: I do not thiiik ·it is a closed shop. It is composed of Members of both .sides of the House who have had_ consideral;,le experience in these matters, and I think, rightly, thq.t we. have both of us excluded, in the ma.in, . those with direct Foreign Office responsibility during the period when this m~tter was under discussion. we· have also chosen with great care, from both • sides of the House, ·Home Secretaries and past Home Secretaries with special experience of this matter. The report will be made. to me,. and as to whether any change,s are required in the law or otherwise, that is, of cours.e, for t_his Conference. to recommend. If the • 000073 �r ' Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divu/gue en vertu de' I<:Loi sur /'occes a l'inform_otion ... - 2 - Conference should recommend changes in· tpe.law or anything of that kind, c]:early they would be for.reference·to this House. • Mr, Emrys Hughes: Could the Prime Minister say whethe,r.this is to be another branch of the Secret Service? If so, how ~,.rill ordinary mortals· be able to ·make up their m~ds abo1,1t this? How far are the public and other hone Members going.to know anything about it? "The Prime Minister: I thought. that the selection of leaders from both parties which I have announced would inspire confidence ..in the breast of the hon. Gentleman. • If it does:not, I am afraid that it is' beyond me to· provide a cure for him.· . Mr. M, •Lindsay: Does my right hon .. Friend appreciate that the anxiety that some of us have about this ·body is that it ·consists of such.very busy me~ that they may not be able to probe to the extent that .should be done? I should, therefor,e, like to know whether my right hon .. Friend proposes to· attach to. this body, in the secretariat· or whatever it ~ay be, sufficient staff to be able.to assist the body in any pro.bes that may be desirable. • The Prime Minj,ster:, . The. Conference will have full powers to send for any persons or papers that may be required; .. but for. the rest, I think my hon. Friend will realize that it has:been·hard to choose persons with more experience of those matters _than those who have bee;n placed on this Conference. • • . Mr. Daines: While recognizing.that there must be cer·ta;i.n parts of the .report of the Conferenc·e which .must be con£idential on security grounds, may I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether he·will not agree that there are.other asp.ects of the matter upon which a public report· would be welcome'? Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that there is ·still profound disquiet arising out of the debate on Maclean and Burgess, as was instanced·· yesterday? Will the right hon.· Gentleman please consider what information can be released to. the public consistent with safety? • The Prime Minister: 'This report is to be made to me, and this is exactly in accordance with what I informed the House in the closing stages·-of our debat·e on the subject. It will certa.inly be open to this Confer.ence to examine the steps which have· been taken _to increase ·our security since the Maclean. a:n.d Burgess affair. .• I think it will- be valuable that those who were not then ·in office should examine those .. . steps which wer.e t.aken to see what action is necessary. • Mr;. Rankin: Do I take it from the Prime Minister 1 s last reply that terms of reference are to be given to-this Conference? reference The Prime Minister:. as clearly as r· could. I read the terms of -----------000074 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue ,;n vt?rtu de lo Loi.sur /'occes bl'informotion COPY.... From "The Times", 24th November, 1955. TO REVIEWSECURITY The details of the precautions which are .ta.ken against espionage and sabotage in departments of state and their offshoots are unknown to the public$ And it is obvious that they must remain Eiecret ·if they.are to be • effective. The•-cloak is necessary to beat. the dagger. What the public do.es· know is that whatever the precautions were in the Foreign Offi9e .in the· years leading up to the • flight of Burgess and Maclean in the summer of 1951, they .did· not work in the case ·of two men whose careers were neither unblemished nor inconspicuous. • The public has also been.assured that since then security has been tightened. • That in itself does not inspire mucl:~ confidence after what has happened. The Prime Minister, by calling a conference of Privy Councillors of both main political parties, to .review security procedures and to consider whether any further precaµtions are necessary, has chosen the best wa.y open to him ·.of restoring confidence. The Lord President of the Council, the Lord Chancellor,. the Hom:e 'Secretary, a fprmer .Lord C4ancellor, a former For_eign . Secr·etary ,' another former Cabinet Minister, and the . Permanent S.ecretary to the Treasury combine experience, ',judgment, and concern for ·the nation• s wellbeing which can be trusted. .. In Tuesday's ·debate -in the House o'f Lords Lord Astor expressed·his· dissatisfa"ction with the announcement that the repor.t •would not be published.. But Lord Reading was right when he· said that 11anything less. su-itable· for . ·publication and debate in either·House·of Parliament would ·be difficult to imagine 11• But this does not mean that ,the general 'verdict of the :Privy.· Councillors or any recommendations they may make about 11openiu procedures should not be communicated., • The necessity .for secrecy would be better understood if Ministe.rs were rather· less ··.·enigmatic about those parts ·of the security arrangements where secrecy· serves no good purpose~ 000075 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur l'occj...q1'/nf~on P~RSOll L OFFICE OF W COHFIDj;NTI I 00 _ • __ i.,_ THE HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR CANADA CANAD HOUSE, LO N D O N , S, W, I. 16th..J)ee-ember, J 1955. ,~:f7i-: I Dear Hamilton, I am senaing to-day a reply to your letter J.fo. DS.1723 of December 9th requesting the terms of reference, composition, etc., of the Conference of Privy Councillors appointed by Sir Anthony Eden as a result of the BurgessMaclean debate. I must apologise for not having followed this up. I had a word with Pat Dean to-day on this subject, and he confirined that there would be no published report of the Conference's findings, other than specific recommendations which might require action by Farliament. He appreciated our interest in the subject, however, and said he would like to think over the possibility of letting us have some account of the finding3, even if it is not feasible to pass on the report itself, which, as you know, will be made to the Prime Minister. Dean also said that he hoped the Conference would be able to complete its investigations before the end of January. I shall get in touch with him again after the New Year to see whether something can b~ worked out. Yours sincerely, (_ Hamilton Southam, ~sq., Depart1nent of !!iXternal Ottawa. ffa irs, 000076 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Defence oLd.re:d.t $@®.�e 2i)v/,GH8obltibaw/l.1Swrmotion (FILE COPY) DEPARTMENT OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS, CANADA. NUMBERED LETTER • TO:· •C):FFI·CE· ·0:P • 'l'HE· ·HI·GH· -�OMMISSIOI.JER- ,li'OR •••••• • · • • ··· ·0M ..WA•,- • • .J.ON.J.)ON..........•.....•............. Security: ,l]p.QJ,..q�.�if.i�.4............ . No: .DS ... . /.1 /.� ..................... . DateDec.em.be;c.9.,.l�.Q�............. FROM: THE UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR EXTERNAL AFFAIRS, OTTAWA, CANADA. Enclosures •.. ReferenC!'-oUT • Let,teT • N< h -903. of. No;v;e'!l.be.r .10.,...... 1955 Sub.�ect·· Burgess· and· Mac-lean··· · • · • · · · • · · • · •, ·, · · • · ·,.. n.ana ................ , ... . Air or &arface Mail: Air......... , ..... . Post file No: ••••••••••••• , ••••••••••••• �o )._�o t./- D Ottawa File No. 9D 9/ References Sec.,Security Panel RCMP(SB) The Hansard f'or November ?,whicb you were good enourh to enclose \·1th your letter under refer­ ence ,has teen read wi t:h attention by the officials in Ottawa who are concerned wit.h the implications for Canada of the Bu1·gess and Maclean case. We should be grateful if in due course 2. you would write us again, giving us tile composition and ter.11s of reference of the "small inf'o1'illal con­ ference of Privy Councillors from both sides of the House" which the Prime .inister proposed to convene. It is not clear whether t�is body is expe cted to issue a report of any kind uut, if it does so, we should be grateful to receive six copies. G. H. SOUTHAr-­ for Under-Secretary of State for External Affairs. Distribution to Posts Ext.1818 (Rev. 2/52) 000077 �AFFAIRS, ( DUPLICATE) NUMBERED LETTER TO: ( ,.� fDER- SECRETARY :OF STATE .FOR �1ERNAL AFFAIRS, OTTAWA, CANADA. OFFICE. OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONER l.l°'OR . -FROM: ............. .......................... • ... : . ; ...... :..... : . �-� ....... 9�"fAJ?!h . �9�1?9.rf \": .. , 1 ...Q\l.,�. .Reference: . ·- ���-�'?;i: .�q,, I I ■ I I I I ■ I ■ I •■ ■ I. I· I I I ■ I ■ ■ I ■ I I I I I ■ f�i� . �-q P.:i:<? � )-. .' .•-. ; • , .. ' ' �f... ; ... •. ............ : ,c;:9}1.ilp�I).�. )?.f:1Qi3.t�'), ..................... : .·.; '. .•. ■ • F..n_clo�ure.s: . , . ;I.; : • Air,.. ,. .. , ... , . , .. , .+�.$9.. 9f. ·. ?:l:ti. . �.o/. �µ.t�.�f. Ai-r or, Su. r face, M ai·1 : ....... ·&bjec�: ... ; ,I}µ.,:q.g��l3.•.?P:4. f1?,q=!-�9Pi� .. ,Ij:�4,p,�. I•, :�.<?�h. �C?Y.�1!1���:t ;·.��?.?�.t Date:.-.': .. I· • ••••••••••••• . • ■ I I I • I I I I '1 I e I � :, I I I . I I • •1 I 'I ■ ■ , I -. ' .·•· ' .. ' ··-:_, . Post ___ File No: ...... ,., ...... -.-·.. :.,.·.- .. ;.:,;,. ' ' ' ·Ottawa File No�· I I References ;,,r. ' :,· .-· I For the _use of the_ Security Panel:_-idid.' :any ' . others who may be interested in··. havil:).g the· full• report . \ ' . of the House of Commons d ebat:e on Bur,gess. and .. Maclean on 7th November; we a.re enclosing_six·copies· of Han;3a�d ... for that date.· CANADA' HOUSE •• Internal - Circulation· \ � ' f' ·: . ;. •. •' , T ' Distribution •• to Posts •.·' ·,. 1': Ext. 18·2C (Rev, 2 / 52)_ ' - - ' - • - ' \ ',," �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act �') .,,,.,..__, .• "DEPARntENT DATE November SECURITY / r., ROUTING SLIP TO: 14 ., '"-..... 5 Defence Liaise FROM: Commonwealth/G. Charpentier/ mh D For Signature D For Action D For Approval [l For Conments For_Infox,natiorr and File 0 COMMENTS: Destroy D Return [l (This space is not for comments of a permanent character which should be formally recorded in a memorandum) 000079 Ext, 252 (Rev, 11/52) �Document disclosed under the Access to n ormot1on Document divu/gue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes .BRITISH -· INFORMATION A G E N C Y O F T H E ct a/'information SERVICES. B R I T I S H G O V E R. N M E N T _..:._~ TODAY'S BRITISH PAPERS Maclean ' 1 9 1 10 papers discuss the case of Burgess ~ ··i tish Fo1"eign Office officials who disappeared oe debated in the House of' Com:mons today. ~ t THE M.ANCH?~STRR. GUARDIAN argues that the and Maclean, .. the j_n 1951, which danger in this two is to debate is will want moPe information about the two that Members of Parliament to find out who was reofficials or Vvill make yet another> attempt sponsible for not :;:-•emoving them earlier from· the PoI'eign Service. may nnt come to gi•j_ps 1:.'ith The M. P. s, the GUARDIAE feels, temporary problems of the Service. It SE?S~ the con- 11 By continuing to flog the fairly dead horse of the Burgess and Maclean case, the House would lose the for a useful debate on the futu~e organiopportunity ze. t-ion of the Foreign Service. ,i The NEWS CiffiONICL~ feels inquit•y BPi tain' th2.t M. P.s should_press a small cororni ttGe of pl'iv3r co1mselors s secu1"'i ty sys tern. The CH'~ONicr;· says: by into for· a secret the whole of'. "The MinisteI'S and ex-Ministers involved must drop their coyness and give the country· the facts to which it has a right. If' Ministers are not prepared to do so 9 -here is a f'iPst class oppo1,tun.i ty f'or back-;J.:mch,srs to f'ree themselves from the party 'Yhips and assert themselves on behalf of the ne.tion. 11 Like the CI~RONICL:::::, the DAII,Y ff .:·uu:.,D faVOI'S an inquiry. It says: "The Labor .Party vdll press for an· investigB.tion into the Office. One of' system of recruitment for the Foreign the reasons for the-misplaced zeal of.people at the Foreign Office in defending both themse~ves and their system of recrui tmen,t is the.t the Foreign 0:i:fice is still too much a closed circle. It is i,.,ecI'Ui ted too naProwly fPom one social gi-•oup. 11 The DAILY UiUL thinks. affairo It says: there hes br:en too much covel"'ing up in the 11 People do not want secrets of the secret sePvice to be revealed, but everyone ·we.nts to know why· certain obvious were not ts.ken. It is not any pai"ticul_ar. government steps but the machinery of government which is at the bar of' the House; and uJ1less Minis t,~rs -are frank, c 01rridence • in it 11 That would be a dis.aster•. will be shaken. (over) Thismaterial is filed with the Departmentof Justice,where the required registrationstatement of B.,.s_.under~6 Stat. 248:258as an agenc'.of the BritishGovernmentis availablefor inspection. Registrationdoes not implyapprovalor disapprovalof this material by the UnitedStates Gove1nment. New York Offices, 30 Rockefelle'r Plaza, New York 20, N. Y. Telephone: Circle 6-5100 Ch• icago D-6-L 11 720 N Michigan Ave • Washington 4 D.C., 903 National Press Building : San Francisco4,310 SansomeSt. • • • • ' 000080 �- ---------------------------------;:;-Do-:--:c---:--um::--e~nt;:--:d-;c:isc-:-;-/o~se-_-;d~u~nd:;::-er::--;:thz-=e~A~cc:::-es:::-s-:-=to--:;:1n-:,.1o:::-rm=o Document divulgue en ver~u de lo Lof;ur /'occes t - 2 The DAILY 3XPJ:C88S u2.."'ges that there shm;lld 1Je n,o shirking of .the questions l"aised~ nor• of many more a1"ising from themo of any The EXPRESS considers to that the blame in any case does not.belong the Government: 11 "The slight occurI'ed before the TOJ::oies came to office. The EXP:2JGSS maintains that.if Ministers :feel they are on the spot it is their own fault~ 11 They should not have withheld the fs.cts all this timeo The purpose of the inquest must be to discover what went WPong and whether it has been put Pight. 11 The DAILY MIRROR feels of harm business'. in the debate 7 by that the JJ1oreign coming clean 8"?cretap3r can 1.m.do a lot the disreputable aoout whole 11 Macmillan, it says~ 11need not worry about putting the best face on it ·to save the pride of injured officialdom. Macmillan was 1nrong the, t he WOI'Pied about the 11 public who are tiPed of ·being treated like nurnskulls. "Mr. The Geneva Conference _?..f.._EoP~ign Ministeps THE MANCH:.':ST~'.-~:R GUARDIAN al.so Foreign thinks have Ministers which, the.t Moscow Radio been taken he is6 that while The p8.peP asks as he as'lrn·.9 we are three every not' mention we cannot disband ready the Geneva conference of says 9 • is not going welL The GUARDIAN on the mark in sa~,ring that two s_teps lJackwa1"d for GUARDIAN~-i.t does which it is discusses Mr. Molotov as ~vhy the should the to one fm:award,; \Vest North exclude the Atle.ntic German al though~ adds biggest .sinner not to Mro Molotov say Treaty forces from the Organization~ it subject to conditions: "These would be fil"st~ thr.'..t Russia must in return agr•ee to a relmion of Germany thr01,1.gh t'reG elections; secondly.9 that the reunited Germany must lJe free to associate with the West as fully as it wishes in all but military matters; and thi1"dly~ that Russia and. the 'Vest must jointly ·guar11 antee Gerrnany' s fr-ontiePs. The GUARDIAN .predicts that Mr. Molotov for sa;y,ing 'no' to this offer~ him. The GUARDIAN thinks that offer• it for would they be that the central do not want theiI' matter of negotiation serve this as their with own best but the would tna t it would chief· difficulty government military Russia probably at Genava bargaining (more) 9 but weapon. an excuse be worth trying on in making such an in ·Bonn membership find wo1..-;.ldbe against of NATO _to be wish rather tc a re- al'i �• Document disclosed under the Access to lnfoimotion Act Document divu/gue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a /'information - 3 SATURDAY,'November 5, 1955 __ The Middle East The recrnt-.fi ghti ng ..on-the Israel-Egyptian border is again .discussed by ~everal papers. TEE MANCHESTER GUARDIAN: "To keep the peace on the Israeli borders is beyon4 question the ta~k of the first priority in Middle Eas.t diplomacy. There might be advantages in taking the present outbreak- to the S_ecuri ty Council even though· Egypt_ has defied previous rul;ings by the Council and Russia may veto the pr.,,ceed-ings. . '' . "But the measure which is immediately open to the Vest and which would best improve the cha.hces of peace is a supply of arms -- espec1.aliy defensive arms to Israel. This would deter Egypt; it would revive the confidence of Israel and thus strengthen-its government against those demanding preventive war a~ 11 Israel's only hope of self-preservation, The NE,.'S CHRONICLE, on the other band, thinks such .a· step would be unwise. It says it could only fan the flames. The paper feels :that the Security Council should be _ called together ·for an emergency meeting and tba t troops under the United Natt•n::i flag might be sent to the Gaza area as a police force to ensure that the peace i..~ kept pending a f;inal settling of the frontiers. Th.e paper notes that General Burns ha~ , said that definite qteps must be taken bJ the great powers. • 11But, 11 it 11 says, since Israel,is our responsibility and since America seems bewitched and confused it is up to Britain to take the lead. She shllituld begin by reaffirming her support for the validity of Israel 1 s existence while making it plain that· Br:i tain is flatly against a preventive war, Simultaneously we should demand a Security_ Council meeting and offer troops for the keeping ef the peace. 11 THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: 11It- is customary in such crises_ to app-~al for peace and suggest dipl,.matic mediation. But matters are rapidly passing beyond this stage. Peace in the Middle East is not only a vital world in,terest; it is also a special re~pansibili ty of Britain and the United States. Impartiality can n~ver ju£tify inaction, and the first kind· of acti•on is to show both sides that the Tripartite Agreement of 1950 eml::Jqdied m,are than a pious hope that- better counsels would prevail. 11 The DAILY1EXPRESSis against any action by the United Kingdom. It says that Britain should save .her strength,for the Empire and keep clear of Middle East.feuds: ' 11She cannot afford to get involved and has no cause to do so either fpr the_ sake of Jews or Arabs. 11 The Labor DAILY HEMLD arg·ues that the 1restern Powers and the United Nations must ensure peace in the Middle East. At the same time the paper feels· that the United 'Kingdom Government should recognize the ~i.ght of Cyprus to self-determination: 11Tha t decision could how restore g~l"d viill in Cyprus. There are enough hard problems in the ~Iiddle East without manufacturing others unnecessarily." \( Burgess and Maciean ._ • , •• , V . THE TIIViES, on a home topic, former looks ahead to ne~t week's debate in th_e Commons on the Foreign Office officials Burgess and Maclean: ' I 11The debate will be useless unless Government and Oppositi~n join in drawing the real les.sons out of the long drawn~out and scandalous affair. _The ftrst lesoon, surely, is that successive governments added grently to the·puljlic artxiety by declining for so long to give reasonable information to Parliament and the peiiple-;11Some may be tempted to thi:rik of it as an old story, better closed, But .a· clt'Be watch on security and, for all their recognized' high standards of l;11yalty, :and· ability, on the dependability ~fall men in the Foreign Service is as necessary 11 as ever now ,vhen contacts with the Commun:i,s_:t_states are increasing. The Forth.gaming Antarctic Exped~tion to raise money THE TnJ!Es also refe -to the appeal la_unched by the Prime Minister for the Commonw expedition;to the Antarctic: ' HTheyxpedition, led b'y Dr. V. E_. Fuchs,' has a double claim· ~o support: the first and' most important reason for going is to find out what is there. Some of . the iJilPorta'nt scientific objectives have thei:r ~lace in th? in~ern~ tio~l. program for . • /the Geophysical Year :two years hence. But in popular imagination it is the ad/ venture that counts. The two thousand mile journey is to be made with far greater • preparation and far superior equipment than the classic polar-explorations of_ the past. Yet for all the refinement in tec.hni.que, the element of challenge remains outstanding iri any essay to cross the v;ast, unknown wastes of that icy con-000082 ,n �Document disclosed under tht?Access to Inform Document divulgue en ve,rtu de lo L//1.i sur l'osces a1il ... --'.....,; \ ~- \_~2 - 4 frin~es~JY!argaretls Most of the Sunday papers ,Grou~ C~?,tai~ Townsend, this THE SU!'TIJl.i.Y TIMES: ~- discuss Princess being their first Margaret's decision not to marry opportunity to do so. "Now ~the orgy of speculation,gossip and rumor is ended two things are app0.rent . .One is th~at the allegations that the Princess I decision was influenced by pressure fr.om this, thot or the other quarter ·were baseless -- we have her m-m word for thGt, The other is the clear implication that the Princess accepts the Church's teaching not just because it is the Church's teaching, but b~cause she herself believes in that .tea.ching. .. "From earliest childhood the Princess has he.d the affectionate regard of ail tho peoples over v,hom her sister now reigns. In putting her sense of what is rigbt before personal inclination and feeling she has SE:'t a shining example." THE OBSERVER: "In the general uncertainty how to react a hectic search for sc 9 pegoa ts. 11 But the paper discontinued: politely suggests thet the public to these search unhappy for events who is there has beeri to blame might be ~- "It can serve only as a means to continue discussing a story.which genuine sympathy should prompt one to close. Moreover, the search for someone to blame ignores the nature of this type of unhappiness and frustration. There are many people who for various reasons cennot marry whom they wish. 'i'he rep.eal of an J~ct of Parliament or the changing of a Church. 1 s doctrine or stn tus would not ~ remove this kind of distress from daily life. ~ne thi~g that this episode has de:f_i1i.itely done is to remind us how much dignity can be conferred on such si tua" • _.---+,:i...ooe by a, breve. and unselfish attitude . 11 REYNOhDSNE1':Sagrees that the Princess' decision -was a personal one, but it argues: "The decision raises two public issues. First, who were the people who advise.a. the P:i;:incess and the Royal Family on the subject; and, secondly, bow much longer is the Church of England to be recognized by law as the official Established Church of this country. , 11If on this constitutional question unknown people, accountable to no one, were • free to advise the Crown, is there not a danger that the same thing could happen .on a much bigger political issue? • "The lmglican Church ·wields power out of all relation to its numbers. The belie.:" of the Church concern only its members. The political part of the Church concerns all of us .• It is time ,to -end tho fiction tbet the Church of Engle.nd repr0sents the religious life of the Bri ti.sh people. 11 •• ••, r, SUNDL ..Y, November -6, r9'55 Decision The SUI\i1).['.Y DISPI;.TCH is concerbtld, about Group Captain Townsend's future: 11It is unthinkable that the great career for wbich Group Captain Townsend was obviously des;tined from his early days in the Royal l'.ir Force sh_ould be clouded by anything that has happened. The R.l.F. needs qualities of character like his in the places of .command. He must not be lost in an obscure post in a far ple,ce. Soon his appointment in Brussels will end; he sbould then be given •· command of a major R.A·.F. station. If this is done, he will certainly show himself deserving of even greater responsibilities; and ,;,hen ·time has brought vihat solace it can we trust that we shall see him high in the great service where he has already shown brilliant tnlents, using for tho benefit of his country the qualities all his countrymen admire. 11 THE PEOPLE ~pplauds Princess Iviargarot!s decisiqn: "Far from showing the Princess as a mere creature of court and Church convention~ it showed her to be 'a. spirited young \,ioman, determined to do 1.:vha t she believed to be right. It showed her determined to stand by the man VihO had suffered so much for their friendship, and determined to support what she regnrds as one of ~,:, o.i:i;""-,.t,.~.,,J.s;: c;f Gh:r:i.~t..i.nn t,;,a.ehi.ng~" END These surveys, prepared in London by the British of the,B,B,C. oversens service, are distributed ested in current British opinion. . ,c Broadcasting Corporation as e. fee. ture by B.I.S. as a service to those·intor- �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes /'information a • CP from Reuters-.AP. women do c t o r s who ·treated condition and he frequently took MOSCOW- Guy Burgess, the Burgess for 10 days up to his rest cures for iboth his hear>tMd British diplomat who .fled Lon- death said he died in Iris sleep stomach. in a special ward for heart He died in increasing lonelidon t escape spy charges, d'ied cases. ness. An "Old Etonian," he still ~ after 12 sordid and Burgess had been ill for SPN• wore a tattered striped tie worn lonely years in Russia. era! years. Heavy drinking and at Eton, Britain's most exclu•Burgess, 52, died Jn his sleep smoking did not help his heart iive school for boys. of heart disease in the public ward of the hospital. Donald Maclean, the .foreign office.,_ offi- ■ ■ cial who escaped to Russia with Burgess ·in 1951,-broke the news By STANLEY JOHNSON fled in 1951, would have little to Burgess' mother in London NEW YORK (AIP) - Guy to do with him. by telephone. Burgess, who died in Moscow GOOD LOOKS He sa.ld Sunday night ,the Rus- hospital Friday, spent the last Burgess, who died of a sian .foreign ministry would years of his life in utter de- heart attack at the age of 52, grant Burgess' mother, Mrs. once had everything-position, Eve Bassett, an immediate visa gradation. He was a toothless, money, good looks. to travel to Moscow for the fun. physical wreck. He threw it all away. Despised by the Communists era!. I last saw Burgess at a for whom he had spied, the cocktail party in Moscow just PAIR DEFECTED iAt the time the pair defected former British diplomat pad- over a year ago. He had no Maclean was head of tl:ie Amer- ded out the small sums they teeth, little hair; and must ican department a,t the foreign gave •him with an income sup- have weighed at least 250 office while ,Burgess was a sec- plied regularly from his fa. pounds. ond secretary <in the junior mily's fortune in Britain. He was, as usual, drunk and Even Donald Maclean, an- incoherent. ibranch of the foreign service. Two middle • ,aged Soviet other diplomat with whom he ONE REASON L--!:~~~---~~-~-------.-....-.-.....-.......... --~--.. .... He was at the party for one reason only: to drink Scotch whisky and try to cadge a bottle to take home. The British naval attache stalked out of the room when Burgess arrived. The other guests stared. Burgess wore his usual at• tire - a tweed jacket and filthy grey flannel slacks. His conversation was filled with praise for communism a n d sneers at Westerners. But he let it be known that he came from the upper stratum of British society. Until his dying day, Burgess was a snob. A homosexual, Burgess lived with a Red Army corporal in a sordid little apartment where he kept himself ilrunk on vodka when exchange regulations kept him from get000084 ting the Scotch he preferred. ° . CLAIMED RED SPY -~ �Document disclosed under the Ace ss •;. l}EP Aitfffrffdi�fuMfffW.(lo LtffAffl a l'informo ion SLIP TO: •• /I� DA ;E � � VJ SECURITY .(A . )4,,1, - ,,. e.-¥-' FROM: D For Action D For �pproval [l For Ccmrnents For Infonnation and File [l COMMENTS: Destroy [l (This space is not for comments of a permanent character which should be formally recorded .in a memorandum) "' � ,(?, i,,..ec,,.. tl4 � A-M-4"'77 Ext, 252 (Rev, U/52) �- - Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act i,Jocument divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a /'information . MEMORANDUM Privy Council Office Ottawa ......~.?.Y.~.~1?.~r..}~.t ....JJ~RP. Returned with thanks. P.M.D. 000086 �l' • PERSONAL 0 FF I CE OF 'TH E 1-;flGH COMMISSIC)NER FOR CJ\NAD,A, CANADA 1-fOUSE,·, October 28, 1955 ' . Dear Bill:· I don't think your file on Burgess and Maclean would be quite complete without Osbert Lancaster''s thoughts on the subject, from this morning's DAILY EXPRESS. Yours.· sincerely,. �4U / /2 G. G. Crean, Esq. Department of External Affairs OTTAWA Canada 000087 �_________________ _, ________________ DAILYEXPR~SSI IF YOU KNEW BURGESSAS .,. 28.10.55' _.,;;;.Do;;;c;.;u;;.;m.;,;e;:.n~t.;,.d;,;is.;,;c/.,:.o;...se:...d_u_n~d-er the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur l'acces a /'information KNEW BURGESS I Highly E'er•onal Opinion ·oN A. Very Public $abject· by OSBERT LANCASTER • • • • • • • • • • • HE capacity of our elected representatives for infinite time - wasting is well established. T Nevertheless, their announced intention of devoting a day or more to discussing Burgess and Maclean surely achieves a new high in mistiming. With the Middle East liable to burst into flame any moment, a financial situation so grave that we must not call it a crisis, plus all the usual seasonal excitements, one would have thought that any further discussion of the missing diplomats might now be carried on in the bar. No blow ERSONALLY, I am far from regarding B. and M.'s departure as a grave. blow to this country's security and prestige. With the inside knowledge of one who worked for more than a year with Burgess in the same department I do not hesitate to maintain that if the Russians have taken him on their pay-roll they're going to have their biggest headache since the Berlin air-lift. For among his many exceptional qualities was an ability, developed to a degree which I P have never encountered elsewher~. to answer at length any and every question except that one put to him, How vividly can I picture the scene in the dusty office of the Commissar in charge of the Western Department of the Russian Foreign Office ! £ong storJ1 NTER Burgess, an air of simulated diffidence imperfectly masking an hysterical d et e r m in at i o n to impart unwanted information. In his right hand. half-hidden by the palm, a three-quarters smoked cigarette. (All his cigarettes w e r e a 1w a y s three-quarters smoked.) C om m i s s a r : "Comrade Burgess ? Please sit down. -I am rather hoping that you will be able to help us to bring up to date some of our Personality Reports. Now shall we perhaps start with Sir Ivone Kirk~ patrick ? Perhaps you would be so kind as to sketch in his social and political background ? " Burgess:" Certainly, certainly. In fact, I'm very glad you've asked me that. But I'm afraid it's going to be rather a long story-perhaps if I could have a you so much. drink ?-thank Well ... " For the next half-hour the unfortunate Commissar is the puzzled recipient of a series of interesting reminiscences of B's youth at Cambridge. Of a long account of Mr. Crossman's position in the Socialist Party. Of a brief resume of the arguments with which he. Burgess, had floored Professor Berlin in academic discussion. Of an interminable series of laughable -anecdotes, but never, never a single word about Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick. Finally, the unfortunate man somehow manages to bring the E interview to an end. He is lert keenly dissatisfied, but also with an uneasy feelmg that B might conceivably sometime, somewhere, be of some use. After one or two more such interviews this feeling, much fainter, still prevents him from transferring the new recruit to Vorkuta forthwith, but does not shake his determination to get him out of the department. Bureaucracy being Lhe same the world over, he accordingly sends him oft'. with a warm recommendation to the Commissar ixv charge of Racial Minorities or Popular Culture. Ma»be ... A ND so the same old routine 1-1.. goes on and on until the may be aware of decisions on high policy, taken but not announced. But as all our Foreign Secretaries for the last 10 years have suffered from an occupational disease inhibiting them from coming to any decision ever, such secrets in Mr. B.'s time wer~ natura.lly l i m t t e d in number. And Maclean ? What about him? As my e-0quaintance with him was slight and purely social my opinion lacks authority. But I should very much doubt whether in the time he spent in the office between vis:ts to the psychiatrist he could have acquired half as much information tending to damage AngloAmerican relations as t,he average Washington columnist puts into his column every week. But, surely, It may be argued there is the grave question of the efficiency of our secur: ty services ? There most ceitainly is. But H, like me, you hold the old-fashioned view that the .tlr;;t duty of the Secret Service is to be secret, the value of debating its alleged shortcomings on the floor of the House is open to question. For, after all, these are the serious days of peace. It was different in the good old times of total war, when the usual establishment had been reinforced by a whole host of mysterious organisations covered by a bewildering variety o! initials all gunnmg for each other first and the enemy second. But those happy cays are over, and what good discussing the existing set-up is going to do ls by no means clear. unlucky day when Burgess comes up against a short-tempered Commissar with a nasty hang-over and a gun m his bureau drawer. Or, maybe he does not, for his powers of self-prelx'rvation are mcredibly highly developed. So shrewd Perhaps, years hence, some traveller on the Outer Mongolian . THE temptation !or the HousP., steppe will be astonished to hear so many of whose members that eager, well-informed voice, disguised as brigadiers or civil a little thickened by the nine- servants themselves occupied teenth bowl of fermented prominent positions in the mare's-milk since breakfast, business, is cloak-and-dagger sharing laughable reminiscences obviously strong. That they will with a diminished but still resist it is probably too much to attentive audience of Uzbek hope for. pansies. But let no one forget that the unhindered departure of B. and What secrets? M. behind the Iron Curtain was probal:lly one of the shrewdest rJ1HAT'S all very well, you may in all the glad. cold war. say, but tliink of all the moves And none the less effective for Foreign Office secrets he took bP.ing, like so many of our diplowith him ! What secrets ? For matic triumphs, presumably 0ne does not need any inside unintentional. knowledge of the Foreign Office to realise that secrets are there very few and far between. By and large Foreign Office secrets are iike hot news-of interest for a strictly limited period seldom exceeding 24 hours. The average employee knows 000088 no atomic formulas, no strategic dispositions. Occasionally he ��er the Access ��Document nlgue ccess to lnformot~t , i sur /'occes a l'~=o/ en vertu ~i-z:-- ,•L,~~--~ O.F'L"JCE OF.THE HiGH CONN/SSZOJi,;..✓(:::-J:· .T:0R?HE [ll,1/7'E..O ./O#0..00K, (_)-:J .EarnsoZif'/'e, 077'AWA. 7th October, 1027/29 1955. --~~\_!~ { Dear Bill, On the 29th September I sent you two copies of the official White Paper about the I • disappearance of Burgess and Maclean. We have now received from London a Corrigendwn slip containing an important correction on line 3 of paragraph 2 on page 2 ,5__....,..,- of the Whlte Paper. Maclean was at "Trinity Hall" 1 ~,, _·____~/'fd not "Trinity'' • Al though an old Oxford man yourself ~ ~ -/o/7 ' 1v f-J I am sure you will be glad ~ ;;,;i:_ ~~ to have this news! Yours ever, 1tL. (J". B. Hunt} Mo....J1.t-o~e c...:r~J,- c. G. Crean, Esq., Department of External Ottawa. I Af'fairs, 000092 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Docvment divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a l'informoti�n , ,,_ -� DEPARTMENT OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS DATE � SECURI 1, D TO: FROM: [l For Si gn ature [l For Co!llllents For Information and File [l COMMENTS: Destroy [l □ □ For Action For Approval Return [l (This space is not for comments of a permanent character which should be formally recorded in a memorandum) 000093 �xt. 262 (�ev. 111!2) �ocument disclosed under the Access to Inform Document divulgu_e en vertu de Ip Loi sur /'occes a I' .,. ,r: • .. '-a • • .. • ,.., ~ • < a •' - SEE fiO EVIL 'I • , . ... MAKE-Np· STATEMENt �acumen 1sc --=· ' Document divulgue en vertu d; lo Loi sur /'occes a l'info?motion ' Guaranteecr Stainless A room at the· Foreign Office. STOUGH and RHUBBIS:H, two senior officials, well­ profiled and with brushed-up moustaches and hair greying at the temples, are looking out of the window smoking cigars. STOlJGH (after a pause).: Of course, the trouble with M.I.5 is well known. They're se�urity mad, the pack of them. RHUBBISH: Quite. . Making jobs for themselves. After all, why pick on Macburgess, rather thari anyone else? STOUGH: Exactly. RHUBBISH: First-class man in every way. I expect you 've had a look 1 By J. B. through his pers9nal file? Not a hint of spying from first to last. Gets drunk, •of cours·e. Breaks a man's leg occasionally-STOUGH: • Throws furniture out of top floor ·windows in Cairo now and again. RHUBBISH: But where's the security risk in that? SrnuGr:r: Besides ·. . . There but for the grace· of God, what? RHUBBISH: Just so. They. laugh in a well-mannere_,,d way. RHUBBISH crosses to the hearth and throws down the butt of ·his cigar. All the same,. I thought I'd better _keep this policeman feller quiet. BOOTHROYD Don't want a scandal, I meari. So I told him I'd have a word with you. STOUGH: Oh, quite. • Can't be too careful. Perhaps we'd better just run through it again. There was the_ Russian Embassy incident. Macbur­ gess seen at the back door, receiving . banknotes from a man in Red Ariny Officer's uniform. Obviously settle­ ment of some wager or other, you think. RHUBBISH: . It seems the most likely explanation. ·we _all know that Mac­ burgess is a great one for a flutter. Probably gave them five-to-one that Malenkov wouldn't last till Christmas, something of that kind. M.I.5 say that he put something into the officer's band, but that might have been 'anything-ticket for the Victoria Palace, bar of chocolate. STOUGH: Or five bob change. Nothing in that, what? RHUBBIS:tr: Absolutely not. Then there's this cinema man. STOUGH: Cinema man? RHuBJHSH: Ypu remember. Local cinema m:ar Macburgess's home. He often goes 'in there to borrow the screen. Takes his projector and gives himself a thirty-five·'millimetre film­ strip show. STOUGH: Oh, yes.· Says he can't do them at home because his family's always watching the television.· Well, that seems reasonable enough. And the manager never sees· any of these pictures, because Macburgess sends him home and promises to lock the place up. RHUBBISH: Correct. Except that he did once go back for his hat and the screen was full of aircraft silhouettes. Holiday snaps, no doubt, and got the sun in the lens. STOUGH: Obviously. RHUBBISH: And that's about the lot, really. Apart from a: few d_ocuments missing.·, STOUGH: Oh, well-documents. I was only saying to Filing the other day, when we were trying to find the XO Fission pape. rs, what we really want in those cabinets is a good clear-out and start afresh. How many docu• • ments are supposed to be missing? RHUBBISH: I've • got it jotted down somewhere. 344 000095 �"" •. -Documentdisc!osed under the Access to lnfornfution Act Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a /'information > - .-; ,:-,----.., ,--; - PUNiiii,. September 28 1955 � -�� ;�!lf!/#�A � � 1 r�. � r� �t����� 1 U{ 1 1 \�lt � -::::.,.__--,...,_� r e �\� :• . ) �: .. ·::··-� 1 ..::4 "I thought you said they were short-sighted." He takes an old envelope from his pock_et- and, studies it, Roughly about twelve hundred. STOUGH: Does that include the routine L.I.T. allowance? I forget how much_ it is for a Counsellor. RHUBBISH: Left in Taxis? Counsellors? They're allowed twelve documents a month. But I'm not counting those. • This twelve hundred is extra. STOUGH (thoughtfully): Yes.-You-know, Rhubbish, don't thihlc I'm getting security-minded or any ·rot of that kind, but it does seem to me a fraction on the extravagant side, twelve hundfed additional L/Ds. What sort of thing are they? Any­ thing important? RHUBBISH: I don't think so. There's a lot of old Buraimi Oasis material­ STOUGH: Oh, that. RHUBBISH: And t4e rest are mostly routine things . . . lntellig�nce codes, secret pacts with Yugoslavia, arma­ ments stockpile statistics and so forth. STOUGH: I see. He crosses to the large- empty desk and sits heavily, spreading his hands out on its polished surface. (After a pause): A knock at the· door. You know what we are, Rhubbish? We' re a pair of cads. . Here's Mac- • Come in! burgess,-. a talented young ·chap 'with -Enter MACBURGEss•: • 'The other two rise ' and greet him, patti�g his back and a fine record of service, good education, f�mily man,. a gentleman in the best shaking him by the haµd. sense. And here are you and I STOUGH: How are you,. my dear fellow. entertai.l).ing gross and quite un­ Broken any good legs lately? founded suspicions behind his back. . All laugh. What is the Foreign Service cqmi'ng RHUBBISH: We were just talking about to? Where are we, if we can't trust you. our own chaps? Good Go{ .at this MACBURGESS: Very' flatterjng, old man. moment fellows may be sitting in I ju.st dropped in to say that· I've ·got rooms like this all over Whitehall, to go away un_expectedly to an tearing our characters to pieces just unqisclosed destination• for an in­ definite period. l wondered if either because we've been_ seen distributing Communist Party pr<:>paganda leaflets of you fellows happened. to have ·.any Russian currency? or chalking the words of the Inter­ All laugh. national on the flagstones oi:ttside Buckingham Palace. It's frightening. STOUGH: Nothing doing, I'm afraid. I feel ashamed of myself for having Why not flog a couple of blueprints? discussed the thing at _all. I mean, MACBURGESS (shaking hands): I '11. clo what would Palmerston would have that. • • said? All laugh. Exit l\:1IACBURGESS. STOUGH RHUBBISH: . Oh, I entirely agree. It pushes the cigar bo;c �cross to RI-l:UBBISH. was only that this ghastly poli_ceman RHUBBISH :·· '!'hanks... (He looks fondly in was hosing around-- . the direction of the_ closed door.) . Dear STOUGH: Don't worry. have-a word old Mac. with .the. Minister about that. Put STOUGH:_ Hear, hear. What fools we've an end to it. · .And as for the-been. ru 345 000096 �Document di~c/osed under the Access to lnformotiori Act Document divulgue en1tertu de lo Loi sur ('occes l'i[iformotion a The Case of the Trembling T ERSE, tough, hard-boiled, his hat on the back of his head;__w:ith or without a heart of gold beneath that cynical exterior, the type of the nnvspaper reporter was at one time firmly imprinted on the public imagination. Nothing surprised or excited him. , Horses might be maddened by flames, crazed typists totter on parapets, archdukes get ~hot and .tdplets take their milk from fountain-pen fillers. It was all one to the reporter. He made a note •of-the occurrence, 'phoned the story to the news editor, and· made tracks for the nearest bar. If, from first to last, he showed an:y trace of persona,! emotion, it was only to push his hat a little further towards the back of his head while grilling the victim's mother; and of that momentary weakness he certainly made no mention in. his copy. One detects a ch~ge. Reporters have Reporter begun to gasp and marvel. Only the other day one of them trembled. "I am still dry-throated, exhausted and trembling," exclaimed a Mr. Desmond Hackett at the start of a mid-September dispatch from Prague to the Daily Express; and he went on to explain that it was the sight of Gordon Pirie fighting off the bounding Czech, Zatopek, that hc:d •reduced him to this extremity. A trembling reporter! More, a still trembling reporter. Did he wire the $Jory then, forcing his quivering fingers to tap it out letter by letter on his faithful portable? Or did he 'phone it, shaking •and gasping in some lonely kiosk in far-off Prague, his voice almost unrecognizable as he forced the reluctant syllables throug~ that parched and riven throat? Tne point is interesting,~ but immaterial. Mr. Hackett recovered rapidly enough to start his next dispatch "We did it! Glory be, we did it!" without a hint of weariness, so there need be no fear that he wa~ permanently overwrought. What matters, what patently emerges, _is that British reporters are at last coming out of their carapaces and giving free vent to their emotions. A story is no -longer just a story to the modern newspaperman. It moves, it wrings, it sends him; and he rightly tells us so. Far from being hardboiled, he must, if he is to make any tieadway in his profession, be a man easily aroused, warm-hearted, of delicate sensibility. "Bystanders went to the assistance of a Times correspondent who was overcome during the unveiling of a commemorative plaque in Cheapside yesterday. ·'It was the wording,' explained the reporter brokenly, after restoratives had been administered ... " ,I "I'll give you J:.rincessi•on Whatshername" 346 000097 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a /'information \ \ \ Office of}he High Commissioner for the United Kingdom Eamscliffe Ottawa With the Compliments of I 'b ~ ?-.~ \ s s/~, 5n ' ~ ~ (/~ ~ ,:u ~ -::;::: ~) - 000098 �Document disc/as~ Document divulgue e Miscella?eous No. 17 (1955) Report concerningthe dis~ppearanceof two farmer Foreign Office Officials London, September 1955 Presented by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to Parliament by Command of Her Majesty September 1955 LONDON HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY SIXPENCE Cmd. 9577 NET OFFICE �r- acumen 1scose un e Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a /'information 1- I, 1947. He worked for. a time in the office of the then Minister lt~,Mr. Hector McNeil, and in the Far Eastern Department of the Foreign . ce. In August 1950 he was transferred to Washington as a Second Secretary. . . 1 REPORT CONCERNING THE DISAPPEARANCE OF TWO FORMER FOREIGN OFFICE OFFICIALS On the evening of Friday, May 25, 1951, Mr. Donald Duart Maclean, a Counsellor-in the senior branch of the Foreign Service and at that time Head . of the American Department in the Foreign Office, and Mr. Guy Francis de Money Burgess, a Second Secretary in the junior branch of the Foreign Service, left the United Kingdom from Southampton on the boat for St. Malo. The circumstances of their departure from England, for which they had not sought sanction, were such as to inake it obvious that they had deliberately fled the country. Both officers were suspended from duty on June 1, 1951, and their appointments in the Foreign Office were terminated on June 1, 1952, with effect from June 1, 1951. 2. Maclean was. the son of a former Cabinet Minister, Sir Donald Maclean. He was born in 1913 and was educated at Gresham's School, Holt, and Trinityi(.C~e. Cambridge, where he had a distinguished academic record. He successfully competed for the Diplomatic Service in 1935 and ~as p~sted in the_first instan_ceto _theForeign Office. He served subsequently m Pans, at Washmgton and m Carro. He was an officer of exceptional ability and ~as promoted to the rank of Counsellor at the early age of 35. He was marned to an American lady and had two young sons. A third child was born shortly after his disappearance. • 3. !n May 1950 while serving at His Majesty's Embassy, Cairo, Maclean was guilty of serious misconduct and suffered a form of breakdown which was attributed to overwork and excessive drinking. Until the breakdown took place his work had remained eminently satisfactory and there was no ground whatsoever for doubting his loyalty. After· recuperation and leave at home he was passed medically fit, and in October 1950 was . appointed to be Head of the American Department of the Foreign Office which, since it does not deal with the major problems of Anglo-American relations, appeared to be within his capacity. · 4. Since Maclean's disappearance a close examination of his background has revealed that during his student days at Cambridge from 1931 to 1934 he had expressed Communist sympathies, but there was no evidence that he had ever been a member of the Communist Party and indeed on leaving the University he had outwardly renounced his earlier Communist views. 5. Burgess was born in 1911 and was educated at the Royal Naval • College, Dartmouth, at Eton and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he had a brilliant academic record. After leaving Cambridge in 1935 he worked· for a short time in London as a journalist and joined the B.B.C. in 1936. where he remained until January 1939. From 1939 until 1941 he was employed in one of the war propaganda organisations. He rejoined the B.B.C. in January 1941 and remained there until 1944 when be applied for and obtained a post i;i.sa temporary press officer in the News Department of the Foreign Office. He was not recruited into the Foreign Service through the open competitive examination• but in 1947 took the opportunity open to temporary employees to present himself for establishment. He appeared before a Civil Service Commission ••Board and was recommended for the junior branch of the Foreign Service. His establishment took effect from 2 . 6. Early in _1950the ~ecurity authorities informed the Foreign Office that m late 1949 while on holiday a~road Burgess had been guilty of indiscreet talk about .secret_matters of which he had official knowledge. For this he was severely repr~manded._ Apar~ from this lapse his service in the Foreign Office up to the time of his appomtment to Washington was satisfactory and there seemed good reason to hope that he would make a useful career. 7. _In Washington, however, his work ·and behaviour giive rise to complamt. The Ambassador reported that his work had been unsatisfactory in • that l).elacked thoroughness and balance in routine matters, that he had come to the unfavourable notice of the Department of State because of his reck!ess driving ~nd that he had had to be reprimanded for carelessness in leavmg confidential papers unattended. The Ambassador requested that Burgess be removed from Washington and this was approved. He was recal~ed to 1:,ondon in _early_May 1951_and_ 'Yas asked to resign from the Foreig~ Service. Consi~erati~n _was bemg given to the steps that would be taken m the event of his remsmg to do so. It was at this .point that he disappeared. • 8. Investigations into Burgess' past have ·since shown that he, like Maclean, went through a_period of ~o~unist leanings _whileat Cambridge and that he too on leavmg the Umversity outwardly renounced his views. No_t~~ce can be fo1;1ndin his. su~seque-?,tcareer of-direct participation in the activities of left-wmg orgamsat10ns; mdeed he was known after leaving Cambridge to have had some contact with organisations such as the Anglo~ German Club. • ' -9, • The question has been asked whether the association of these two officers with each other did not give· rise to suspicion. The fact is that alt~ough w'? have since learned that Maclean and Burgess were acquainted dur~ng their un_dergrad~ate days. at Cambridge, they- gave no evidence durmg the course of their career m the Foreign Service of any association other_ than would be ~ormal betw~en two colle~gues. When Burgess was appomted to the Foreign Office Maclean was m Washington and at the time Burgess himself was appointed to Washington Maclean was back in the United Kingdom awaiting· assignment to the American Department of the Foreign Office. It is now clear that they were in communication with each other after the return of Burgess from Washington in 1951 and they may have been in such communication earlier. Their relations were, however, never such as to cause remark. . . 19. In Jan~ary 194~ the security authorities received a report that c'ertain Foreign Office mformation had leaked to the Soviet authorities some years earlier. The report amounted to little more than a hint and it was at the tiine impo~sible to attribute the leak to. a_nyparticular individual. Highly secret but widespread and protracted enqumes were begun by the security authorities and the field of suspicion had been narrowed by mi~-April 1951 to two or three persons. By the beginning of May •Maclean had come to be regarded as t_~e_princi~al suspect. There was, however, even at that time, no legally admissible evidence to support a prosecution under the Official .Secrets Acts. •Arrangements were made to ensure that information of exceptional secrecy and importance should not come into his hands. In the meantime the security authorities arranged to investigate his activities and. contacts.in order 3 000100 �1!111111 Document disclosed under the Access to In ormot1on ct Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a l'inf-ormotion ,, \ to increase their background knowledge and if possible to obtain infore?a which could be used as evidence in a prosecution. On May 25 the tI9 Secretary of State, Mr. Herbert Morrison, sanctioned a proposal that the security authorities should question Maclean. In reaching this decision it had to be borne in mind that such questioning might produce no confession or voluntary statement from Maclean sufficient to support a prosecution but might serve only to alert him and to reveal 'the nature and the extent of the suspicion against him. In that event he would have been free to make arrangements to leave the country and the authorities would have had no legal power to stop him. Everything therefore depended on the interview and the security authorities were anxious to be as fully prepared as was humanly possible. They were also anxious .that Maclean's house at Tatsfield, Kent, should be searched and this was an additional reason for delaying the proposed interview until mid-June when Mrs. Maclean who was then pregnant was expected to be away from home. 11. It is now clear that in spite of the precautions taken by the authorities Maclean must have become aware, at some time before his disappearance, that he was under investigation. One explanation may .be that he observed that he was no longer receiving certain types of secret papers. It is also possible that he detected that he was under observation. Or he may have been warned. Searching enquiries involving individi;tal interrogations were made into this last possibility. Insufficient evidence was obtainable to form a definite conclusion or to warrant prosecution. 12. Maclean's absence did not become known to the authorities until the morning of Monday, May 28. The Foreign Office is regularly open for normal business on Saturday mornings but officers can from time to time obtain leave to take a week-end off. In accordance with this practice Maclean applied for and obtained leave to be absent on the morning of Saturday, May 26. His absence therefore caused no remark until the following Moriday morning when he failed to appear at the Foreign Office. Burgess was on leave and under no obligation to report his movements. 13. Immediately the flight was known all possible action was taken in the United Kingdom and the French and other Continental security authorities were asked to trace the whereabouts of the fugitives and if possible to intercept them. All British Consulates in Western Europe were alerted and special efforts were made to discover whether the fugitives had crossed the French frontiers on May 26 or 27. As a result of these and other enquiries it was established that Maclean and Burgess together left Tatsfield by car for Southampton in the late evening of-Friday, May 25, arrived at Southampton _atmidnight, caught the s.s. Falaise for St. Malo and disembarked at that port at 11·45 the following morning, leaving suitcases and some of,their clothing on board. They were not seen on the train from St. Malo to Paris and it has been reported that two· men, believed to be Maclean and Burgess, took a taxi to Rennes and there got the 1 •18 p.m. train to Paris. Nothing more was seen of them. an:•: The~ receipt w~s at once reported to the security authorities, ~ut '9vas ·1mposs1bleto identify the person or persons who had handed them m. The original telegraph forms showed, however, that the messages had been written in a hand which was clearly not Maclean's. The character of the hand-writing, and some mis-spelling, suggested that both telegrams had been written by a foreigner. 1 14. Since the disappearance various communications have been received from them by members of their families. On June 7, 1951, telegrams ostensibly from Maclean were received by his mother Lady Maclean, and his wife Mrs. Melinda Maclean, who were both at that time in the United Kingdom. The telegram to Lady Maclean was a short personal message, signed by a nick-name known only within the immediate family circle. It merely stated that all was well. That addressed to Mrs. Maclean was similar, expressing regret for the unexpected departure and was signed "Donald." Both telegrams were despatched in Paris on the evening of 15. On June 7, 1951, a telegram was received in London by Mrs. Bassett, Burgess' mother. It contained a short and affectionate personal message, together with a statement that the sender . was embarking on a long Mediterranean holiday, and was ostensibly from ;Burgess hims~lf. The telegram had been handed in at a Post Office in Rome earlier on the day of its receipt. As with the telegrams from Paris to Maclean's family, there was no possibility of identifying the person who had handed it in. The handwriting had the appearance of being foreign, and was certainly not that of Burgess. • 16. According to information given to the Foreign Office in confidence by Mrs. Dunbar, Maclean's mother-in-law, who was then living with her daughter at Tatsfield, she received on August 3, 1951, two registered letters posted in St. Gallen, Switzerland, on August 1. One contained a draft on the Swiss Bank Corporation, London, for the sum of £1,000 payable to Mrs. Dunbar; the other, a draft payable to Mrs, Dunbar for the same sum, drawn by the Union Bank of Switzerland on the Midland Bank, 122 Old Broad Street, London. Both drafts were stated to have been remitted by order of a Mr. Robert Becker, whose address was given as the Hotel Central, Zurich. Exhaustive enquiries in collaboration with the Swiss authorities have not led to the identification of Mr. Becker and it is probable that the name given was false. 17. Shortly after the receipt of these bank drafts Mrs. Maclean received a letter in her husband's hand-writing. It had been posted in Reigate, Surrey, on August 5, .1951, and was of an affectionate, personal nature as from husband to wife. It gave no clue as to Maclean's whereaboJits or the reason for his disappearance but it explained that the bank drafts, which for convenience had been sent to Mrs. Dunbar, were intended for Mrs. Maclean. 18. Lady Maclean received a further letter from her son on August 15, 1951. There is no doubt that it was in his own hand-writing. It had been posted at Herne Hill on August 11. 19. Mrs. Bassett, the mother of Burgess, received a letter in Burgess' hand-writing on December 22, 1953. The letter was personal and gave no information as to Burgess' whereabouts. It was simply dated "November" and had been posted in South-East London on December 21. The last message received from either of the two men was a further letter from Burgess to his mother which was delivered in London on December 25, 1954. This letter was also personal and disclosed nothing of Burgess' whereabouts. It too was simply dated "November." It had been posted in Poplar, E. 14, on December 23. • 20. On September 11, 1953, Mrs. Maclean, who was living in Geneva, left there by car with her three children. She had told her mother, who was staying with her, that she had unexpectedly come across an acquaintance whom she and her husband had previously known in Cairo and that he had invited her and the children to spend the week-end with him at Territet, near Montreux. She stated that she would return to Geneva on September 13 in time for the two elder children to attend school the following day. By September 14 her mother, alarmed at her failure to return, reported the 4 5 'I !' 000101 �r Document disclose un er Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a /'information 23. In view . of the suspicions held against _Maclean and of the conspiratorial manner of his flight, it was assumed, though it could not be proved, that his destination and that of his companion must have been the S,ova Union or some other territory behind the Iron Curtain. Now Vladimir the former Third Secretary of the Soviet Embassy in Canberra who -.ight political asylum on April 3, 1954, has provided confirmation of this. Petrov himself was not directly concerned in the case and his information ,was obtained from conversation with one of his colleagues in Soviet service in Australia. Petrov states that both Maclean and_ Burgess were recruited as spies for the Soviet Government while students at the University, with the intention that they should carry out their espionage tasks in the F.:oreign Office, and that iri 1951, by means unknown to hiin, one or other of the two men became aware that their activities were under investigation. This was reported by them to the Soviet Intelligence Service who then organised their escape and removal to the Soviet Union. Petrov has the impression that the escape route included Czechoslovakia and that it involved an a~roplane flight into that country. Upon their arrival in Russia, Maclean and Burgess lived near Moscow. They were used as advisers to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other Soviet agencies. Petrov adds that one of the men (Maclean) has since been joined by his wife. 24. Two' points call for comment: first, how Maclean and Burgess remained in the Foreign Service. for so long and second, why they were able to get away. 25. When these two men were given their appointments nothing was on record about either to show that he was unsuitable for the public service. It is true that their subsequent personal behaviour was unsatisfactory, and this led to action in each case. As already stated Maclean was recalled from Cairo in 1950 and was not re-employed until he was declared medically fit. Burgess was recalled from Washington in 1951 and was asked to resign. It was only shortly before Maclean disappeared that serious suspicion of his reliability was aroused and active enquiries .were set on foot. 26. The second question is how Maclean and Burgess made good their escape from this country when the' security authorities were on their track. The watch on Maclean was !-lladedifficult by the need to ensure that he did not become aware that he was under observation. This watch was primarily aimed at collecting, if possible, further information and not at preventing an escape. In imposing it a calculated risk had to be taken that he might become aware of it and might take flight. It was inadvisable to increase this _risk by extending the surveillance to his home in an isolated part of the country and he was therefore watched in London only. Both men were free to go abroad at any time. In some countries no doubt Maclean would have been arrested first and questioned afterwards. In this country no arrest can be made without adequate evidence. At the time there was insufficient evidence. It was for these reasons_necessary for the security authorities to embark upon the difficult and . delicate investigation of Maclean, taking into full account the risk that he would be alerted. In the event he was alerted and fled the country together with Burgess. 27. As a result of this case, in July 1951 the then Secretary of State, ·Mr. Herbert_Morrison, set up a Committee of enquiry to consider the security checks apphed to members of the Foreign Service; the existing regulations and prac~ices of the Foreign Service in regard to any matters having a bearing on secunty; and to report whether any alterations were called for. The Committee rep~rted in November 1951. It recommended, among other things, a more extensive security check on Foreign Service officers than had until then b~en the ]?r_actice. This )Vasimmediately put into effect and since 1952 searchmg enqumes have been made into the antecedents and associates of all those occupying or applying for positions, in. the Foreign Office involving 6 -7 .1patter to Her Majesty's Consul-General iri Geneva and also· by tel~~l..i-~n~..., to London. Security officers were at once despatched to Geneva wher ;.;;• • placed themselves at the disposal of the Swiss police who were alrea • making intensive enquiries. On the afternoon of September 16 Mrs. Maclean's car was found in a garage in Lausanne. She had left it on the afternoon of the 11th saying she would return for it in a week. The garage hand who reported this added that Mrs. Maclean had then proceeded with her children .to . the Lausanne railway station. On the same day, September •16, Mrs. Dunbar reported to the Geneva police the receipt of a telegram purporting to , come from her daughter. The telegram explained that Mrs. Maclean had been delayed "owing to unforeseen circumstances" and asked.Mrs. Dunbar to inform the school authorities that the two elder children would be _returning in a week. Mrs. Maclean's youngest child was referred to in this telegram by a name known only to Mrs. Maclean, her mother and other intimates. The telegram had been handed in at the Post- Office in Territet. at 10 •58 that morning by a woman whose description did not agree with that of- Mrs. Maclean. -The hand-writing on the telegram form was not Mrs. Maclean's and it showed foreign characteristics similar to those in the telegrams received in 1951 by Lady Maclean, Mrs. Maclean and Mrs. Bassett. At•; 21. From information subsequently received from witnesses in Switzerland and Austria, it seems clear that the arrangements for Mrs. Maclean's departure from Geneva had been carefully planned, and that she proceeded by train from Lausanne on the evening of September 11, passing the Swiss-Austrian frontier that night, and arriving at Schwarzach St. Veit in •the American Zone of Austria at approximately 9 •15 on the morning of September 12. The independent evidence of a porter at Schwarzach St. Veit and of witnesses travelling on the train has established that she left the train at this point. Further evidence, believed to be reliable, shows that she was met at the station by an unknown man driving a car bearing Austrian number plates. The further movements of this car have not been traced. It is probable that it took Mrs. Maclean and the children from Schwarzach St. Veit to neighbouring territory in Russian occupation whence she proceeded on her journey to join her husband. • 22. There was no question of preventing Mrs. Maclean from leaving the United Kingdom to go to live in Switzerland. Although she was under no obligation to report her movements, she had been regularly in touch with the security authorities, and had informed them that she wished to make her home in Switzerland. She gave two good reasons, firstly that she wished to avoid the personal embarrassment to which she had been subjected by the press in the United Kingdom, and secondly, that she wished to educate her children in the International School in Geneva. It will be remembered that Mrs. Maclean was an Americ;_ancitizen and in view of the publicity caused ljy her husband's flight it was only natural that she should wish to bring ,up her children in new surroundings, Before she left for Geneva the security authorities made arrangements with her whereby she was to keep in touch with the British authorities in Berne and Geneva in case she should receive any further news from her husband or require advice or assistance. Mrs. Maclean was a free agent. The authorities had no legal means of detaining her in the United Kingdom. Any form of surveillance.abroad would have been unwarranted. • r, I I 000102 �--- - - Document disclosed under the Access to lnformotion/J.ct Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur l'.occes a /'information highly secret information. The purpose of these enquiries is to ensu.that no one is appointed to or continues to occupy any such post unless he• 1alla'. is fit to be entrusted with the secrets to which the post gives access. i''f!!tr Foreign Secretary of the day approved the ~ction required. 28.. A great deal of criticism has been directed towards the reticence of Ministerial replies on these matters; an attitude which it was alleged would not have been changed had it not been for the Petrov revelations. Espionage is carried out in secret. Counter-espionage equally depends for its success upon the maximum secrecy of its methods. Nor is it desirable at any moment to let the other side know how much has been discovered or guess at what means· have been used to discover it. Nor should they be allowed to -know all the steps that have 6een taken to improve security. These considerations still apply and must be the· basic 9riterion for judging what should or should not be published. PRINTEDAND .PUBLISHEDBY HER MAJESTY'SSTATIONERYOFFICE To be purchased from York House, Kingsway, LONDON,w.c.2 423 Oxford Street, LONDON, w.1 P.O. Box 569, LONDON, S.E.1 13a Castle Street, EDINBURGH,2 109 St. Mary Street, CARDIFF Tower Lane, BRISTOL,1 39 King Street, MANCHESTER,2 80 Chichester Street, BELFAST 2 Edmund Street, BIRMINGHAM,3 :,..· or from any Bookseller 1955 Price 6d. net PRINTED 48776 Wt, 1059/910. K80 9/55 [N GREAT BRlTAIN F.O.P, 000103 �Miscellaneous No. 17 (1955) Report concerningthe disappearanceof two former Foreign Office Officials London, September 1955 Presented by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to Parliament by Command of Her Majesty September 1955 LONDON HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY SIXPENCE Cmd. 9577 NET OFFICE �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a /'information '( I ~ .. • ''•n ,!"-,. • 11 ,~ ·• REPORT CONCERNING THE DISAPPEARANCE OF TWO FORMER FOREIGN OFFICE OFFICIALS On the evening of Friday, May 25, 1951; Mr. Donald Duart Maclean, a Counsellor in the senior branch of the Foreign Service and at that time Head of the American Department in the Foreign Office, and Mr. Guy Francis de Money Burgess, a Second Secretary in the junior branch of the Foreign Service, left the United Kingdom from Southampton on the boat for St. Malo. The circumstances of their departure from England, for which they had not sought sanction, were such as to make it obvious that they had deliberately fled the country. Both officers were suspended froni duty on June 1, 1951, and their appointments in the Foreign Office were terminated on June 1, 1952, with effect from June 1, 1951. 2. Maclean was the son of a former Cabinet Minister, Sir Donald Maclean. He was born in 1913 and was educated at Gresham's School, Holt, and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he had a distinguished academic record. He successfully competed for the Diplomatic Service in 1935 and was posted in the first instance to the Foreign Office. He served subsequently in Paris, at Washington and in Cairo. He was an officer of exceptional ability and was promoted to the rank of Counsellor at the early age of 35. He was married to an American lady and had two young sons. A third child was born shortly after his disappearance. 3. In May 1950 while serving at His Majesty's Embassy, Cairo, Maclean was guilty of serious misconduct and suffered a form of breakdown which was attributed to overwork and excessive drinking. Until the breakdown took place his work had remained eminently satisfactory and there was no ground whatsoever for doubting his loyalty. After recuperation and leave at home he was passed medically fit, and in October 1950 was appointed to be Head of the American Department of the Foreign Office which, since it does not deal with the major problems of Anglo-American relations, appeared to be within his capacity. 4. Since Maclean's disappearance a close examination of his background has revealed that during his student days at Cambridge from 1931 to 1934 he had expressed Communist sympathies, but there was no evidence that he had ever been a member of the Communist Party and indeed on leaving the University he had outwardly renounced his earlier Communist views. 5. Burgess was born in 1911 and was educated ~t the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, at Eton and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he had a brilliant academic record. After leaving Cambridge in 1935 he worked for a short time in London as a journalist and joined the B.B.C. in 1936 where he remained until January 1939. From 1939 until 1941 he was employed in one of the war propaganda organisations. He rejoined the B.B.C. in January 1941 and remained there until 1944 when he applied for and obtained a post as a temporary press officer in the News Department of the Foreign Office. He was not recruited into the Foreign Service through the open competJ.tive examination but in 1947 took the opportunity open to temporary employees to present himself for establishment. He appeared before a Civil Service Commission Board and was recommended for the junior branch of the Foreign Service. His establishment took effect from 2 ., January 1, 1947. He worked for a time in the office of the then Minister of•.·~~_, Mr. Hector McNeil, and in the Far Eastern Department of the Foreign Ct . :: In August 1950 he was transferred to Washington as a Second Secretary. 6. Early in 1950 the security authorities informed ·the Foreign Office that in late 1949 while on holiday abroad Burgess had been guilty of indiscreet talk about secret matters of which he had official knowledge. For this he • was severely reprimanded. Apart from this lapse his service in the Foreign Office up 'to the time of his appointment to Washington was satisfactory and there seemed good reason to hope that he would make a useful career. 7, In Washington, however, his wor~ and behaviour gaye rise ~o complaint. The Ambassador reported that his work had been unsatisfactory m that he lacked thoroughness and balance in routine matters, that he had come to the unfavourable notice of the Department of •State because of his reckless driving and that ·he had had to be reprimanded for carelessness in leaving confidential papers unattended. The Ambassador requested that Burgess be removed from Washington and this was approved. He was recalled to London irt early May 1951 and was asked to resign from the Foreign Service. Consideration was oeing given to the steps that would be taken in the event of his refusing to do so. It was at this point that he disappeared. 8. Investigations into Burgess' past have since shown that he, like Maclean, went through a period of Communist leanings while at Cambridge and that he too on leaving the University outwardly renounced his views. No trace can be found in his subsequent career of direct participation in the activities of left-wing organisations; indeed he was known after leaving Cambridge to have had some contact with organisations such as the AngloGerman. Club. 9. The question has been asked whether the association of these two officers with each other did not give rise to suspicion. The fact is that although we have since learned that Maclean. and Burgess were acqu~inted during their undergraduate days at Cambridge, they gave no evidence during the course of their career in the Foreign Service of any association other than would be normal between two colleagues. When Burgess ,was appointed to the Foreign Office Maclean ~as in Washington and ~t the time Burgess himself was appointed to Washmgton fy!aclean was back m the United Kingdom awaiting assignment to the A:mencan D~pa~men~ of the Foreign Office. It is now clear that they were m commumcatlon with each other after the return of Burgess from Washington in 1951 and they may have been in such communication earlier. Their relations were, however, never such as to cause remark . 10. In January 1949 the security authorities re~eived a rep?rt that certain Foreign Office information had leaked to the Soviet authorities some years earlier. The repo~t amounted to little more t_hana ~in~ ~nd it was_at the time impossible to attribute the leak to. a_nyparticular mdividual. ;Highly se_c~et but widespread and protracted enqumes were begun by the security authorities and the field of suspicion had been narrowed by mid-April 1951 to two or three persons. By the beginning of May Maclean had come ~o be regarded as the principal suspect. There was, ho"'.ever, even at that _time,no legally admissible evidence to support a prosecut10n under the Official Secrets Acts. Arrangements were made to ensure that information of exceptional secrecy and importance should not c~me i!l,to hi~ ha~d~.. In the meant~me the security authorities arranged to mvestigate his activities and contacts m order 3 000105 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a /'information . . , , to increase their background knowledge and if possible to obtain informatiot which could be used as evidence in a prosecution. On May 25 t~· 31 Secretary of S!~te, Mr. Herbe~ Morrison, sanctione~ a p~opos~l. th~ • security authontles should question Maclean. In reachmg this dec1s10n1t ad to be borne in mind that such questioning might produce no confession or voluntary statement from Maclean sufficient to support a prosecution but might serve only to alert him and to reveal the nature and the extent of the suspicion against him. In that event he would have been free to make arrangements to leave the country and the authorities would have had no legal power to stop him. Everything therefore depended on the inte~iew and the security authorities were anxious to be as fully prepared as was humanly possible. They were also anxious that Maclean's house at Tatsfield, Kent, should be searched and this was an additional reason for delaying the proposed interview until mid-June when Mrs. Maclean who was,, then pregnant was expected to be away from home. 1l. It is now clear that in spite of the precautions taken by the authorities Maclean must have become aware, at some time before his disappearance, that he was under investigation. One explanation may be that he observed that he was no longer receiving certain types of secret papers. It is also . possible that he detected that he was under observation. Or he may have been warned. Searching enquiries involving individual interrogations were made into this last possibility. Insufficient evidence was obtainable to form a definite conclusion or to warrant prosecution. 12. Maclean's absence did not become known to the authorities until the morning of Monday, May 28. The Foreign Office is regularly open for normal business on Saturday mornings but officers can from time to time obtain leave to· take ·a week-end off. In accordance with this practice Maclean applied for and obtained leave to be absent on the morning of Saturday, May 26. His absence ther~fore caused no remark until the following Monday morning when he failed to appear at the Foreign Office. Burgess was on leave and under no obligation to report his movements. 13. Immediately the flight was known all possible action was taken in the United Kingdom and the French and other Continental security authorities were asked to trace the whereabouts of the fugitives and if possible to intercept them. All British Consulates in Western Europe were alerted and special efforts were made to discover whether the fugitives had crossed the French frontiers on May 26 or 27. As a result of these and other enquiries it was established that Maclean and Burgess together left Tatsfield by car for Southampton in the late evening of Friday, May 25, arrived at Southampton at midnight, caught the s.s. Falaise for St. Malo and disembarked at that port at 11•45 the following morning,· leaving suitcases and some of their clothing on board. They were not seen on the train from St. Malo to Paris and it has been reported that two men, believed to be Maclean and Burgess, took a taxi to Rennes and there got the 1• 1& p.m. train to Paris. Nothing more was seen of them. June 6. Their receipt was at once reported to the security authorities, but .fas impossible to identify the person or persons who had handed them in. < e original telegraph forms showed, however, that the messages had been written in a hand which was clearly not Maclean's. The character of the hand-writing, and some mis-spelling, suggested that both telegrams had been written by a foreigner. • .f' 14. Since the disappearance various communications have been received from them by members of their families. On June 7, 1951, telegrams ostensibly from Maclean were received by his mother Lady . Maclean, and his-wife Mrs. Melinda Maclean, who were both at that time in the United Kingdom. The telegram to Lady Maclean was a short personal ~essage, signed by a nick-name known only within the immediate family circle. It merely stated that all was well. That addressed to Mrs. Maclean was similar, expressing regret for the unexpected departure and was signed "Donald." Both telegrams were despatched in Paris on the evening of 15. On June 7, 1951, a telegram was received in London by Mrs. Bassett, Burgess' mother. It contained a short and affectionate personal message, together with a statement that the sender was embarking on a long Mediterranean holiday, and was ostensibly from Burgess· himself. The telegram had been handed in at a Post Office in Rome earlier on the day of its receipt. As with the telegrams from Paris to Maclean's family, there was no possibility of identifying the person who had handed it in. The handwriting had the appearance of being foreign, and was certainly not that of •Burgess. 16. According to information given to the Foreign Office in confidence by Mrs: Dunbar, Maclean's mother-in-law, who was then living with her daughter at Tatsfield, she received on August 3, 1951, two registered letters posted in St. Gallen, Switzerland, on August 1. One contained a draft on the Swiss Bank Corporation, London, for the sum of £1,000 payable to Mrs. Dunbar; the other, a draft payable to Mrs, Dunbar for the same sum, drawn by the Union Bank of Switzerland on the Midland Bank, 122 Old Broad Street, London. Both drafts were stated to have been remitted by order of a Mr. Robert Becker, whose address was given as the Hotel Central, Zurich. Exhaustive enquiries in collaboration with the Swiss authorities have not led to the identification of Mr. Becker and it is probable that the name given was false. 17. Shortly after the receipt of these bank drafts Mrs. Maclean received a letter in her husband's hand-writing. It had been posted in Reigate, Surrey, on August 5, 1951, and was of an affectionate, personal nature as from husband to wife. It gave no clue as to Maclean's whereabouts or the reason for his disappearance but it explained that the, bank drafts, which •for convenience had been sent to Mrs. Dunbar, were intended for Mrs. Maclean. 18. La~y Maclean received a further letter from her son on August 15, 1951. There is no doubt that it was in his own hand-writing. It had been posted at Herne Hill on August 11. • 19. Mrs. Bassett, the mother of Burgess, received a letter in Burgess' hand-writing on December 22, 1953. The letter was personal and gave no information as to Burgess' whereabouts. It was simply dated "November" and had been posted in South-East London on December 21. The last message received from either of the two men was a further letter from Burgess to his mother which was delivered in London on December 25, 1954. This letter was also personal and disclosed nothing of Burgess' whereabouts. It too was simply dated "November." It had been pos,ted in Poplar, E. 14, on December 23. 20. On September 11, 1953, Mrs. Maclean, who was living in Geneva, left there by car with her three children. She had told her mother, who was staying with her, that she had unexpectedly come across an acquaintance whom she and her husband had previously known in Cairo and that he had invited her and the children to spend the· week-end with him at Territet, near Montreux. She stated that she would return to Geneva on September 13 in time for the two elder children to attend school the following day. By September 14 her mother, alarmed at her failure to return, reported the 4 5 ,. I 000106 �.. 0 ~ matter to Her Majesty's Consul-General in Geneva and also by telephone <\. to London. Security officers were at once despatched to Geneva where tr.e.~ placed themselves at the disposal of the Swiss police who were alreadp making intensive enquiries. On the afternoon of September 16 Mrs. Maclean's _, car was found in a garage in Lausanne. She had left it on the afternoon of the 11th saying she would return for it in a week. The garage hand who reported this added that Mrs. Maclean had then proceeded with her children to the Lausanne railway station. On the same day, September 16, Mrs. Dunbar reported to the Geneva police the receipt of a telegram purporting to come from her daughter. The telegram explained that Mrs. Maclean had been delayed "owing to unforeseen circumstances" and asked Mrs. Dunbar to inform the school authorities that the two elder children would be returning in a week. Mrs. Maclean's youngest child was referred to in this telegram by a name known only to Mrs. Maclean, her mother and other intimates. The telegram had been' handed in at the Post Office in Territet. at 10 •58 that morning by a woman whose description did not agree with that of Mrs. Maclean. The hand-writing on the telegram form was not Mrs. Maclean's and it showed foreign characteristics similar to those in the telegrams received in 1951 by Lady Maclean, Mrs. Maclean and Mrs. Bassett. . J 21. From information subsequently received from witnesses in Switzerland and Austria, it seems clear that the arrangements for Mrs. Maclean's departure_from Geneva had _beencarefully planned, and that she proceeded by train from Lausanne on the evening of September 11, passing the Swiss-Austrian frontier that night, and arriving at Schwarzach St. Veit in the A~erican Zone of Austria at approximately 9 •15 on the morning of September 12. The indepep.dent evidence of a porter at Schwarzach St. Veit and of witnesses travelling on the train has established that she left the train at this point. Further evidence, believed to be reliable, shows that she was met at the station by an unknown man driving a car bearing Austrian number plates. The further movements of this car have not been traced. It is probable that it took Mrs. Maclean and the children from Schwarzach St. Veit to neighbouring territory in Russian occupation whence she proceeded on her journey to join her husband. 22. There was no question of preventing Mrs. Maclean from. leaving the United Kingdom to go to live in Switzerland. Although she was under no obligation to report her movements, she had been regularly in touch with the -security authorities, and had informed them that she wished to make her home in Switzerland. She gave two good reasons, firstly that she wished to avoid the personal embarrassment to which she had been subjected by the press in the United Kingdom, and secondly, that she wished to educate her children in the International School in Geneva. It will be remembered that Mrs. Maclean was an American citizen and in view of the publicity caused by her husband's flight it was only natural that she should wish to bring up her children in new surroundings. Before she left for Geneva the security authorities made arrangements with her whereby she was to keep in touch with the British authorities in Berne and Geneva in case she should receive any further news from her husband or require advice or assistance. Mrs. Maclean was a free agent. The authorities had no legal means of detaining her in the United Kingdom. Any form,of surveillance abroad would have been unwarranted. • 23. In view of the suspicions held against Maclean and of the conspiratorial manner of his flight, it was assumed, though it could not be proved, that his destination and that of J1is companion must have been the 6 . ). I ! Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a /'information Soviet Union or some other-territory behind the Iron Curtain. Now Vladimir (;)t.rov,the former Third Secretary of the Soviet Embassy in Canberra who ught political asylum on April 3, 1954, has provided confirmation of this. etrov himself was not directly concerned in the case and his information was obtained from conversation with one of his colleagues in Soviet service in Australia.· Petrov states that both Maclean and Burgess were recruited as spies for the Soviet Government while students at the University, with the intention that they should carry out their espionage tasks in the Foreign Office, and that in 1951, by means unknown to. him, one or other of the two men became aware that their activities were under investigation. This was reported by them to the Soviet Intelligence Service who then organised their escape and removal to the Soviet Union. Petrov has the impression that the escape route included Czechoslovakia and that it involved an aeroplane flight into that country. Upon their arrival in Russia, Maclean and Burgess lived near Moscow. They were used as advisers to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other Soviet agencies. Petrov adds that one of the men (Maclean) has since been joined by his wife. 24. Two points call for comment: first, how Maclean and Burgess remained in the Foreign Service ·for so long and second, why they were able to get away. 25. When these two men were given their appointments nothing was on record about .either to show that he was unsuitable for the public service. It is true that their subsequent personal behaviour was unsatisfactory, and this led to action in each case. As already stated Maclean was recalled from Cairo in 1950 and was not re-employed until he was declared medically fit. Burgess was recalled from Washington in 1951 and was asked to resign. It was only shortly before Maclean disappeared that serious suspicion of his reliability was. aroused and active enquiries were set on foot. 26. The second question is how Maclean and Burgess made good their escape from this country when the security authorities were on their track. The watch on Maclean was made difficult by the need to ensure that he did not become aware that he was under observation. This watch was primarily aimed at collecting, if possible, further information and not at preventing an escape. In imposing it a calculated risk had to be taken that he might become aware of it and might take flight. It was inadvisable to increase this risk by extending the surveillance to his home in an isolated part of the country and he was therefore watched in London only. Both men were free to go abroad at any time. In some countries no doubt Maclean would have been arrested first and questioned afterwards. In this country no arrest can be made without adequate evidence. At the time there was insufficient evidence. It was for the~e reasons necessary for the security authorities to embark upon the difficult and delicate investigation of Maclean, taking into full account the risk that he would be alerted. In the event he was alerted and fled the country together with Burgess. 27. As a result of this case, in July 1951 the then Secretary of State, Mr. Herbert Morrison, set up a Committee of enquiry to consider the security checks applied to members of the Foreign Service; the existing regulations and ,practices of the Foreign Service in regard to any matters having a bearing on security; and to report whether any alterations were called for. The Committee reported in November 1951. It recommended, among other things, a more extensive security check on Foreign Service officers than had until then been the practice., This was immediately put into effect and since 1952 searching enquiries have been_made into the antecedents and associates of all those occupying or applying for positions in the Foreign Office involving 7 000107 �--------------------~-----:--~c----;----;-----:-;----:--~----- Oocument disclosed under the Acsess to Information Act Document d(vulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur l'occes a /'infprmotion :, - highly secret information. The purpose of these enquiries is to ensure that - f no one is appointed to or continues to occupy any such post unless he orpfj" 1 is fit to be entrusted with the secrets to which the post gives access. T Foreign Secretary of the day approved the action required. • • 28. -A great deal of criticism has been directed towards the reticence of Ministerial replies on these matters; an attitude which it was alleged would not have been changed had it not been for the Petrov revelations. Espionage is carried out .in secret. Counter-espionage equally depends for its success upon the maximum secrecy of its methods. Nor is it desirable at any moment to let the other side know how much. has been discovered or guess at what means have been used to discover it. Nor should they be allowed to know all the steps that have been taken to improve security. These considerations still apply and must be the basic criterion for judging what should or should not be published. • PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE To be purchased from York House, Kingsway, LONDON, w.c.2 423 Oxford Street, LONDON, w.l P.O. Box 569, LONDON, s.E.I 13a Castle Street, EDINBURGH, 2 109 St. Mary Street, CARDIFF Tower Lane, BRISTOL, 1 39 King Street, MANCHESTER, 2 80 Chichester Street, llELFAST 2 Edmund Street, BIRMINGHAM, 3 or from any Bookseller 1955 Price 6d. net PRlNTBD 48776 Wt. 1059/910 K80 9/55 [N GREAT BRITAIN F,O.P, 000108 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur l'acces a /'information ,J DEPARTMENT OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS, CANADA. C• TO: . NUMBERED LETTER UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR EXTERNAL AFFAIRS, OTTAWA,CANADA. ~ FROM: .Of.'J:.G~ . .Q '.. nM .. t:I.Ci.QP) •ty ................................. Ui~CLSSI 'I .tID Se:cur1 No: ......... /.b.31....... . ........... Date, ...... ~th ' $.S.+P.lj#i.~~- ... F.nclosures: ..... Aeference:. ur .. 1. tt r .. 1 13. o.f:.20t . P.e;i::lt uo.~r•. . . , .?.e.pMllll:JIll'., . J 9;i' Q µ,;r ........ Air or Surface Mail: ... , .... , .... . .:i.:r ........ , .. . ..f--,J... Poat File No,........................... Ott••• File No, ............~: ...~~, ............... .. $7)2bo c/o Subject, ... ur.g(;t. . ~e,=; ..~y ·~~:T.~~~r:~~~~~······ . II n... fleferences \. -, • (c--r-- -~ \~~J/JJ>.I~ p.J.... 6---0 /~ .,_,1....-~ii~ 0 ~.:.1 ro .,_._. -¥Jo ,.,-_~ ,- };.~ . The p :ication of the Government s eport Concerning the Disappearance of Two Former Foreign Office ·officialst~ (six copies of which are attached) has had anything but an enthusiastic reception by the press, and has apparently served to increase rather than aiminish the demands for a full debate when Parliament reconvenes in about a month's time. 'I I t Internal Circulation Distribution to Posts 2. Editorials under such headings as "Too Late and Too Little" (The Times) anCi.u uestions Unanswered" of the Jress reactions. (Sunday Times) givea an inuication '.fhe : hi te aper left itself wide open by introducing the concluding paragraphs with the statement that "Two poi'1ts call for comment: first, howl aclean and Burgess remained in the Foreign Office for so long, ana second, why they l:!.ditorial writers were not slow were able to get away". 0 to pick this up, ana as The Times puts it: There are not two, but a dozen points that call for co.liltnent and the new light upon them". In the hite Paper throws little it "does not really words of the 11lvlanchester Guardian", add much to the story as the diligence of the newspapers have built it up over the last four years". In fact, about all that is conceded to be new information is the revelation that Burgess had been asked to resign shortly before his disappearance, and that, on the day before the flight, authority had been granted by the Foreign Secretary ~ven this information, for the questioning of Maclean. cti.ticism on the grounds that however, has led to further it is oifficult to see any reason why these facts could It has also been not have been made public ~ong ago. was noted that the request for Burgess 1 resignation apparently not on security grounds but for reasons of personal conauct and unreliability only, and this has given rise to speculation as to whether the Foreign Office would in fact have discovered that Burgess was involved if he had not chosen to escape. 3. .part from the general question of the adequacy of the Foreign Office's security system, both in terms of ~he measures taken in the investigation ana surveillance procedures which the of }aclean and of the clearance Jhite - aper states wer~ adopted in 1952 as a result of this case, the two focal points of editorial criticism replies to have been the 11reticence 11 of Ministerial questions on this subject in the past and the question why, 000109 fat.182A (Rev. 2/52) . �,. Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a /'information ~ ~· ·- ~ - 2 - even apart from t.q,e· element of espionage, these two men, but particularly Burgess, should have been P3 rmitted to remain in _the Foreign Service as long as they did .. On neither point does tJ:ie White f'aper appear to have been very successful in satisfying the critics. 4. Another aspect of the case which has caught the public imagination is the suggestion in the White Paper that there may have been a uthird man,." who was responsible for warning Maclean of· the security investigation, with its implication that if such a person did exist he may still be in the ranks of the Foreign Service. • 5. The se·cond instalment of the Petrov articles, dealing with the·rdle of Mrs. Ma~lean, also appeared in 11The .People 11 ·yesterday.. Copies are attached, together with editorials from The Quardian and The Times. (It would be interesting to.know whether the placing of the advertisement in the Guardian for Burgess~Mattresses and Divans was deliberate or not.) .Q 'f: &rl~ CANADAHOUSE. 000110 �Docur,:ient divulgue en vertu de la Lai sur /'acces DEPARTMENT OF EXTERNAL DATE Oct. SECURITY a/'information AFFAIRS 5, 1955. UIICLASSIFI D FROM:J . L • ( 2) J . [l For Signature D For Action ll For Comments [l For Approval For Information File and 5<j Destroy COMMENTS: (This [l space is not permanent character formally recorded rIr \ E!JCLO:HIBL FILE: 502 Ext. 252 (Rev. 11/52) Return [l for comments of a which should be in a memorandum) .~rn 011 Jd ♦ �Document disclose un er t e Access to n ormat1on ct Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur l'acces a /'information ' • ' • • l 000112 �Document disclosed under the Access to Inform Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a I' - • ol �D7'ic'J'm°'i?ntd°irclos;d °i1nderth"tA"tce'"ss foTfJformotfon4.acf Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loisur /'occes a /'information O , I =9 I , .,. We -coop ~he world again today! No. 3851 74th Year 2½D• MORE SECRETS FROMPETROV Petrov has put the Foreign Office in a panic. \ What the White Paper did not tell you NO newspaper has staggered the world on the scale 'The People' did last Sunday. Our publication of the facts concerning the missing British diplomats, Maclean and Burgess, by Vl~dimir Petrov, the former •Russian agent, has had amazing repercussions. It forced the Government to publish a White Paper. BUT the document did not tell ALL the facts, and· today we publish new disclosures from· Petrov-who ran out on the Russians in Australia-that will add to the outcry. For Petrov reveals that after Maclean and Burgess escaped, the Foreign Office we re fooled by Mrs. Maclean as well. ' ifhey ·were fooled by-Mrs. Maclea By VLADIMIR PETROV TODAY I can disclose the most astounding secret of the entire Maclean and Burgess affair-the part played in it by that remarkable woman Mrs. Melinda Maclean. This wife and mother, who earned widespread sympathy when her husband, the Soviet spy Donald Maclean, fled to Moscow, was herself, I am now sure, piece of duplicity. guilty of a staggering She fooled the Secret Service chiefs of Britain, and then those of France and Switzerland, in a series of that few master spies can match. cunning manceuvres It was my comrade Kislytsin who placed me in possession of the Burgess and Maclean secrets. He was my assistant in Canberra, the Australian capital, where I was chief of the M.V.D., the Soviet spy network. ~ From 1945 to 1948 Kislytsln was stationed in London, where he was hi personal touch with the two diplomats. Afterwards he worked at M.V.D. headquarters in Moscow in the department handling the Maclean and Burgess operation. The truth of the disclosures he made to me have now been confirmed by the British Foreign Office. Since I broke with Moscow and was given refuge in Australia last year I have studied the published documents in the case of the missing diplomats. Fitting together all that Kislytsin told me with these publicly known facts, I can now complete my dossier on Burgess, Maclean-and Mrs. Melinda Maclean. Urgent conference in Moscow As I disclosed last week, Maclean and Burgess spied elgn Office information for transmission by code to Moscow. In the Soviet capital he later had charge of the secret library, consisting entirely of documents supplied by the two diplomats. Kislytsin was never allowed to meet the two men whose highly valuable information w e n t through his hands. Only on their arrival In . Moscow did he greet Maclean and Burgess for the first time. And Kislytsin was given three men were well known to me personally. The conference quickly decided that Burgess and Maclean were agents of such value, that at all costs they must be saved from arrest and brought to sanctuary in Russia. How to stage the escape itself was a much tougher problem. Plan after plan was discussed, or,., to be rejected. Everyon'i at the conference was obsessed with the perils of whisking away from London two spy suspects holdmg Important, Foreign Office posts. At last the route Maclean and Burgess are now known to ....__ ..__.....,...,...,_ ·- ate notes and placed money to her account in a Swiss bank. And so the M.V.D. had started to plan the final operation in the missing diplomats s~iting away of affair-the Mrs. Maclean and her children. It was even more daring than th~ coup by which Burgess and Maclean themselves w er e snatched from under the noses of the British Security services. Kislytsin was in it from the beginning, though he was not in Moscow to see its final outcome-. By this time he had joined me in Australia. But when he read the reports in Australian newspapers of Mrs. Maclean's disappearance he recognised some of the details of the escape plan to which he had devoted so much of his • skilled attention. And the most breathtaking feature of the scheme was the part assigned to that attractive, enigmatic, American • born mother and wife of a top Soviet spy, Mrs. Melinda Maclean. the job of looking after the He told her precious pair. He became. indeed, their welhis plans fare supervisor. He saw them installed in a comfortable house I am now convinced, though on the outskirts of Moscow. He conclusive evidence is lacking, signed the chits for all their that she knew all about her food, clothing and personal husband's plan to flee. necessities. At any rate, she began to play And he prepared plans for a willing and highly astute part exploiting their diplomatic in her own successful disapknowledge and skill in the S<!r- pearance very soon after Donald vice of the Kremlin. Maclean passed behind the Iron Curtain. Wh_en ner husband vamshed 'Supplied with on May 25 1951,the birth of her baby Melmda was only a month the best' ahead Yet on the mornmg Obviously, Burgess and Mac- after Donald's disappearance lean would best be used as she was reported cheerful. advisers to th~ Soviet Ministry Maclean isn't here," she of Foreign Affairs, especially on is "Mr said to have told her housequestions affecting Russia's rela- keeper with the utmost calm. tions with Britain and America. ,n private she was, of course---And that was the job which closely mterrogated by men o 000114 Kislytsin arranged for them. the British security services.__ __ _. They were engaged in it when She told them she knew nothing. Kislrtsi:1 left .. Mo~ow to join ShP. so ftrmlv ~nnvmr<>rl th., ♦ �Document di~ulg~i;~ vert~ de la Loi sur racces a MORE SECRETS FROMPETROV Petrov has put the Foreign Office in a panic. What the ·White Paper did not tell you NO newspaper has staggered the world on the scale 'The People' did last Sunday. Our publication of the facts concerning the missing British diplomats, Maclean and Burgess, by Vl~dimir Petrov, the former •Russian agent, has had amazing repercussions. It forced the Government to publish a White Paper. BUT the document did not tell ALL the facts, and today we publish new disclosures from Petrov-who ran out on the Russians in Australia-that will add to the outcry. For Petrov reveals that after Maclean and Burgess escaped, the Foreign Office we re fooled by Mrs. Maclean as well. They ·were fooled ·by -Mrs. M·acle By VLADIMIR PETROV TODAY I can disclose the most astounding secret of the entire Maclean and Burgess affair-the part played in it by that remarkable woman Mrs. Melinda Maclean. This wife and mother, who earned widespread sympathy when her husband, the Soviet spy Donald Maclean, fled to Moscow, was herself, I am now sure, guilty of a staggermg piece of duplicity. She fooled the Secret Service chiefs of Britain, and then those of France and Switzerland, in a series of cunning manreuvres that few master spies can match. It was my comrade Kislytsin who placed me in possession ' of the Burgess and Maclean secrets. He was my assistant in Canberra, the Australian cap! tal, where I was chief of the M.V.D., the Soviet spy network. • From 1945 to 1948 Kislyt-, stn was stationed In London, where he was iri personal touch with the two diplomats. Afterwards he worked at M.V.D. headquarters in Moscow in the department handling the Maclean and Burgess operation. The truth of the disclosures he made to me have now been confirmed by the British Foreign Office. Since I broke with Moscow and was given refuge in Australia last year I have studied the published documents In the case of the missing diplomats. Fitting together all that Kislytsih told me with these publicly known facts, I can now complete my dossier on Burgess, Maclean-and Mrs. Melinda Maclean. Urgent conference in Moscow As I disclosed last week, Maclean and Burgess spied for Russia over a period of many years before the suspicions of the British Security Services were aroused. Then came catastrophe. The two men discovered that they were under Investigation. Terrified, they reported to their Soviet contact In London. At once, Kislytsin revealed to me. the full resources of the M.V.D were mobilised to snatch them from danger In Moscow an urgent conference of top M.V.D. agents was called. Chief of those present was Colonel Raina. head of the First Directorate. which is responsible for intelligence work in Britain and America His deputy, Gorsky. since dismissed from his post. was there. So was Kislytsin himself. All eign Office Information for transmission by code to Moscow. In the Soviet capital he later had charge of the secret library, consisting entirely of documents supplied by the two diplomat.s. Kislyts!n was never allowed to meet the two men whose highly valuable information we n t through his hands. Only on their arrival in . Moscow did he greet Maclean and Burgess for the first time. And Kislytsin was given the job of looking after the precious pair. three men were well known to me personally. The conference quickly decided that Burgess and Maclean were agents of such value, that at all costs they must be saved from arrest and brought to sanctuary in Russia. He became. indeed, their welfare supervisor. He saw them installed in a comfortable house on the outskirts of Moscow. He signed the chits for all their food, clothing and personal necessities. And he prepared plans for exploiting their diplomatic knowledge and skill in the service of the Kremlin. 'Supplied with the best' How to stage the escape itself was a much tougher problem. Obviously, Burgess and MacPlan after plan was discussed, lean would best be used as or,., to be rejected. advisers to th" Soviet Ministry Everyon(j at the conference Foreign Affairs, especially on was obsessed with the perils of of affecting Russia's relawhisking away from London questions tions with Britain and America. two spy suspects holding Im- And that was the job which portant. Foreign Office posts. Kislytsin arranged for them At last the route Maclean They were engaged in it when and Burgess are now known to Kislytsln left Moscow to join have taken from London to me •in Australia. They are; no Paris was plotted In Paris doubt. doing it now. ., M.V.D agents took complete Kislytsin reported to me that charge. 1A Soviet or Czech he had left Burgess and Maclean plane-K1slytsm was not sure in excellent health, leading a which-flew them to Prague.] most comfortable existence and supplied with the best of everyThe joy and relief with which thing. the M.V.D. chiefs received them Life for the two rescued in Moscow can well be imagined. spies was idyllic-but for one Though he had been in intimate contact with them for thing. They missed their families. years, the rules of the spy game had prevented Kislytsin from Maclean especially was no actually meeting Maclean and • doubt concerned about his wife Burgess. and three children, one of whom As cypher clerk to the London was born only a few weeks after branch of the Soviet spy nethis flight across the Iron Curwork Klslytsin had handled tain. large Quantities of secret. ForHe had sent Melinda affection- ate notes and placed money to her account m a Swiss bank. And so the M.V.D. had started to plan the final operation in the missing diplomats affair-the si#fiting away of Mrs. Maclean and her children. It was even more daring than th~ coup by which Burgess and Maclean themselves w er e snatched from under the noses of the British Security services. Kislytsin was in it from the beginning, though he was not in Moscow to see !ts final outcome. By this time he had joined me in Australia. But when he read the reports in Australian newspapers of Mrs. Maclean's disappearance he recognised some of the details of the escape plan to which he had devoted so much of his skilled attention. • And the most breathtaking feature of the scheme was the part assigned to that attractive, enigmatic, American • born mother and wife of a top Soviet spy, Mrs. Melinda Maclean. 'He told her his plans I am now convinced, though conclusive evidence is lacking, that she knew all about her husband's plan to flee. At any rate, she began to play a willing and highly astute part in her own successful disappearance very soon after Donald Maclean passed behind the Iron Curtain. When her husband vanished on May 25 1951, the birth of her baby Melmda was only a month ahead. Yet on the mornmg after Donald's disappearance she was reported cheerful. "Mr Maclean isn't here," she ls said to have told her housekeeper with the utmost calm. ~n private she was, of course, closely mterrogated by men of the Bnt1sh security services. She told them she knew nothing. She so firmly convinced the British authorities of her entire ignorance of her husband's secret life as a spy and runaway that the Foreign Office made no objection when she took her children on holiday to France only three months after Donald Maclean's flight. l'.et it now seems certain that in France she made contact with an M.V.D. agent and finally igreed to take part in the plof' that led to her own flight across the Curtain to Moscow. For Kia!ytsin made It clear to me that the M.V.D. was seeking an opportunity to contact her 000115 �- - •• -- ·- •• - ···~---...,......,.--,.---,,-.,.....,..,..,.._,,_~~--~---:~~-:-:-:----:-......,.--..,...,...,..----~~ Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a /'information ■ Continued #tom Page 1 immediately after her husband's get-away. It was even intended that an official of the Soviet Embassy should approach her in London or at her house in ;feent! But the M.V.D. chiefs decided it would be too risky. She must be contacted in a spot where British security agents could be evaded. On her Riviera holiday, agents of the French security service kept the Maclean family under constant watch in the villa they occupied. Yet Mrs. Maclean managed to slip away for two whole days. This may have been the occasion for her fateful rendezvous with the M.V.D. But the eyes of the Western counter-spy agents were still upon her. It was too soon for flight. She returned with her children to England. There she at once began to play a game of incredible duplicity. She spoke of 'divorce' \ She unburdened herself to her friends about her broken home. Tragically she spoke of the " fa<;ade" of her marriage. She annoul"~ed her intention of divorcing Donald. This was a sheer blind to throw British security' off the scent. I have no doubt that her story of a forthcoming divorce was part of a " cover " plan in which she was co• operating with the M.V.D. In July, 1952, Mrs. Maclean announced that she was leaving Britain to live in Switzerland with her children. The vigilance of British security had by now completely relaxed. " Surely," they must have argued, " a woman who has finished with her husband will make no move to rejoin him." • The S~iss Intelligence organisation did, however, maintain some sort of surveillance over Peirov on the woman who lied Mrs. Maclean's new home In Geneva. She clearly fooled the Swiss agents, too. For Kislytsin reported to me that in Geneva a M.V.D. representative arranged with Mrs. Maclean the final details of her journey to Moscow. On Friday, September 11, 1952, two years and four months after her husband's disappearance, Mrs. Maclean drove off with her children in her black Chevrolet car, ostensibly on a visit to friends. Their movements were traced to the Austrian border. There the trail ended. Mrs. Melinda Maclean had triumphed over the security services of three countries. The part she had played as an abandoned wife, disillusioned in her traitor husband, was crowned with success. Now she 1s living with her husband in Moscow as he secretly continues with his work for the Soviet Foreign Ministry alongside his fellow spy Guy. Burgess. Burgess and Maclean were undoubtedly prize " catches" for the M.V.D. But it is certain that the Soviet spy network has recruited informers of greater or l e s s e r usefulness in every country with which Moscow maintains diplomatic relations. .1These time-honoured diplomatic contacts b e t w e en States a.re vital for the working of the Russian secret service. Almost irwariably the hea.d of the Soviet spy ring in any country is to be found sa.fely installed in the Soviet Embassy itself. That was the pattern in Australia when I headed the M.V.D. organisation. It was the same when I was stationed in Sweden from 1943 to 1947. And the pattern is duplicated in every capital of the world. Each head of an M.V.D. TOO! is the block of ABOVE buildings in which Mrs. Donald Maclean lived in Geneva. And in the picture on the right she is seen at London Airport with her son, as she walks out to join the plane which brought her on the first leg of her escape. No wonder she smiles! * branch is known as a " Resident." He holds military rank in the M.V.D. that corresponds with the importance of the country in which he works. Whe~ I was sent to Australia, then beginning to assume great importance politically as a Pacific power and militarily as the centre of secret rocket experiments, I held the rank of Lieut.-Col. of State Security. Later I was promoted full Colonel. But my rank and the nature of my work wen; kept secret from everybody in our Canberra Embassy save the Ambassador himself. M.V.D. headquarters in Moscow appointed me and my assistants. We were responsible to the M.V.D., not to the Foreign Ministry: AP the same, we spies had .>::u jobs in the Embassy. I was Third Secretary and Consul. My wife Evdokia, who held the rank of Captain in the M.V.D. and acted as my cypher clerk, was Embassy accountant. There were two reasons for this arrangement. It kept our colleagues in ignorance of our real function. And it gave us, as diploma-ts, immunity from arrest by the Australian counter-spy organisation should we be unmasked. Their agent was safe If I were caught in espionage work the Australian Government could only ask Moscow to withdraw me from Canberra. Moscow would have to comply, but tb,eir agent would be safe. And, more important still, the M.V.D. could send out another "diplomat "-in the guise of a new Counsellor or Press Attache or $.econd Secretary - and the spy ring would carry on. Besides, by doing a real diplomatic job, the Soviet spy has many opportunities for worming out the secrets of the country to which he is accredited. As Consul in Australia it was my duty to look after the interests of Soviet citizens all over the country. That meant travelling and meeting people who might be enlisted to supply secret information. The approach to prospective informers is the crucial point of a Soviet agent's work. One false move a.nd he frightens off his conta.ct or exposes himself as a spy. Moscow's standing instruction to all its agents abroad is never to approach a possible source of infprmation without asking permission from headquarters. Even when pertnission is given, the agent proceeds with the utmost caution. There is first a period of " study," to discover the suitability of the contact. It has so,r.e:~1 mes taken me weeks to cc,mplete even this preliminary s'.,a~e. I had to weigh up how sympathetic my contact was to the Soviet system. Could he be useful to us? Did he have access to Government information? Did he have any weakne,ss on which we could play to enlist him in our cause? Knowledge of a contact's income is important, for we might be_able:to tempt him with money. His rellg10us beliefs, any associations with women, especially outside marriage, whether he drank-all these were included in my " study " of a victim. I reported to Moscow the results of my inquiries. •Then, if they agreed that I had a likely recruit m tow, I was allowed to go ahead and delicately probe for the secret information he possessed. Some contacts did not know they were divulging anything of importance. They were our unwitting helpers. Others became conscious agents-and sometimes received payment. Messages from M.V.D. headquarters were sent to us in the di\)lomatic bag. I knew which letters to pick out because the Pnvelopes bore the initial letters of three Russian words meaning "Office of Weights and Measures." The messages inside were on undeveloped film wra.pped in light-proof paper. I developed and printed the films myself, then passed them to my wife to be decoded. I burned the negatives. One print of each message was kept in my safe. After 12 months the print was destroyed. Afraid of discovery Moscow was morbidly afraid of our secret documents-some of them with names and addresses of informants-being discovered by the Australian Security Service. At one stage they asked me to find a hiding place for them outside the Embassy. I chose a spot underneath a bridge on a road outside Canberra. But Moscow told me it was unsuitable. They refused to approve of two other suggested hiding places. Before I could propose a fourth, the crisis that brought about my breach with the M.V.D. had come to a head. When I was given refuge in Austral!a and diploma.tic relations were broken between Moscow and Canberra. my spy-ring collapsed. But let rio one imagine that a smashed Soviet spy network cannot be rebuilt. I saw the way this was done in Sweden. WORLD. COPYRIGHT RESERVED Next week Petrov reports on his spying assignment in Sweden-an investigation into the private life of his own amba.ssador ! 'I blame the·diplomat THE revelations about Maclean and Burgess in our columns a week ago resulted in general attacks on our Whitehall " diplomats " that were more unrestrained than any launched against any Government department during -my half-century in politics. " People shouldn't blame our civil servants," pleaded Lord John Hope, a raw junior Minister. " Blame us Ministers! " Fancy the Government putting up an office-boy to answer the Press! The plain truth is that our for the resolute spirit with entire "diplomatic" system needs which he had imbued the nation, overhauling-the Foreign Office, Maugham declared: our Embassies and the consular " The only persons who seemed service. to me unchanged were the officials of the Foreign Office. A warning in 1941 " I met them sometimes at S long ago as May, 1941, i dinner and I was amazed to in mu f"nl11mn • utter.ed in an hour of crisis, did no good. The old school tie was pulled a little tighter; that was all. So we lost the- peace o it was that, after the war, S saysHANNEN SWAFFER. we lost the peace. In Rome, our diplomats palled up again with their pre-war friends, the nobles and the wealthy ones, who owned the best polo ponies and had the best booze. The views of the workers were never heard. (Incidentally, it was from our Embassy in Rome that two chests of secret doc 000116 e stolen.) Wanted: the n:i.....~-...., 1 l THO was the Whitehall diolo- �kept the Maclean family under constant watch in the villa they occupied. Yet Mrs. Maclean managed to slip away for two whole days. This may have been the occasion for her fateful rendezvous with the M.V.D. But the eyes of the Western counter-spy agents were still upon her. It was too soon for flight. She returned with her children to England. There she at once began to play a. game of incredible duplicity. She spoke of 'divorce' ' on woman who lied ' Mrs. Maclean's new home In Geneva. She unburdened herself to her She clearly fooled the Swiss friends about her broken home. agents, too. For Kislytsin reTragically she spoke of the ported to me that in Geneva a " fac;ade " of her marriage. She M.V.D. representative arranged annouri.i:ed her intention of with Mrs. Maclean the final dedivorcing Donald. tails of her journey to Moscow. This was a sheer blind to On Friday, September 11, 1952, throw British security" off the two years and four months after scent. I have no doubt that her husband's disappearance, her story of a forthcoming Mrs. Maclean drove off with her divorce was part of a "cover" children in her black Chevrolet car, ostensibly on a visit to plan in which she was cofriends. operating with the M.V.D. Their moveme"nts were traced In July, 1952, Mrs. Maclean to the Austrian border. There announced that she was leaving the trail ended. Britain to live in Switzerland Mrs. Melinda Maclean had with her children. triumphed over the security serThe vigilance of British l!ecurity had by now completely vices of three countries. The relaxed. " Surely," they must part she had played as an abanhave argued, "a woman who doned wife, disillusioned in her has finished with her husband traitor husband, was crowned will make no move to rejoin with success. him." Now she 1s living with her The S~iss Intelligence organhusband in Moscow as he isation did, however, maintain secretly continues with his work some sort of surveillance over for the Soviet Foreign Ministry alongside his fellow spy Guy Burgess. Burgess and Maclean were undoubtedly prize " catches" for the M.V.D. But it is certain that the Soviet spy network has recruited informers of greater or 1 es s er usefulness in every country with which Moscow maintains diplomatic relations. .,These time-honoured diplobetween matic contacts States are vital for the working of the Russian secret service. Almost iqvariably the heacl of the Soviet spy ring in any country is to be found safely imtalled in the Soviet Embassy itself. That was the pattern in Australia when I headed the M.V.D. organisation. It was the same when I was stationed in Sweden from 1943 to 1947. And the pattern is duplicated in every capital of the world. Each head of an M. V.D. TOO! is the block of ABOVE buildings in which .Mrs. Donald .Maclean lived in Geneva. And in the picture on the right she is seen at London Airport with her son, as she walks out to join the plane which brought her on the first leg of her escape. No wonder she smiles! * branch is known as a. " Resident." He holds military rank in the M.V.D. that eorre5ponds with the importance of the country in which he works. Whel). I was sent to Australia, , then beginning to assume great importance politically as a Pacific pow'er and militarily as the centre of secret rocket experiments, I held the rank of Lieut.-Col. of State Security. Later I was promoted full Colonel. But my rank and the nature of my work wer~ kept secret from everybody in our Canberra Embassy save the Ambassador himself. M.V.D. headquarters in Moscow appointed me and my assistants. We wel'e responsiple to the M.V.D., fflrt to the Foreign Ministry; Al' the same, we spies had .•::ii jobs in the Embassy. I was Third Secretary and Consul. My wife Evdokia, who held the rank of Captain in the M.V.D. and acted as my cypher clerk, was Embassy accountant. There were two reasons for It kept our this arrangement. colleagues in ignorance of our real function. And it gave us, as diplomats, immunity from a r r es t by the Australian counter-spy organisation should we be unmasked. Their agent was safe If I were caught in espionage work the Australian Government could only ask Moscow to withdraw me from Canberra. Moscow would have to comply, but tb,eir agent would be safe. And, more important still, the M.V.D. could send out another "diplomat "-in the guise of a new Counsellor or Press Attache or $.econd Secretary - and the spy ring would carry on. Besides, by doing a real diploma tic job, the Soviet spy has many opportunities for worming out lhe secrets of the country to which he is accredited. As Consul in Australia it was my duty to look after the interests of Soviet citizens all over the country. That meant travelling and meeting people who might be enlisted to supply secret information. The approach to prospective informers is the crucial point of a Soviet agent's work, One false move and he frightens off his contact or exposes himself as a spy, Moscow·s standing instruction to all its agents abroad is never to approach a possible source of infprmation without asking permission from headquarters.. Even when conscious agents-and sometimes received payment. Messages from M.V.D. headquarters were sent to us in the dl'plomatic bag. I knew which letters to pick out because the Pnvelopes bore the initial letters of three Russian words meaning "Office of Weights and Measures." The messages inside were on undeveloped film wrapped in light-proof paper. I developed and printed the films myself, then passed them to my wife to be decoded. I burned the negatives. One print of each message was kept in my safe. After 12 months the print was destroyed. Afraid pertnission is given, the agent proceeds with the utmost caution. There is first a period of " study," to discover the suitability of the contact. It has so,u:~•mes taken me weeks to c0mplete even this preliminary s'..a\(1o. I had to· weigh up how sympathetic my contact was to the Soviet system. Could he be useful to us? Did he have access to Government information? Did he have any weakness on which we could play to enlist him in our cause? Knowledge of a contact's income is important, for we might be able to tempt him with money. His religious beliefs, any associations with women, especially outside • marriage, whether he drank-all these were included in my ·• study " of a victim. I reported to Moscow the results of my inquiries. •Then, if they agreed that I had a likely recruit in tow, I was allowed to go ahead and delicately probe for the secret information he possessed. Some contacts did not know they were divulging anything of importance. They were our unwitting helpers. Others became of discovery Moscow was morbidly afraid of our secret documents-some of them with names and addresses of informants-being discovered by the Australian Security Service. At one stage they asketl me to flnd a hiding place for them outside the Embassy. I chose a spot underneath a bridge on a road outside Canberra. But Moscow told me it was unsuitable. They refused to approve of two other suggested hiding places. Before I could propose a ' fourth, the crisis that brought about my breach with the M.V.D. had come to a head. When I was given refuge in Austraha and diplomatic relations were broken between Moscow and Canberra, my spy-ring collapsed. But let no one imagine that a smashed Soviet spy network cannot be rebuilt. I saw the way this was done in Sweden. WORLD COPYRIGHT RESERVED Next week Petrov reports on assignment in his spying investigation into Sweden-an the private life of his own ambassador ! ' I blamethe·diplomats THE revelations about Maclean and Burgess in our columns a week ago resulted in general attacks on our Whitehall " diplomats " that were more unrestrained than any launched against any Government department during -my half-century in politics. .. People shouldn't blame our civil servants," pleaded Lord John Hope, a raw junior Minister. .. Blame us Ministers!" Fancy the Government pu~ ting up an office-boy to answer the Press! The plain truth is that our for the resolute spirit with entire "diplomatic" system needs which he had imbued the nation, overhauling-the Foreign Office, Maugham declared: our Embassies and the consular " The only persons who seemed to me unchanged were the officials of the Foreign Office.. A warning in 1941 " I met them sometimes at S long ago as May, 1941, i. dinner and I was amazed to wrote in my column: " Sooner or later-and the hear the casual, ironical way in sooner the better-we must re- which they spoke of the situation. form the Foreign Office." In proof of that, I quoted "You would have thought the Somerset Maugham, the distin- war was a game of chess; if your guished novelist, who had opponent made a move that enescaped from France on a coal- dangered your queen, you parried it, of course, but had to boat. admire his nimble strategy; and After a tribute to Churchill if, in the end, he beat you-well, after all, it was only a game, a very interesting one, and, next time, perhaps you would beat this week's word puzzle, set bl/ H. C. G. Stevens, him." you have to find the missing Our diplomats, added letters of four words meaning Maugham. " led lives so shut (a) retract, (b) ZUmps, (Cl off from ordinary human intergap and (d) frets. These letests that they ai·e incapable of ters spell, in their right order, a name prominent in sporttaking serious things seriously." ing circles. He saw them having long (a) * E C * • T lunches at the Dorchester, disS (b) • • L * 0 cussing Ming china or Water(c) * I A • • S ford glass. Meanwhile the * " world was crashing! Solution at root of Paire Fh e. Even this terrible criticism, utter.ed in an hour of crisis, did no good. The old school tie was pulled a little tighter; that was all. So we lost the - peace it was that, after the war, we lost the peace. SInO Rome, saysHANNEN our diplomats palled up again with their pre-war friends, the nobles and the wealthy ones, who owned the best polo ponies and had the best booze. The views of the workers were never heard. (Incidentally, it was from our Embassy in Rome that two chests of secret documents were stolen.) SWAFFER. A JN * (d) • E * E S Wanted : the names HO was the Whitehall diplomat who advised Ernest W Bevin, new to the game, to back the Arab League? Because of that stupidity, we lost Israel. Who was the Whitehall diplomat who persuaded Bevin to cold-shoulder Tito-until the Labour M.P.s whom I had accompanied to Jugoslavia were proved, by events, to be right? The cocktail set LMOST all over the world our Embassies wasted small A fortunes every year on cocktail parties. inviting only "the best people." 1 Well, because of the Foreign Office's blunders and evasions and lies over the Maclean and Burgess scandal, even our boasted Security Service is suspect! It let two spies escape, right under its nose. .I do not wonder that our nation is aroused to anger. 000117 �0 000118 I J �Document di closed under the Access to Information Act. M.§.nchester Guardian, c4'thSeptember, • 6 of character, but he seemed to be overcoming them. What we do not get from the White Paper is any hint of the evidence on which the security inquiry was based. It was investigating a leakage that took place " some years " before 1949; this MATTRESSES might have been only a casual indiscretion. Clearly security had not the remotest idea that in AND the archives of Moscow was a whole Maclean-Burgess sub-departDIVANS ment under the busy Kislytsin. On the general question of the treachery are made unhurriedly of Maclean and Burgess there is not much new to say. That they had but also.take their time Communist leanings at Cambridge in the early thirties means little. Those about wearing out were the days of the Popular Front, /11spite of tbiJ theycost of Spain, of the Left Book Club. Communism was an epidemic disease and surprisingly little more. with most of its suffererS-and from all appearances with Maclean and Burgess-it quickly passed. We shall never know why, like Alger Hiss, • »»«« these two men developed the strange kink that led them in the late forties to feed documents to the Russians. We do not, for instance, know when this Makers of Bedding for particular People. spying is supposed to have begun ; we Manchester 4• shall probably find that it was during the war when the Grand Alliance was in being and everybody was prepared to think so well of our Eastern ally. This is not a case of a generation being on trial, but of two clever but " rather unbalanced persons going :.\IA CHESTER SATURDAY wrong. The new security checks SEPTEMBE~ 24 1955 adopted by the Foreign Office 'in 1951 are all very well in their way, but if a really clever man wants to be a spy THE SPIES a check on his antecedents and associates is not necessarily a sure means The Government's White Paper on of discovery. (What, for instance, of the disappearance of Maclean a nd Burgess, who played about with the Burgess does not really add much to Anglo-German Club?) No doubt the story as the diligence of the news- there is much to be said in censure of papers have built it up over the laSt the rather wild life in which Burgess four years. In the story of the flight and Maclean sometimes indulged. It the unsolved problem that remains is : should be a warning to others in the ~ Who "tipped" them off or, as th e Foreign Service. But we must Government puts it, "alerted them"? remember too that Alger Hiss was Did they just sense that the security impeccably well-conducted. There is service was on their track or did no clear moral to be drawn except someone tell them ? Burgess had that the Foreign Office must look already been asked to resign (the date /anxiously to its standards of of this is not given). Maclean was efficiency, conduct, and alertness. It about to be closely investigated and will take it a long time to recover his house searched. On May 25 the from the effects of this terrible expothen Foreign Secretary, Mr Herbert sure, and the Government will do Morrison, sanctioned a proposal that well not to ride off in any the security authorities should ques- complacency. tion Macleap. On the evening of that day Maclean and Burgess fled the country. Who, if anybody, warned him? The White Paper says on this that after searching interrogations "insufficient evidence was obtainable to form a definite conclusion or t0 warrant prosecution." But has the Foreign Office no suspicions ? And have there been any staff changes in the Foreign Office to make assurance doubly sure? Has anyone been got off on suspicion? The other point on which there has been criticism, largely in America, is that it should not havE' been possible for Maclean and Burgess to get away so easily. The White Paper. with America in mind, says rather caustically: ~=============~ THE GUARDIAN In some countries. no doubt. Maclean would have been arrc.sted first and a4es• tioned afterwards. In this countrv'" no arrest can be made without adeauate evidence. True enough, but it is also evident that the watch on Maclean was not very close. It was confined to London. Once out of London, he could do as he pleased, even to getting out of the country. The security authorities were not acting with any urgel'l'Cy for they were going to delay the proposed interview with Maclean until mid-June-three weeks after the decision to interrogate him was taken This was putting touching trust in the inadequacy of the Foreign. Office grapevine. 195 �ocu~ent difflosed uqde,-the AfH!.ss:1.crJ.ormation Act a !'information Burgess does not really add much to Bur~~6m~'l\fl~v~W¥~~v.AAWW1c}'{btMir~Wcces Anglo-German Club?) No doubt the story as the diligence of th e news- there is much to be said in censure of papers have built it up over th e laSt the rather wild life in which Burgess four years. In the st ory of th e flight and Maclean sometimes indulged. It the unsolved problem th at remains is : should be a warning to others in the • Who "tipped" them off or. as th e Foreign Service. But we must Government puts it," alerted th em"? remember too that Alger Hiss was Did they just sense that the security impeccably well-conducted. There is service was on their track or did no clear moral to b~ drawn except someone tell them? Burgess had ~that the Foreign Office must look already b€en asked to resign (the date anxiously to its standards of of this is not given). Maclean was efficiency, conduct, and alertness. It about to be closely investigated and will take it a long time to recover his house searched. On May 25 th e [rom the effects of this terrible expothen Foreign Secretary, Mr Herbert ure, and the Government will do •· Morrison, sanctioned a proposal that ell not to ride off in any the security authorities should ques- omplacency. tion Maclean. On the evening of that day Maclean and Burgess fled the country. Who, if anybody, warned him? The White Paper says on this that after searching interrogations " insufficient evidence was obtainable to form a definite conclusion or tci warrant prosecution." But has the Foreign Office no suspicions ? And have there been any staff changes in the Foreign Office to make assutance doubly sure? Has anyone been got off on suspicion ? The other point on which there has been criticism, largely in America, is that it should not havf' been possible for Maclean and Burgess to get away so easily. The White Paper. with America in mind, says rather caustically: In some countries. no doubt. Made.in would have been arrested first and Questioned afterwards. In this countrvi no arrest can be made without adeouate evidence. True enough, but it is also evident that the watch on Maclean was not very close. It was confined to London. Once out of London. he could do as . he pleased. even to getting out of the country. The security authorities were not acting with any urgell'Cy , for they were going to delay the proposed interview with Maclean until mid-June-three weeks after the decision to interrogate him was taken This was putting touching trust in the inadequacy of the Foreign 0ffice grapevine. I The impression most people will form on studying the White Paper is that the security authorities did not take a very serious view of either { Burgess or Maclean. They. were perhaps right prima facie about Burgess, an unreliable type vho had not apparently been in any closely confidential relation. ( Although that is not to sny that he might not have gone to great lengths to steal documents from the British Embassy at Washington when he was there.} They were not. it would seem. moved by any great sense of urgency about Maclean. There is a curious phrase in the account of Maclean. He began as an officer of "exceptional quality"; he misbehaved and had a breakdown in Cairo. When he came back, pronounced as medically fit. he was made head of the American Department of ' the Foreign Office. This, says the White Paper, "since it does not deal with the major problems of AngloAmerican relations.· appeared to be within his capacity." Here ,,1.-asan able person given a responsible position in the Foreign Office. Yet it is now pretended that it was not a really important position, and was therefore "within his capacity." There is something of hindsight in this apologia. Some hindsight also comes into the account of Mrs Maclean in Switzerland. Would it not be fairly true to say that British security was deceived? It thought that Mrs Maclean could not be sympathetic towards a husband who had not treated her over well ; and besides, she was an American. At any rate, there was no watch on her. Call it "old school tie'' or what you will, there was great reluctance to b€lieve the • worst of these two. For this most people who look at J the evidence calmly will not be disposed to be highly censorious of the Foreign Office. It was natural enough that his colleagues should be lath to suspect one• of themselves. a man of great personal attraction, bearing an honoured name. He had his defects �Documen, Document di Tlili u rnras THE ' TIMES root cause of the evident strains which the men were under ? It is good to be reminded in the White Paper that, since the disappearance of the two men, security in the Foreign Service bas been tightened and that more searching inqumes are now made into the characters and antecedents of candidates and members. The whole affair calls for full, honest scrutiny before the forum of Parliament; and there mu~t be no TOO LATE AND TOO disposition, as there bas been on earlier occasions, to score party points. The LITTLE " Two points call for comment," says record of the Foreign Service is second the White • Paper on MACLEANand to none for steadfastness, hard work, BURGESS. That is typical of its prim- and loyalty, but the House will have ness and defensiveness. There are not searching and important questions to two but a dozen points that call for ask. comment, and the White Paper throws little new light upon them. Appearing as it does, scandalously late, four and a quarter years after the two men fled the country, the White Paper might • have been expected to give many details hitherto unknown. It does, indeed, mention that BURGESShad, just before his flight, been specifically asked to resign from the Foreign Office because of reckless and careless conduct while posted in the United States. It also discloses that on May 25, 1951, the very day of the two men's disappearance, the Foreign Secretary at that time (MR. MORRISON)agreed that MACLEAN should be questioned by the security authorities because of suspicions that he had previously passed Foreign Office information over to the Soviet authorities. For some unaccountable reason these facts were not made known until now. For the rest, the Paper does little more than confirm a good part of the information already known through the Press, and especially through the disclosures by MR. PETROVin Australia. There is very little doubt that, but for the knowledge that MR. PETROV was going to make his evidence public, the Foreign Office and the security authorities would not have decided to publish a White Paper at all even now. Throughout the past four and a quarter years the pattern bas been almost invariably the same. A Press report has been followed by a reluctant and often tendentious admission in the House or at the Foreign Office. Official statements were made which are now seen to have been misleading. No doubt the spokesmen themselves were put up without the proper information which is usual on foreign affairs. Even so, it is hard. to square the suggestion a year ago that PE·tRov's evidence was simply based on hearsay, and was "to be treated with some reserve," with the White Paper's admiss10n that PETROVhas " provided confirmation" of parts of the story. An even stronger discrepancy exists between the White Paper's evidence that MACLEAN was being watched on suspicion of passing information and LORD READING'S statement to the Lords on October 28, 1952. " Mr. Maclean," said LORD READING,"performed his official duties satisfactorily up to the date of his <fa-appearance." The White Paper defends what it coyly calls the '' reticence of Ministerial replies " on the grounds that it is not desirable at any moment to Jet the other side know how much has been discovered or guess at the means used to discover it. An excellent principle, but bow docs it apply in this case ? The Foreign Office needed no elaborate means to " discover" that it had asked BURGESSto resign or that it was closely watching MACLEAN;and the Russian<; already knew-otherwise they would not have helped the two men to escape. The net result of " reticence " was the opposite of that intended. Instead of becoming bored with the affair, the public scented a mystery·and wondered uneasily •how much was being hidden. The White Paper does little to remove doubts about the security authorities' handling of the matter. It says that, once suspicions fastened on MACLEAN,· \ they took a calculated risk that he became aware of their watch and made tracks for abroad. Events showed that they calculated wrongly; he did escape. But it is more extraordinary to read that, although gravely suspecting him, they As soon as Parliament reassembles time will be given for a debate on the White Paper on the disappearance of Burgess and Maclean, which was issued yesterday. (pp. 4 and 6) Mr. John Profumo has spoken of the difficulties which have to be overcome before regular helicopter services can be introduced as a commercial proposition. (p. 4) Sept ember, 1955 �through the Press, and especially through tfie disclosures by MR. PETROVin Australia. There is very little doubt that, but for the knowledge that MR. PETROV was going to make his evidence public, the Foreign Office and the security authorities would not have decided to publish a White Paper at all even now. Throughout the past four and a quarter years the pattern has been almost invariably the same. A Press report has been followed by a reluctant and often tendentious admission in tbe House or at the Foreign Office. Official statements were made which are now seen to have been misleading. No doubt the spokesmen themselves were put up without the proper information which is usual on foreign affairs. Even so, it is hard. to square the suggestion a year ago that PETRov's evidence was simply based on hearsay, and was "to be treated with some reserve," with· the White Paper's admission that PETROVhas " provided confirmation " of parts of the story. An even stronger discrepancy exists between the White Paper's evidence that MACLEAN was being watched on suspicion of passing information and LORD READING'S statement to the Lords on October 28, 1952. "Mr. Maclean," said LORD READING,"performed his official duties satisfactorily up to the date of his disappearance." The White Paper defends what it coyly calls the "reticence of Ministerial replies" on the grounds that it is not desirable at any moment to let the other side know how much has been discovered or guess at the means used to discover it. An excellent principle, but how does it apply in this case ? The Foreign Office needed no elaborate means to " discover" that it had asked BURGESSto resign or that it was closely watching MACLEAN ; and the Russians already knew-otherwise they would not have helped the two men to escape. The net result of " reticence" was the opposite of that intended. Instead of becoming bored with the affair, the public scented a mystery and wondered uneasily how much was being hidden. The White Paper does little to remove doubts about the security authorities' jhandling ~f- the matter. It says that, once susp1c1ons fastened on MACLEAN, • they took a calculated risk that he became aware of their watch and made tracks for abroad. Events showed that they calculated wrongly ; he did escape. But 1t is more extraordinary to read that, although gravely suspecting him, they decided not to keep a watch on his home in Kent. More extraordinary still, on the very day that authority was given to question him, he was allowed to go from London (where he was watched) on leave to :Kent (where he was not watched). And, according to the White Paper,· his flight that same evening, May 25, " did not become known to the authorities until the morning of Monday, May 28." They had cut themselves off from all means of knowing. Another point, Jess serious but no less bewildering, is that the White Paper says that the two men left the country " when the security authorities were on their track." Was BURGESS, then, also being watched ? There is nothing else in the White Paper to suggest it. The evidence produced i5 simply that he had • been asked to resign after the Ambassador in Washington had reported on his personal behaviour. The authorities cannot have it both ways. If there was suspicion of espionage in his case the evidence should be in the White Paper. If the authorities had no such suspicions, they evidently had been caught napping. The mystery is deepened by the Foreign Office statement last weekend that it was now believed that both men were" long-term agents" for the Soviet Union. PETROV has said so, and his testimony ts accepted, but on British evidence the part cf BURGESShas not been brought to light. Equally unsatisfactory is the way in which the White Paper deals with the manner in which the two men were kept for so long in the Foreign Service. All questions of spying apart, their personal behaviour at times should have raised far stronger and earlier questionings about their suitability for responsible work. Stories of their riotous bouts were common talk in London. Were they the men to be trusted with State secrets ? Did the authorities go on to ask what was the I Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divu!gue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'acces a !'information �ocument isc osed under the ccess to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loisur J'acces a /'information • .,We icoop the world again ·t(lday ! , Sunday SEPTEMB ,R 25 1955 THE PEO-PLE No. 3851 74th Year .. 2 21D, MORE SECRETS FROMPETROV Petrov has ·put the Foreign Office in a panic. What the White Paper did not tell you Noonnewspaper has staggered the world the scale 'The People' did ·1ast Sunday. Our publication of the facts concerning the missing British diplom'ats, Maclean and Burges5; by Vladimir Petrov, the former Russian agent, has had 'amazing repercussions. It forced the Governme~t to publish a White Paper. BUT the document did not tell ALL the facts, and today w~ publish new disclosures from Petrov-who ran out on the Russians in Australia-that will add to the outcry. For Petrov reveals that after Maclean and Burgess escaped, the Foreign Office were fooled by Mrs. Maclean as well. They were foaled byMr.Maclea By VLADIMIR PETROV -.- Jlllllll""I ...... TODAY I can disclose the most astounding secret of the entire Maclean and Burgess affair-the part played in it by that remarkable woman Mrs. Melinda Maclean. This wife and mother, who earned widespread sympathy when her husband, the Soviet spy Donald Maclean, fled to Moscow, was herself, I am now sure, guilty of a staggering piece of duplicity She fooled the Secret Service chiefs of Britain, and then those of France and Switzerland, in a series of cunning manreuvres that few master spies can match. It was my comrade Kislytsin who placed me in possession of the Burgess and Maclean secrets. He was my assistant in Canberra, the Australian capital, where I was chief of the M.V.D., the Soviet spy network. From 1945 to 1948 Kislytsin was stationed in London, where he was in personal touch with the two diplomats. Afterwards he worked at M.V.D. headquarters in Moscow in the department handling the Maclean and Burgess operation. The truth of the disclosures he made to me have now been confirmed by the British Foreign Office. Since I broke with Moscow and was given refuge in Australia last year I have studied the published documents in the case of the missing diplomats. 1 Fitting together all that Klslytsin told me with these publicly known facts, I can now complete my dossier on Burgess, Maclean-and Mrs. Melinda Maclean. Urgent conference in Moscow A:s I disclosed last week, Maclean and Burgess spied for Russia over a period of many years before the sus- eign Office Information for transmission by code to Moscow. In the Soviet capital he later had charge of the secret library, consisting entirely of documents supplied by the two diplomats. Kislytsln was never allowed to meet the two men whose highly valuable information w e n t through his hands. Only on their arrival In Moscow did be greet IUaclean and Burgess for the first time. And Kislytsin was given the job of looking after the precious pair. He became, indeed, their wel- three men were' well known to me personally. The conference quickly decided that Burgess and Maclean were agents of such value, tKat at all costs they must be saved from arrest and brought to sanctuary In Russia. How to stage the escape Itself was a much tougher problem. Plan after plan was discussed, on.✓ to be rejected. Everyone at the conference was obsessed with the perils of whisking away from London two spy suspects holding Important Foreign Office posts. At last the route Maclean and Burgess are. now known to have taken from London to Paris was plotted In Paris fare supervisor. He saw them installed in a comfortable house on the outskirts of Moscow. He signed the chits for all their food, clothing and personal necessities. And he prepare~ plans for exploiting their diplomatic knowledge and skill in the .service or the Kremlin. 'Supplied with the best' ate notes and placed money to her account in a Swiss bank. And so the M.V.D. had started to plan the final operation in the missing diplomats affair-the spiriting away of Mrs. Maclean and her- children. It was even more daring than th~ coup by which Burgess and Maclean themselves w er e snatched from under the noses of the.British Security services. Kislytsin was in it from the begmning. though he was not in Moscow to see Its final outcome. By this time he had joined me in Australia. But when he read the reports 1n Australian newspapers of Mrs. Maclean's disappearance he recognised some or the details or the escape plan to which he had devoted so much of his skilled attention. And the most breathtaking feature of the scheme was the part assigned to that attractive, enigmatic, American - born mother and wife of a top Soviet spy, Mrs. Melinda Maclean. He told her his plans I am now convinced, though conclusive evidence is lacking, that she knew all about her husband's plan to flee. At any rate, she began to play a willing and highly astute part in her own successful disappearance very soon after Donald Maclean passed behind the Iron Curtain. When her husband vanished on May 25, 1951,the birth of her baby Melmda was only a month ahead. Yet on the morning Obviously, Burgess and Mac- after Donald's disappearance lean would best be used as she was reported cheerful. advisers to th-\ Soviet Ministry " Mr. Maclean isn't here," she of Foreign Affairs, especially on• is said to have told her housequestlions affecting Russia's rela- keeper with the utmost calm. tions with Britain and America. !n private she was, of course, And that was the job which closely interrogated by men of Kislytsin arranged for them. the British security servu:·.....,__ _ They were engaged in it when told them she knew noth 000123 Kislytsln left Moscow to join She She so firmly convinced me m Australia. They are. no British authorities of her en'-----' doubt, doing 1t now. �MORE SECRETS FROMPETROV Petrov has ·put the Foreign Office in a panic. What the White Paper did not tell you NO newspaper has stagg~red the world on the scale 'The People' did ·1ast Sunday. Our publication of the facts concerning the missing British diplomats, Maclean and Burgess) by Vladimir Petrov, the former Russian agent, has had amazing repercussions. It forced the Governme~t to publish a White Paper. BUT the document did not tell ALL the facts, and today we publish new disclosures from Petrov-who ran out on the Russians in Australia-that will add to the outcry. For Petrov reveals that after Maclean and Burgess escaped, the Foreign Office we re fooled by Mrs. Maclean as well. They were fool dbyMrs. Maclea By VLADIMIR PETROV ,,.., . iy, I can disclose the most astounding secret of TODAY the entire Maclean and Burgess affair-the part played in it by that remarkable woman "Mrs.Melinda Maclean. This wife and mother, who earned widespread sympathy when her husband, the Soviet spy Donald' Maclean, fled to Moscow, was herself, I am now sure, guilty of a staggering piece of duplicity. She fooled the Secret Service chiefs of Britain, and then those of France and Switzerland, in a series of cunning manreuvres that few master spies can match. It was my comrade Kislytsin who placed me in possession of the Burgess and Maclean secrets. He was my assistant In Canberra, the Australian capital, where I was chief of the M.V.D., the Soviet spy network. From 1945 to 1948 Klslytsin was stationed In London, where he was in personal touch with the two diplomats. Afterwards he worked at M.V.D. headquarters In Moscow in the department handling the Maclean and Burgess operation. The truth of the disclosures he made to me have now been confirmed bY the British Foreign Office. Since I broke with Moscow and was given refuge In Australia last year I have studied the published documents In the case of the missing diplomats. , Fitting together all that Kislytsln told me with these publicly known facts, I can now complete my dossier on Burgess, Maclean-and Mrs. Melinda Maclean. Urgent conference in Moscow As I disclosed last week, Maclean and Burgess spied for Russia over a period of many years before the suspicions o f t h e Br! tlsh Sec·urity Services were aroused. Then came catastrophe. The two men discovered that they were under Investigation. • Terrlfl.ed, they reported to their Soviet contact 11'1London. • At once, Kislytsin revealed to me, the full resources of the M.V.D were mobilised to snatch them from danger. In Moscow an urgent conference of top M.VD. agents was calleo. Chtef of thosP present was Colonel Rama. head of the First Directorate, which Is responsible for Intelligence work in Britain and America. His deputy, Gorsky, since dismissed from his post, was there. So was Klslytsin himself. All • etgn Office Information for transmission by code to Moscow. In the Soviet capital he later had charge of the secret library, consisting entirely of documents supplied by the two diplomats. Kislyts!n was never allowed to meet the two men whose highly valuable information w e n t through his hands. Only on their arrival In Moscow did he. greet Maclean and Burgess for the first time. And Kislytsin the job of looking was after given the precious pair. He became. indeed, their wel- three men were· well known to me personally. The conference quickly decided that Burgess and Maclean were· agents of such value, tKat at all costs they must be saved from arrest 11,nd brought to sanctuary In Russia. fare supervisor. He saw them installed in a comfortable house on the outskirts of Moscow. He signed the chits for all their food, clothing and personal necessities. And he prepare<;l plans for exploiting their diplomatic knowledge and skill in the .service of the Kremlin. 'Supplied with the best' ate notes and placed money to her account in a Swiss bank. And so the M.V.D. had started to plan the final operation in the missing diplomats affair-the spiriting a.way of Mrs. Maclean and hel' children. It was even more daring than th~ coup by which Burgess and Maclean themselves were snatched from under the noses of the,Brltish Security services. Kislytsin was in it from the beginning. though he was not in Moscow to see its final outcome. By this time he had joined me in Australia. But when he read the reports in Australian newspapers of Mrs. Maclean's disappearance he recognised some of the details of the escape plan to which he had devoted so much of his skilled attention. And the most breathtaking feature of the scheme was the part assigned to that attractive, enigmatic, American - born mother and wife of a top Soviet spy, Mrs. Melinda Maclean, He·told her his plans I am now convinced, though conclusive evidence i& lacking, that she knew all about her husband's plan to flee. At any rate, she began to play a willing and highly astute part in her own successful disappearance very soon after Donald Maclean passed behind the Iron Curtain. When her husband vanished on May 25, 1951,the birth of her baby Melmda was only a month ahead. Yet on the morning Obviously, Burgess and Mac- after Donald's disappearance lean would best be used as she was reported cheerful. advisers to thii Soviet Ministry " Mr. Maclean isn't here," she of Foreign Affairs, especially on• 1s said to have told her housequestiions affecting Russia's rela- keeper with the utmost calm. tions with Britain and America. In private she was, of course, And that was the job which closely Interrogated by men of Kislytsin arranged for them. the British security services. They were engaged in It when She told them she knew nothing. Kislytsln left Moscow to join She so firmly convinced the me in Australia. They are. no British authorities of her entire doubt, doing 1t now. ignorance of her husband·s Kislytsin reported to me that life as a spy and runaway he had left Burgess and Maclean secret the Foreign Office made no in exce!lent health, leading a that objection when she took her most comfortable existence and children holiday to France supplied with the best of every- only threeonmonths after Donald thing. Maclean's flight. Life for the two rescued How to stage the escape Itself was a much tougher problem. Plan after plan was discussed, on., to be rejected. Everyone at the conference was obsessed with the perils of whisking away from London two spy suspects holding important Foreign Office posts. At last the route Maclean and Burgess are.now known to have taken from London to Pans was plottoo In Pans M.V.D agents took complete charge. IA Soviet or Czech plane-K1slytsm was not sure which-flew them to Prague.J The joy and relief with which the M.V.D. chiefs received them in Moscow can well be imagined. spies was idyllic-but for one Though he had· been 1n intithing. They I i:nissed their mate contact with them for families. years, the rule.s of the spy game Maclean especially was no had prevented Ki.slytsin from actually meeting Maclean and doubt concerned about his wife Burgess. • and three children, one of wtiom As cypher clerk to the London was born only a few weeks after branch of the Soviet spy net- his flight across the Iron Curtain work Klslytsin had handled large quantities of' secret ForHe had sent Melinda alfectton- Yet it now seems certain that in France she made contact with an M.V.D. agent and finally agreed to take part in the plot that led to her own flight across the Curtain to Moscow. For Kislytsln made it clear to me tha,t the M.V.D. was seeking an opportunity to contact her /TURN TO' PAGE THREE) 000124 �·- • -~ -~----------,.---,___,,.,~-~----~~~-:-:~---- Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a /'information .. ■ Continued from Page 1 immediately after her husband's get-away. It was even intended that an official of the Soviet Embassy should approach her in London or at her house in Kent! But the M.V.D. chiefs decided it would be too risky. She must be contacted in a. spot where British security agents could' be evaded. On 11erRiviera holiday, agents of the French secnrity service kept the Maclean nmily under constant watch in the villa they occupied. Yet Mrs. Maclean managed to slip away for two whole days. This may have been the occasion for her fateful rendezvous with the M.V.D.• But the eyes of the Western counter-spy agents were still upon her. It was too soon for flight. She returned with her children to England. There she at once began to play a game of incredible duplicity. She spoke of 'divorce' She unburdened herself to her friends about her broken home. Tragically she spoke of the " fac;ade" of her marriage. She annouq~ed her intention of divorcing Donald. This was a sheer blind to throw British security off the ~cent. I have no doubt that her story of a forthcoming divorce was part of a " cover " plan in which she was cooperating with the 1'11.V.D. In July, 1952, Mrs. Maclean announced that she was leaving Britain to live in Switzerland with her children. The vigilance of British .!iecurity had by now completely relaxed. "Surely," they must haYe argued, "a woman who has finished with her husband will make no move to rejoin him." The Swiss Intelligence organisation did, however, maintain some sort of surveillance over Petrov on the woman who lied Mrs. Maclean's new home 1n Geneva. She clearly fooled the Swiss agents, too. For Kislytsin reported to me that in Geneva a M.V.D. representative arranged with Mrs. Maclean the final details of her journey to Moscow. On Friday, September 11, .1952, two years and four months after her husband's disappearance, Mrs. Maclean drove off with her children in her black Chevrolet car, ostensibly on a. visit to friends. Their movements were traced to the Austrian border. There the trail ended. Mrs. Melinda. Maclean had triumphed over the security services of three countries. The part she had played as an abandoned wife, disillusioned in her traitor husband, was crowned with success. Now she 1s living with her husband in Moscow as he secretly continues with his work for the Soviet Foreign Ministry alongside his fellow spy Guy Burgess. Burgess and Maclean were undoubtedly prize " catches " for the M.V.D. But it is certain that the Soviet spy network has· recruited informers of greater or le s s er usefulness in every country with which Moscow maintains diplomatic relations. These time-honoured diploma.tic contacts be tween States are- vital for the working of the Russian secret service. Almost invariably the head of the Soviet s~y ring in any country is to be found safely installed in the Soviet Embassy itself. That was the pattern in Australia when I headed the M.V.D. organisation. It was the same when I was stationed in Sweden from 1943 to 1947. And the pattern is duplicated in every capital of the world. Each head of M.V.D. TOO? is the block of ABOVE buildings in which Mrs. Donald Maclean lived in Geneva. And in the picture on the right she is seen at London Airport with her son, as she walks out to join the plane which brought her on the first leg of her escape. No wonder she smiles! * branch is known as a " Resi- out the l'erret.5 of the country to which he is accredited. dent." He holds military rank in • the M.V.D. that corr~ponds As Consul Jn Australia it was with the importance of the my duty to look after the intercountry in which he works. ests of Soviet citizens all over When I was sent to Australia, the country. That meant travelthen beginning to assume great ling and meeting people who importance politically as a might be enlisted to supply Pacific power and militarily as secret information. the centre of secret rocket The approach to pros1>ective experiments, I held the rank of informers is the crucial point Lieut.-Col. of State Security. or a Soviet agont's work. One Later I was promoted full false move and he frightens off Colonel. his contact or exposes himself But my rank and the nature as a spy. of my work were kept secret Moscow's standing instr~cfrom everybody in our Canberra t!on to all its agents abroad is Embassy save the Ambassador himself. M.V.D. headquarters in nPVer to approach a possible Moscow appointed me and my source of information without a.-~king permission from headassistants. We were responsible qua 7ters. Even when pcrm,sl!ion to the· M.V.D., not to the is grven, the agent proceeds with Foreign Ministry. • All the same.• we spiel'! irnd tht> utmost caution. T~ere is first a period o! real jobs in the Embassy. I v:ll.~ ~tuidy," to discover the suitThird Secretary and Consul. ab1li( '.Jf the contact. It has My wife Evdokia, who held the rank of Captain in the M.V.D. so,u~'mes taken me weeks to CflmpJete even this preliminary and acted as my cypher clerk, s:a~"was Embassy account.ant. I had to weigh up how symThere were two reasons for pathetic my contact was to the this arrangement. It kept our Could he be colleagues in ignorance cif our Soviet system. real function. And it gave us. useful to us? Did he have as diplomat.-;, immunity from access to Government informatio11? Did._he have any weaka r r est by the Australian ness on wluch we could play to counter-spy organisation should • enlist him in our cause? we be unmasked. Knowledge of a contact's income is important, for we might Their agent be able to tempt him with money. I;Iis religious beliefs, any associawas safe tions with women, especially If I were caught in espionage outside marriage, whether he .work the Australian Govern- <;!rank-all these were included ment could only ask Moscow to in my " study " of a victim. withdraw me from Canberra. I reported to Moscow the reMoscow would have to comply, sults of my inquiries. Then, if but their agent would be safe. And, more important still, the they agreed that I had a likely recruit in tow, I was allowed to M.V.D. could send out another "diplomat "-in the guise of a go ahead and delicately probe for the secret information he new Counsellor or Press Attache or Second Secretary - and the possessed. Some contacts did not know spy ring would carry on. Besides, by doing a real diplo- they were divulging anything of ma tic job, the Soviet spy has importance. They were our unmany opportunities for worming witting helpers. Others became conscious agents-and sometimes recPived pa?ment. Messages from M.V.D. headquaiters were sent to us in the diplomatic bag. I knew which letters to pick out because the f'nvelopes bore the initial letters of three Russian words meaning "Office of Weights and Measures." The messages lnsidl' were on undeveloJ>ed film wrapped In light-proof paper. I developed and printed the films myself, then passed them to my wife to be decoded. I burned the negatives. One print of each message was kept in my safe. After 12 months the print was destroyed. Afraid of discovery Moscow was morbidly afraid of our secret documents-some of them with names and addresses of informants-being discovered by the Austral!an Security Service. At one stage they asked me to find a hiding place for them outside the Embassy. I chose a spot underneath a bridge on a road outside Canberra. But Moscow told me it was unsuitable. They refused to approve of two other suggested hiding places. Before I could propose a. fourth, the crisis that brought about mv breach with the M.V.D. had com'e to a head. When I was given refuge in Australia and diplomatic relations were broken between Moscow and Canberra, my spy-ring collapsed. But let no .one imagine that a smashed Soviet spy network cannot be rebuilt. I saw the way this was done in Sweden. WORLD COPYRIGHT RESERVED ~ext week Petrov reports on his spying assignment in Sweden-an investigation into the private life of his own ambassador! 'I blame the diplomat HE revelations about Maclean and Burgess in our columns a week ago resulted in general attacks on our Whitehall T " diplomats " that were more unrestrained than any launched against any Government department during my half-century in politics. .. People shouldn't blame our civil servants," pleaded Lord John Hope, a raw junior Minister. .. Blame us Ministers! " Fancy the Government put.Ung up an ol'fice-boy to answer the Press! The plain truth is that our entire "'diplomatic" system needs o\'erhauling-the Foreign Office, our Embassies and the consular A warning in 1941 s long ago as May, 1941, I A wrote in my column: " Sooner or later-and the sooner the better-we must reform the _Foreign Office." ed uttered in an hour oi crisis, did no good. The old school tie was pulled a little tighter; that was all. So we lost the peace o it was that, after the war, we lost the pe~e. SIn Rome, says,HANNEN our diplomats palled up again with their pre-war friends, the nobles and the wealthy ones, who owned the best polo ponies and had the best booze. The views of the workers were never heard. (Incidentally, it was from our Embassy, in• Rome that two chests of secret documents wer stolen.) SWAFFER for the resolute spirit with which he had imbued the nation, Maugham declared: "The only persons who seemed to me unchanged were the officials of the Foreign Office. " I met them sometimes at dinner and I was amazed to hear the casual, ironical way in which they spoke of the situation. "You would havetthought the Wanted : the names ao was the Whitehall diplo mat who ad • s W Bevin, new to the 000125 c the Arab League? _____ o that stupidity, we lost srae . ur\-.,,., urn ... +h...,, 1XThih::,hQ11 rlinln �rur: ay have been the r her fateful rendezthe M.V.D.• eyes of the Western agents were still It 11•astoo soon for e returned with her England. e at once began to play incredible duplicity. rdened herself to her ut her broken home. she spoke of the of her marriage. She her intention of onald. s a sheer blind to foh security off the ha,·e no doubt that of a forthcoming s part of a " cover " which she was cowith the !U.V.D. 1952, Mrs. Maclean that she was leaving live in Switzerland ilrlren. ilance of British ct by now completely 'Surely," they must ed. " a woman who d with her husband no move to rejoin woman who lied Mrs. Maclean's new home In Geneva. She clearly fooled the Swiss agents, too. For Kislytsin reported to me that in Geneva a M.V.D. representative arranged with Mrs. Maclean the final details of her journey to Moscow. On Friday, September 11, J952, two years and four months after her husband's disappearance, Mrs. Maclean drove off with her children in her black Chevrolet car, ostensibly on a. visit to friends. Their movements were traced to the Austrian border. There the trail ended. Mrs. Melinda Maclean had triumphed over the security services of three countries. The part she had played as an abandoned wife. disillusioned in her traitor husband, was crowned with success. Now she 1s living with her husband in Moscow as he secretly continues with his work for the Soviet Foreign Ministry alongside his fellow spy Guy Burgess. Burgess and Maclean were undoubtedly prize " catches " for the M.V.D. But it is certain that the Soviet spy network has· recruited informers of greater or 1 es s e r usefulness in every countr}' with which Moscow maintains diplomatic relations. These time-honoured diplomatic rontacts between States are- vital for the working of the Russian secret service. Almost invariably the head of the Soviet Sl)Y ring in any country is to be found safely installed in the So,•ict Embassy itself. That was the pattern in Australia when I headed the M.V.D. organisation. It was the same when I was stationed in Sweden from 1943 to 1947. And the pattern is duplicated in every capital of the world. Each head of M.V.D. TOO! Is the block of ABOVE buildings in which Mrs. Donald Maclean lived in Geneva. And in the picture on the right she is seen a.t London Airport with her son, as she walks out to join the plane which brought her on the first leg of her escape. No wonder she smiles! • * branch ls known as a " Resi- out the secrets of the country to dent." He holds military rank which he is accredited. in· lhe M.V.D. that cqrre.~ponds As Consul in Australia it \\'as with the importance of the my duty to look after the intercountry in which he works. ests of Soviet citizens all over When I was sent to Australia, the country. That meant travelthen beginning to as:mme great ling and meeting people who impor,tance politically as a might be enlisted to supply Pacific power and militarily as secret information. the centre of secret rocket The approach to prospective experiments, I held the rank of informers is the crucial point Lieut.-Col. of State Security. of a Soviet agent's work. One Later I was promoted full false move and he frightens off Colonel. his contact or exposes himself But my rank and the nature as a spy. of my work were kept secret Moscow's standing instr~cfrom everybody in our Canberra tlon to all its airents abroad is Embassy save the Ambassador himself. M.V.D. headquarters in never to approach a possible Moscow appointed me and my source of information without asking permission from headassistants. We were responsible to the• M.V.D., not to the qua1ters. EYen w_henpermission is grven, the agent proceeds with Foreign Ministry. . ,, All the same.• we spie~ {1ad thP utmost caution. real jobs in the Embassy. I w Tl)ere is first a period of ~tuldy," to discover the suitThird Secretary and Consul. My wife Evdokia, who held thP ab11it:V'.)f the contact. It has rank of Captain in the M.V.D. so11.E'•mes taken me weeks to cr,mple•e even this preliminary and acted as my cypher clerk, s'-.a'5P. was Embassy accountant. There were two reasons for I had to weigl1 up how symthis arrangement. ,It kept our pathetic my contact was to the colleagues in ignorance of our Soviet s.1•stem. Could he be real function. And it gave us. useful to us? Did he have as diplomats, immunity from access to Government informaarrest by the Australian tion? Did. he have any weakcounter-spy organisation should ness on which we could play to we be unmasked. enlist him in our cause? Knowledge of a contact's income is important, for we might Their agent be able to tempt him with money. was safe His religious beliefs, any associaIf I were caught in espionage tlons with women, especially _work the Australian Govern- outside marriage, whether he ment could only ask Moscow to <;!rank-all these were included in my " study" of a victim. withdraw me from Canberra. I reported to Moscow the reMoscow would have to comply, sults of my inquiries. Then, if but their agent would be safe. And, more important still, the they agreed that I had a likely recruit in tow, I was allowed to M.V.D. could send out another "diplomat "-in the guise of a go ahead and delicately probe for the secret information he new Counsellor or Press Attache or Second Secretary - and the possessed. spy ring would carry on. Some contacts did not know Besides, by doing a real diplo- they were divulging anything of matic job, the Soviet spy has ,importance. They were our unmany opportunities for worming witting helpers. Others became conscious agents-and times received payment. Messages from M.V.D. headquarters were sent to us in the diplomatic bag. I knew which letters to pick out because the rnvelopes bore the initial letters of three Russian words meaning "Office of Weights and Measures." The messagrs insidr were on undeveloped film wrapped in light-proof pa.per. I developed and printed the films myself, then passed them to my wife to be decoded. I burned the negatives. One print of each message was kept in my safe. After 12 months the print was destroyed. ·~----- Afraid of discovery Moscow was morbidly afraid of our secret documents-some of them with names and addresses of informants-being discovered by the Australian Security Service. At one stage they asked me to find a hiding place for them outside the Embassy: I chose a spot underneath a bridge on a road outside Canberra. But Moscow told me it was unsuitable. They refused to approve of two other suggested hiding places. Before I could propose a fourth, the crisis that brought about my breach with the M.V.D. had come to a head. When I was given refuge in Australia and diplomatic relations were broken between Moscow and Canberra, my spy-ring collapsed. But let no one imagine that a smashed Soviet spy network cannot be rebuilt. I saw the way this was done in Sweden. WORLD COPYRIGHT RESERVED Next week Petrov reports on his spying assignment in Sweden-an investigation into the private life of his own ambassador ! 'I blamethe.diplomats revelations about Maclean and Burgess in our columns THEa week ago resulted in general attacks on our Whitehall " diplomats " that were more unrestrained than an¥ launched against any Government department during my half-century in politics. " People shouldn't blame our 1 civil servants," pleaded Lord John Hope, a raw junior Minister. "Blame us Ministers!" Fancy the Government, putt,ing up an office-boy to answer the Press! The plain truth is that our for the resolute spirit with entire "diplomatic" system needs which he had imbued the nation, overhauling-the Foreign Office, Maugham declared: our Embassies and the consular "The only persons who seemed to me unchanged were the officials of the Foreign Office. A warning in 1941 " I met them sometimes at s long ago as May, 1941, I dinner and I was amazed to wrote in my column: hear the casual, ironical way in "Sooner or later-and the , sooner the better-we must re- which they spoke of the situation. form the Foreign Office." "You would havecthought the In proof of that, I quoted war was a game of chess; if your Somerset Maugham, the distinopponent made a move that enguished novelist, who had escaped from France on a coal- dangered your queen, you parried it, of course, but had to boat. • admire his nimble strategy; and After a tribute to Churchill if, in the end, he beat you-well, <Jo.,V,JV'V'VV'v'V'o."-"-'V'JV'VVVVVVVVV: after all, it was only a game, a FIND THE FAMOUS very interesting one, and, next time, perhaps you would beat JNthis week's word. puzzle, set b11 H. C. G. Stevens, him." 1101i have to find the missing Our diplomat.~, added letters of four word.• meaning Maugham, " led Jives so shu.t (al retract, (b) ltlmps, (Cl elf! from ordinary human intergap and. (dJ fret.,, These letests that they are incapable of ters spell, in ·their right order, a name prominent in sporttaking serious tiiings seriously." ing circles. He saw them having Jong (al • E C • • T lunches at the Dorchester, dis(bl • • L • 0 * S cussing Ming china or Water(c) • I A * • S ford glass. M~anwhile the (d) • E • • • E S world was crashmg ! Solution at foot of Paie Five. Even this terrible criticism, uttered in an hour oi crisis, did no good. The old school tie was pulled a little tighter; that was all. So we lost the peace o it was that, after the war, we lost the pe~e. SIn Rome, saysHANNEN our diplomats palled up again with their pre-war friends, the nobles and the wealthy ones, who owned the best polo ponies and had the best booze. The views of the workers were never heard. (Incidentally, it was from our Embassy. in· Rome that two chests of secret documents were stolen.) SWAFFER A Wanted : the names l;IO was the Whitehall diplomat who advised Ernest W Bevin, new to the game, to back the Arab League? Because of that stupidity, we lost Israel. Who was the Whitehall diplomat who persuaded Bevin to cold-shoulder Tito-until the Labour. M.P .s whom r had accompanied to Jugoslavia were proved, by events, to be right? The cocktail set LMOST all over the world our Embassies wasted small A fortunes every year on cocktail parties, inviting only " the. best people." Well, because of the Foreign Office's blunders and evasions and lies over the Mac:ean and Burgess scandal. even our boasted Security Service is suspect! It let two spies escape, right under its nose. I do not wonder that nation ls aroused to anger. �-- ---- . 5 ·-- D0cument disclosed u () '2... {p O D~uf;t1) divulgue ltE, er the Access to lnformat1on Act ' • ,, I People 25th September, 1955 000127 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Doc ment divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur l'acces a /'information !)c.>:2., 6 The Times, Se-ptember, V I • ' 'THE TIMES As soon as Parliament rcfassembles time will be given for a debate on the White Paper on the disappearance of Burgess and Maclean, which was issued yesterday. (pp. 4 and 6) Mr. John Profumo has spoken of the difficulties which have to be overcome before regular helicopter services can be introduced as a commercial proposition. (p.A) root cause of the evident strains which the men were under ? It is good to be reminded in the White Paper that, since the disappearance of the two men, security in the Foreign Service has been tightened and that more searching inqumes are now made into the characters and antecedents of candidates and members. The whole affair calls for full, honest scrutiny before the forum of Parliament; and there must be no TOO LATE AND TOO disposition, as there has been on earlier LITTLE occasions, to score party points. The "Two points call for comment," says record of the Foreign Service is second the White Paper on MACLEANand to none for steadfastness, hard work, BURGESS. That is typical of its prim- ·and loyalty, but the House will' have ness and defensiveness. There are not searching and important questions to two but a dozen points that call for comment, and the White Paper throws ask. little new light upon them. Appearing as it does, scandalously late, four and a quarter years after the two men fled the country, the White Paper might have been expected to give mao.y details hitherto unknown. It does, indeed, mention that BURGESShad, just before his · flight, been specifically asked to resign from the Foreign Office because of reckless and careless conduct while posted in the United States. It also discloses that on May 25, 1951, the very day of the two men's disappearance, the Foreign Secretary at that time (MR. MORRISON) agreed that MACLEAN should be questioned by the security authorities because of suspicions that he had previously passed Foreign Office informat\on over to the Soviet authorities. Fo'r some unaccountable reason these facts were not •made known until now. For the rest, the Paper does little more than confirm a good part of the information already known through the Press, and especially through the disclosures by MR. PETROVin Australia. There is very little doubt that, but for the knowledge that MR. PETROV was going to make his evidence public, the Foreign Office and the security authorities would not have decided to publish a White Paper at all even now. Throughout the past four and a quarter years the pattern has been almost invariably the same. A Press report has been followed by a reluctant and often tendentious admission in the House or at the Foreign Office. Official statements were made which are now seen to have -been misleading. No doubt the spokesmen themselves were put up without the proper infor~ation which is usual on foreign affairs. Even so, it is hard to square the suggestion a year ago that PETRov's evidence was simply based on hearsay, and was " to be treated with some reserve," with the White Paper's admission that PETROVhas " provided confirmation " of parts of the story. An even stronger discrepancy exists between the White Paper's evidence that MACLEAN was being watched on suspicion of passing information and LORD READING'S statement to the Lords on October 28, 1952. " Mr. Maclean," said LoRD READING,"performed his official duties satisfactorily up to the date of his disappearance_." The White Paper defends what it coyly calls th "reticence of Ministerial on the grounds that it is no desirable at any moment to let the othe side know how much has been discovered or guess at the means used to discover it. An excellent principle, but how does it apply in this case ? The Foreign Office needed no elaborate means to " discover " that it had asked BURGESSto resign or that it was closely watching MACLEAN;and the Russian5 already knew-otherwise they would not have helped the two men to escape. The net result of " reticence " was the opposite of that intended. Instead of becoming bored -with the affair, the public scented a mystery and wondered uneasily how much was being hidden. The White Paper does little to remove doubts about the security authorities' handling of the matter. It says that, once suspicions fastened on MACLEAN, they took a calculated risk that he became aware of their watch and made tracks for abroad. Events showed that ==~-~-~-~-~=-~-~-~= ~--1 19::6 �information over to the Soviet authorities. For some unaccountable reason these facts were not •made known until now. For the rest, the Paper does little more than confirm a good part of the information already known through the Press, and especially through the disclosures by MR. PETROVin Australia. There is very little doubt that, but for the knowledge that MR. PETROV was going to make his evidence public, the Foreign Office and the security authorities would not have decided to publish a White Paper at all even now. Throughout the past four and a quarter years the pattern has been almost invariably the same. A Press report has been followed by a reluctant and often tendentious admission in the House or at the Foreign Office. Official statements were made which are now seen to have -been misleading. No doubt the spokesmen themselves were put up without the proper infon1jlation which is usual on foreign affairs. Even so, it is bard to square the suggestion a year ago that PETRov's evidence was simply based on hearsay, and was "to be treated with some reserve," with the White Paper's admission that PETROVhas "provided confirmation " of parts of the story. An even stronger discrepancy exists between the White Paper's evidence that MACLEAN was being watched on suspicion of passing information and LORD READING'S statement to the Lords on October 28, 1952. "Mr. Maclean," said LoRD READING,"performed his official duties satisfactorily up to the date of his disappearance." The White Paper defends what it coyly calls th " reticence of Ministerial replies ' on the grounds that it is no desirable at any moment to let the othe side know how much has been discovered or guess at the means used to discover it. An excellent principle, but how does it apply in this case ? The Foreign Office needed no elaborate means to " discover" that it had asked BURGESSto resign or that it was closely watching MACLEAN ; and the Russian~ already knew-otherwise they would not have helped the two men to escape. The net result of " reticence " was the opposite of that intended. Instead of becoming bored -with the affair, the public scented a mystery and wondered uneasily how much was being hidden. The White Paper does little to remove doubts about the security authorities' handling of the matter. It says that, once suspicions fastened on MACLEAN, they took a calculated risk that be became aware of their watch and made tracks for abroad. Events shO\,yedthat they calculated wrongly ; he din escape. But it is more extraordinary to read that, although gravely suspecting him, they decided not to keep a watch on his home in Kent. More extraordinary still, on the very day that authority was given to question him, he was allowed to go from London (where he was watched) on leave to Kent (where he was not watched). And, according to the White Paper, his flight that same evening, May 25, "did not become known to the authorities until the morning of Monday, May 28." They had cut themselves off from all means of knowing. Another point, less serious but no less bewildering, is that the White Paper says that the two men left the country " when the securify authorities were on their track." Was BURGESS, then, also being watched ? There is nothing else in the White Paper to suggest it. The evidence produced fa simply that he had been asked to resign after the Ambassador in Washington had reported on his personal behaviour. The authoriti~s cannot have it both ways. If there was suspicion of espionage in his case the evidence should be in the White Paper. If the authorities had no such suspicions, they evidently had been caught napping. The mystery is deepened by the Foreign Office statement last weekend that it was now believed that both men were "long-term agents " for the Soviet Union. PETROV has said so, and his testimony is accepted, but on British evidence the part of BURGESShas not been brought to light. Equally unsatisfactory is the way in which the White Paper deals with the manner in which the two men were kept for so long in the Foreign Service. All questions of spying apart, their personal behaviour at times should have raised far stronger and earlier questionings about their suitability for responsible work. Stories of their riotous bouts were common talk in London. Were they th'e men to be trusted with State secrets ~ Did the authorities go on to ask what was the �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur /'acces /'information a I anche s ter Guardian, 24th September 6 of character, but he seemed to be overcoming them. What we do not get from the White Paper is any hint of the evidence on which the security inquiry was based. It was investigating a leakage that took place " some years " before 1949; this might have been only - casual MATTRESSES • indiscretion. Clearly security had not the remotest idea that in AND the archives of Moscow was a whole Maclean-Burgess sub-departDIVANS ment under the busy Kislytsin. On the general question of the treachery of Maclean and Burgess there is not are made unhurriedly much new to say. That they had Communist leanings at Cambridge in but also take their time the early thirties means little. Those abottl wearing out were the days of the Popular Front, of Spain, of the Left Book Club. Com/,i rpite of thir they cort. munism was an epidemic disease and mrprmngly little more. with most of its sufferers-and from all appearances with Maclean and Burgess-it quickly passed. We shall never know why, like Alger Hiss, »»«« these two men developed the strange kink that led them in the .late forties to feed documents to the Russians. We do not, for instance, know when this Makers of Bedding for particularpeople. spying is supposed to have begun ; we Manchester4• shall probably find that it was during the war when the Grand Alliance was in being and everybody was prepared to think so well of our Eastern ally. AN This is not a case of a generation GUARDI being on trial, but of two clever but rather unbalanced persons going MANCHESTER SATURDAY wrong. The ne·w security checks adopted by the Foreign Office in 1951 SEPTEMBER 24 1955 are all very well in their way, but if; a really cl~ver man wants to be a spy I I a check on his antecedents and assoTHE SPIES ciates is not necessarily a sure means The Government's White Paper. on of discovery. (What, for instance. of the disappearance of Maclean and Burgess, who played about with the Burgess does not really add much to Anglo-German Club?) No doubt the story as the diligence of the news- there is much to be said in censure of papers have built it up over the last the rather wild life in which Burgess four years. In the story of the flight and Maclean sometimes indulged. It the unsolved problem that remains is : should be a warning to others in the Who "tipped" them off or, as the Foreign Service. But we must Government puts it, " alerted them " ? remember too that Alger Hiss was Did they just sense that the security impeccably well-conducted. There is service was on their track or did no clear moral to be drawn except someone tell them ? Burgess had that the Foreign Office must look to its standards of already been asked to resign (the date anxiously of this is not given).. Maclean was efficiency, conduct, and alertness It about to be closely iQvestigated and will take it a long .time to recover his house searched. On May 25 the from the effects of this terrible expothen Foreign Secretary, Mr Herbert sure, and the Government will do Morrison, sanctioned a proposal that well not to ride off in any the security authorities should ques- complacency. tion Maclean. On the evening of that day Maclean and Burgess fled the country. Who, if anybody, warned him? The White Paper says on this that· after searching interrogations " insufficient evidence was obtainable to form a definite conclusion or t0 warrant prosecution." But has the Foreign Office no suspicions ? And have there been any staff changes in the Foreign Office to make assurance doubly sure? Has anyone been got off on suspicion ? The other point on which there has been criticism, largely in America, is that it should not haVE' been possible for Maclean and Burgess to get away so easily. The White Paper. with America in mind, says rather caustically : THE !------~-~--~-~---- In some countries. no doubt. Maclean would have been arrested first and oues: tioned afterwards. In this countrv no arrest can be made without adeouate evidence. True enough, but it is also evident that the watch on Maclean was not very close. It was confi:I}edto London. Once out of London, he could do as he pleased, even to getting out of the country. The security authorities ,vere not acting with any urgency for they were going to delay the proposed interview with Maclean until mid-June-three weeks after the decision to interrogate him was taken This was putting touching trust in the inadequacy of the Foreign Office grapevine. The impression mo t people will t the White Paper is 0 9 5,,. �--~THE SPIES a cneck on ffiscm1t~ fflr tfss~eess to Information Act ciates is nBt>C:tf~s~lfl{~6£'StweUtffi!'/in~ sur/'accesa /'information The Government's White Paper. on of discovery. (What, for instance, of the disappearance of Maclean and Burgess, who played about with the Burgess does not really add much to Anglo-German Club?) No doubt the story as the diligence of the newsthere is much to be said in censure of papers have built it up over the last the rather wild life in which Burgess four years. In the story of the flight and Maclean sometimes indulged. It the unsolved problem that remains is : should be a warning to others in the Who "tipped" them off or, as the Foreign Service. But we must Government puts it, "alerted them" ? remember too that Alger Hiss was Did they just sense that the security impeccably well-conducted. There is service was on their track or did no clear moral to be drawn except someone tell them ? Burgess had that the Foreign Office must look already been asked to resign (the date anxiously to its standards of of this is not given). Maclean was efficiency, conduct, and alertness It about to be closely iivestigated and will take it a long .time to recover his house searched. On May 25 the from the effects of this terrible expothen Foreign Secretary, Mr Herbert sure, and the Government will do Morrison, sanctioned a proposal that well not to ride off in any the security authorities should ques- complacency. tion Maclean. On the evening of that day Maclean and Burgess fled the 1....-~----~--~ ---~-country. Who, if anybody, warned him? The White Paper says on this that· after searching interrogations "insufficient evidence was obtainable to form a definite conclusion or tC> warrant prosecution." But has the Foreign Office no suspicions ? And have there been any staff changes in the Foreign Office to make assurance doubly sure? Has anyone been got off on suspicion ? The other point on which there has been criticism, largely in America, is that it should not havt> been possible for Maclean and Burgess to get away so easily. The White Paper. with America in mind, says rather caustically : In some countries. no doubt. Maclean would have been arrested first and oues: tioned afterwards. In this countrv no arrest can be made without adeouate evidence. 1 True enough, but it is also evident that the watch on Maclean was not very close. It was confined to London. Once out of London, he could do as he pleased, even to getting out of the country. The security authorities ·were not acting with any urgency for they were going to delay the proposed interview· with Maclean until mid-June-three weeks after the decision to interrogate him was taken This was putting touching trust in the inadequacy of the Foreign Office grapevine. 1 The impression most people will form on stuqying the White Paper is that the security auth'orities did not take a very .serious view of either Burgess or Maclean. They were perhaps right prima facie about Burgess, an unreliable type who had not apparently been in any closely confidential relation. (Although that is not to say that he might not have gone to great lengths to steal documents from the British Embassy at Washington when he was there.) They were not. it would seem, moved by any great sense of urgency about Maclean. There is a curious phrase in the account of Maclean. He began as an officer of "exceptional quality" ; he misbehaved and had a breakdown in Cairo. When he came back, pronounced as medically fit, he was made head of the American Department of the Foreign Office. This, says the White Paper, "since it does not deal with the major problems of AngloAmerican relations, appeared to be within his capacity." Here was an able person given a responsible position in the Foreign Office. Yet it is now pretended that it was not a really important position, and was therefore "within his capacity." There is something of hindsight in this apologia. Some hindsight also comes into the account of Mrs Maclean in Switzerland. Would it not be fairly true to say that British security was deceived? It thought that Mrs Maclean could not be sympathetic towards a husband who had not treated her over well ; ;nd besides, she was an Ameriean. At any rate, there was no watch on her. Call it "old school tie'' or what you will, there was great reluctance to believe the worst of these two. For this most people who look at the evidence calmly will not be disposed to be highly censorious of the Foreign Office. It was natural enough th-flt his colleagues should be loth to suspect one of themselves, a man of great personal attraction, bearing an honoured name. He had his defects �.. -~ ' - ,,~ .••,- .•J.I Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a /'information DEPARTMENT OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS, CANADA . ' ,,,,,,......._ NUMBERED LETTER ~-\ TO: THEUNDER-SECRETARY OF STATEFOR EXTERNAL AFFAIRS, OTTAWA, CANADA. Security: ............. No:.... e • • Subject: ..... ••••• e e • e e • ~ •• e •• e e e I e ■ ■ eee ■ e■ ■■ ■ e ■■■ ■ • ■ e ■■ I ■ .Bu.rg.ass.. ano. Y.iaGl.ean.................... & ■ I • . ~ ............. -.. :: . . . k-:~..., Air or Surface Mail: .. .-.h±r. .. Post File No:,.,,,, ............... ·········-··································~•1••···············Ottawa File No, .......................................... .................... . JS'OJ&d~ o ••••••• .i:l~h.?.'lP:t. ~lll.1/ !'I: , • .:1. 9.55 •. F.nclosures:. , . , :. &f erence: • ........... l.??.t._J .............,.......... Date,...... u ,,.; .... 4.7J .J. References -·-•---d 23 SEP t955 ' l 1 Internal Circulation As you will h~ve seen from the press, the - publication-in the last is~ue of the London Sunday paper "The People" of an article by Vladimir Pe'trov, giving 11.':th.e -complete solution to ,the mystery of the missing-British_diplomats" has created quite a stir here, and has evoked some rather harsh comment on the part played by the Foreign Office in this whole affair. A copy of the Pet;rov article which states that Burgess and Maclean were recruited separately at Cambridge twenty years ago, had supplied Russian agents with Foreign Office documents in volume, and had disappeared when they realized that they were under investigation here, is attached. 2© None of this information had been divulged ih answers to farliamentary questions made periodically over the last year. With the publication of the Petrov· article here and in Sydney, however, the Foreign Office has confirmed that the story ;Ls largely correct_and has to-day announced that a White Paper will be published within- the next few days. Not unnaturally, questions are being raised as to the reasons why the Foreign Office should have delayed so long in reporting on the case, in, view of the fact that any information available from Petrov should have been in official hands some time ago. In a brief editorial yesterday, The Times merely said that "the Government can no longer withhold what they know. - They will be expected to give a full statement, both of present information.and past error, as soon as Parliament meets, together with an explanation of :bheir disingenuous reticence for so long". 3. The Guardian went·even further, and under a leader headed 11-The Wrong Way" asked: _11:why has it taken a newspaper article to drag this out of the Foreign Office? ... Did the British or·Australian authorities get out of the Russian what purportedly he now reveals in a news paper? If they did why did they no·t publish 1 t? What additional information does the Foreign Office-now have? •... There has been ·enough hocus pocus about these two men; , a little plairi honesty would now be refreshing._ But it is the Foreign Se~retary 1 s business to do the talking. He at least must see that his depamtment is now exhibited to the world in a very poor light. The blow to its prestig.e is enormous." Distrihu tion to Posts 000132 .. Ex~. 182A <Rev, 2/52) . �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a /'information ,-, 955SEP22 ''f.lNli i'.'• 1 ia ~ \' .. . -.J: .< ·. ,... y. T ., - . ,... n , ... ( . T r r r ,.. ' ....., .. ,.., • ... ") 000133 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur /'acces a /'information - 2 - 4., So much for the "responsible" press. The Daily Mirror has chosen to make everything it can out of the story, which occupies a good portion of to-day's issue. ~xtracts are attached. c·c;J. ~-~ / ~ C.ANADAHOUSE. 000134 �----Docume;t disc/o;~d und~r the Acce~s to information A~t • • Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loisur /'occes a /'information ,. Sunday SEPTEMBER18 1955 THE PEOPLE --------------0 VER 4,500,000 No. 3850 74th Year 2½D• NE 'I' SALE--------------' TopRussian agent reveals:Burgessand Macleanbeggedfor refuge eToday 'The People' lays before the world the complete solution to the mystery of the missing British diplomats who disappeared into the unknown four years ago. The answer to the most baffling riddle of our times comes from inside the MVD, Russia's secret service network - from Vladimir Petrov, the top Soviet agent who has broken wfth Moscow and found refuge in Australia. • As head of the Soviet spy ring in the Australian capital, Canberra, he came into possession of all the incredible details of the conspiracy organised in Moscow to spirit away Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess. Last week the Australian Royal Commission's report 011 Soviet spying in the Commonwealth was published. It ·was based almost exclusively on Petrov's revelations and those of his wife Evdokia. The report was not concerned with the case of the missing diplomats. Neither Petrov nor his wife gave public evidence on the fate of Burgess and Maclean. Only now is their dramatic testimony disclosed-for exclusive publication in Britain through " The People." • In the most fantastic spy document ever compiled Vladimir Petrov today reveals thatBurgess and J\laclean wrre~ recruited as spies 20 YEARS AGO; They supplied J\loscow with secret documents of the British Foreign Office ON A SCALE HITHERTO UNSUSPECTED; When British Intelligence • On the left: Guy Burgess; on the right: Donald l\Iaclean. They are traitors who gave vital information to the Russians, says Petrov. '.Both joined usasspies -when theywere stillstudents' explode 1s the fiction that Burgess and Maclean only crossed the Iron Curtain because they were disillusioI1ed with life in " capitalist ·• Britain and yearned for the Russian Utopia. In tact, the reason for their ...----. INTO ff,fght was simple and urgent000135 they discovered that they were ..._ __ _. under investigation by the 1 �Only now is their dramatic testimony disclosed-for exclusive publication in Britain through " The People." • In the most fantastic spy document ever compiled Vladimir Petrov toda:, reveals thatBargess and Maclean WP.re recruited as spies 20 YEARS AGO; They supplied Moscow with secret documents of the Bi-itish Foreign Office ON A SCALE HITHERTO UNSUSPECTED; When British Intelligence agents began to investigate t h e i r activities 'Bothjoined usas theywere stillstudents' spredS''.Wfiif'''J;"/"'m"U"" explode is the fiction that Burgess and Maclean only crossed the Iron Curtain because they were disillusioned with life in " capitalist " Britain and yearned for the Russian Utopia. In fact, the reason for their fiight was simple and urgentthey discovered that they were under investigation by the British security services. And they pleaded for asylum. - THE DATE WAS SEPTEMBER 17, 1953. INTO MY OFFICE AT CANBERRA BURST SECRET THEY BEGGED FOR AGENT KISLYTSIN, ONE OF THE BEST REFUGE IN MOSCOW. OPERATORS IN THE AUSTRALIAN BRANCH OF THE MVD, OF WHICH I WAS CHIEF. "It's come off at last, just as we planned it," he shouted, waving a newspaper. Ardent Reds He showed me the huge front page headlines. They reported the disappearance from Switzerland of Mrs. Melinda Maclean and her three children. She had gone, so the newspaper guessed, to join her husband, Donald Maclean, behind the Iron Curtain. No wonder Klslytsln was exultant. This was the final coup in the most daring spy operation ln history-the spiriting away of two highranking officials of the British Foreign Office, Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess. Leading part It was a triumph for the en- tire world-wide spy network run from the Kremlin. Dozens of the most cunning agents of the secret service had taken part ln it. And Kislytsin himself had played a leading role in it when he was an MVD officer in London and later in Moscow. It was through him. Indeed, that l was able to discover the truth about a mystery that has kept the world guessing for four years. Even though I was head or an Important MVD branch and held the high rank of'11eutenant• colonel in the service, I should never have been let into t.he Burgess and Maclean secrets. As m other secret services. no one group of the MVD 1s allowed to know anything beyond its own special sphere of duty. So I had no right to question Kis• lytsin about his work tn the Burgess and Maclean affair. But nu sooner did he hear that Mrs. Maclean had disappeared than he sought to u;et in touch with the MVD men in Moscow with whom he had planned her secret journey By VLADIMIR PETROV I , before he joined me in Australia. And to secure permission to send coded cables to Moscow he had to explain to me, his chief, all about his work m the missing diplomats operation. I gave him permission. My wife Evdokia was our cypher clerk. She coded the cabled messages he sent and the replies he received. As a result I learned almost every startling detail of the Burgess and Maclean story, From the secret cabled messages and from Kislytsin himself I was able to build up an astonishing picture of the gigantic coup. And now 1 can lay before the world the full solution to the mystery of the missing diplomats. f'1rst or all, let me destroy some of the myths that have gathered round this case. It ts not yet fully """epted, outside the Iron Curtain, that Burgess and Maclean were traitors to their (,OUntry and gavp secret information to Moscow passed over to Russia any secrets of first-class importance. In fact, both tnese men were long-term Soviet agents. They were recruited for intelligence iwrk while they were still students at Cambridge 20 years ago. And the final myth that The story or the missing diplomats begins at Cambridge University, where these two young men, quite independently. became· interested in left wing politics. Their interest was noted by the British branch of the Soviet spy organisation working from the Russian embassy as " diplomats "-as we did in Australia. Before very long both men were heart and soul on the Communist side in the worldwide battle of ideas. Skilful work by British contacts, acting for our spy network in London, soon convinced them that it was their duty to Continued on Page 5 r can ~=!!!!!!!========================~ Soviet spies I can now disclose that beyond all doubt these t1Go men regular/" supplied the r ·emlin with all the information they could lay their hands on as trusted servants of the Foreiqn Of!ice. Certain public men !n Britain have consoled themselves with the idea that the two diplomats were Soviet spies for only a short time and could not have New Oxydol washes whiter thanBleach! Yes I New Oxydol has an entirely new Oxygen formula, wi1hfar greater whitening powers than bleach itself I So New Oxydol now boils whites whiter than fOU can bleach them I Try it! OXYDOL'S • NEW OXYGEN FORMULA AI.L THE DIFFERENCE MAKES • Dl>UT QV.l.LITT l'SODVO'I 000136 �Document Document di The People, 18th September, 1955 I I r, 000137 �• 'Burgess toldeverything' do anything that would give aid and comfo1t to Communism. Tl1ey were then, even if they did not know it themselves, already members of the Russian intelligence service. Indeed, the most astonishing fact about the whole t'Xtraordinary affair is that the two men, though they became close friends after their Cambridge days, did not know of each other's spying activities. It was not until they were a\_most ready for their flight to Moscow that they learned they were both linked in highly secret MVD y;ork. SpieJ already The scale of their activities can be gathered from what Kislytsin told me of the three years in which he was in close touch with them. " I was posted to our Embassy In London in 1945,"he informed me. "My job was that of cypher clerk to the MVD. I personally handled all the material that Burgess supplied. "I received brief-cases full o! Foreign Office documents. They were photographed at the Embassy and quickly returned to Bm·2es1L ThP. nhotographs were VLADIMIR PETROV'S SECRETS Continued frompage1 sent by courier in the diplomatic bag to Moscow. •· But there were many times when urgent information from the documents had to reach Moscow quickly. In those cases I used to transcribe the information into code and cable it. direct to headquarters." It was tvplcal of the way the MVD worked that. while he was In London, Kislytsin never saw either Burgess or Maclean. But he knew the Soviet official who was in regular contact with Burgess. . " He used to come back to the I,;mbassy, after his meetings with Burgess, with his clothes spattered with mud," Klslyt.-,in told me, " I gathered that their rendezvous was out in the country." In 1948 Kislytsin was recalled to Moscow. He spent a year on an intelligence training course in which he specialised in English. Then he was appointed to the Directorate of the Committee o! Information, a body that controls the sifting of intelligence brouglit in by the secret service. He was put in charge o! the special section o! an amazing library of foreign intelligence called the Top Secret Archives. By a remarkable coincidence, this section turned out to be a collection of the material supplied by Burgess and Maclean. MVD crisis It was crammed full of secret documents of the British Foreign Office. There was so much of it that a grea&deal had not even been trll.W!lated and distributed to th~inistrles interested. Kislyts· had his work cut out even to ort it. • When he had one so, he was frequently called upon to show particular files of documents to high-ranking officials of various soviet Ministries. Steadily the documents poured in for another two years. But 1n 1951 came a. crisis in MVD headquarters. Urgent messages were received from London that Burgess and Maclean had reported t,o their Soviet contact that thev were under investigation by •British Intelligence. They b«:gged for refuge in Moscow. NEXT W E E K : Vladimir Petrov re,•eals how the escape was carried out. And he 1ive1 a close-up picture of how Bur1ess and Maclean live and work in Moscow today. �~ Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act .Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur /'acces /'information ,,. DAILY MIRR.OR, Tuc•day, Sei,tembe~ ZO, l!>'i'i tinued) a t, PAOH j I �Document disclosed under the Access to n ormotion Act Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loisur /'acces a /'information ' CROSSMAN SAY·S· Whyhasthetruthbeen hidden solong? lj R. HAROLD MACMILLAN acti,·ilies ol t\\o young mt>n 11hu ll 11e11tto the right schools and bears no blame whatkne,, far too mauv of the rii:ht soever ror the Burgess11eo11lc. Maclean scandal. Anthony Eden and Ernest Bevin were :\1oscow Conrerence lletw~e11 in charge at the Foreign 'I"HE Adenauer and the Soviet leader~ Office during most or the was it grave setback tor AngloAmerican diplomacy: u;e /zave period Burgess and Maclean bee11neatly outmanoeuvred. c. KlleW fa, Luo 1/l(lll]I of the • worked there as R u s s I a n Before he went to· Moscow, Dr. • rtaht neonle 7 Adenauer solemnly assured spies. Etsenllower that he national l1ero, Dr. Adenaurr But it Is Mr. Macmlllan who ts Presid,mt would onlv agree 10 an exchange chose the .atter. Foreign Secretary today, and or amlJa,.sadoi·s with the Russians provided that they made a real What ht> obtawed m .\lo.-sco•\'was rP.sponsible for the outrageous a ~ery good bargain - for the conces~ion to the Western olan performance last Sunday fa: Grrman reunification. Germans. At Moscow he went back on the rhev get the tir;;t oatch at tlleJ.r afternoon. 1l * assurance. prJsoners IJack , and 1n addition Having taken evasive action for four But before we condemn Dr. Lhcv as'ert their com pl et e years, the Foreign Office wails Adenauer it 1s as 'l\'ell to remem• equality wilh France Britain ber that he is not an American until Petrov, the renegade Rusand America by rstabli~hing but a German, whose prime dutv sian spy, sells his story to a direct d1plomat.ir rrlalinnF with is to his own country Russia Sunday newspaper, Including a As soon as he told the Rt:ss:ans series of sensational disclosures that a united Gerniauy u,ust oe Doe.-; this mean that we must 11nc1cipate another German. free to join NA'l o. Kruschev about our two lost diplomats. R11ssian gct-t.ogetller like the rudelv renEed that no one but an 1'hen, in answer to a long questionHitlrr-Stalin pact :n 19:l!l? idiot would permit this naire, a Foreign Office spokesman From that momrnt it was clear Cert.ainly not in t 11e immediate lut.Ulf> that 1f 01. Adenauer stuck lo curtly conhrms most of Petrov's the line he had agreed with statements Eisenhower, the Russians 'l\'0uld Presumably, I! Petrov had not be clelighLed to let. him break off blabbed. Lile truth would still be the conference and go bark to Eren when Adrnauer dies, his suppressed. Bonn emptv-handecl ;;u.:cessor ls likely tc, remain I cannot believe that .Mr. Macmillan 'Then. on he third dav. after a stau11rllly anti-Comm11111:-t. and knew his Department intended to nicely calculated loss al Russian will want to keep !Jis country li treat Parliament and the British temper. came 811lgan111·sf'Otrnter part of t.!le Western world, unless people in this arrogant. off-hand otrer. we; make it too difficult fnr him way He p'.edged his personal word that, But after Moscow one tllinil: should if Dr. Aclenauer would agree lo I am confirmect In this belie! by clear The German~ have the exchange of amba!>-sadors, br the fact that yesterday the thei1 own aims - which are not nine thousand German " 1.1:ar our~ Foreign Office suddenly changed criminal:,; " would be released its nonchalant tune. from the Soviet Union and sent So the tight~r we tie the Bonn After one look at Monday mornG•ivernment to the Wc•st, the home. mg s rndignant Press, the Foreign mor1> it Will be tempted by No German politician could Secretary announced that a Russian offers and tl1e lel-5 It will say no ! The rountless ~oldier11 While Paper is being prepared bf" inclined to b on our Its 111!0 ha,e not rett1rned frem r01 issue In four or five days· obhgutions to us Russia are a burninc i ur in time el'cr.r German heart. That is an improvement. But the That Is why I b!'!ieve that we Whi• P Paper must be eompletely slvmld aim at a united Germany rrank which is neither an ally or the We.st against the East nor of the Othrrwisc ~Ir. JUacmillan "'ill <iACED IYith the choice o! keepEast against the West. but a n.,t dispel the impression that ing strictly to the Amrnc.-an member of a genuine European the, t' has been a deliberate line or being hailed as a collective sccuritJJ s11stem. attem11t to cover up the criminal * I II l * ByRICHARD CROSSMAN, • er's Announcement �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divu/gue en vertu de la Loi sur /'acces /'information a •" ,Dai 1yisf Whatare-th~ F~reignOfficeup to7 . Mirror • Whyhave.they concealedthe ·factsf~omthe 20 • 20 !.o~~!Ro • w11H THEPEOPLE publicaboutthetraitorsBurgess and·Maclean? l IIIIIl IIIIIIIIIll l IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIll Ill Ill Ill Ill Ill Ill IIlll Ill Ill Ill Ill Ill lll Ill llllll lll lll lll lll Ill Ill llllllllllll Ill~ Thepaper wit/, the . I TOP -STAR TEAM I * * * * CASSANDRA THE British public have been treated in a • •shabby manner by the British Foreign Office. Officials of that particular depart'ment of the Government have always regarded themselves as far above the level of the intelligence of ordinary people. But ordinary people now know that the behaviour of the Foreign Office over the traitors Burgess and Maclean is an example of monstrous stupidity. . Donald Maclean was allowed to continue working in the Foreign Office AFTER he was suspected of spying _,,----,,--~------=--..,..,,.---=,---for Russia. That is stupid. enough. E) Even more stupid is the Foreign Office attempt to conceal their stupidity from the people who pay their wages-YOU-until the facts ) ••/¥!·ere revealed by a Russian :; renegade. • IS THIS GOOD ENOUGH ? 0 -- ......-=--__,.,.--= ........,,... ...... 1, i ,, ' The British Foreign Office-crammed with •••intellectuals, the Old School Tie brigade, long-haired experts and the people-whoknow-the-best-people-have taken a mighty drop in the estimation of the very ordinary men and women of Britain who are armed • with just a little bit of commonsense and caution~ The world's most famous column- § ist is back from a holiday visit to the ~ world's funniest man. See Pages 10 ~ and 11. § * * * * RICHARD CROSSMA I = • The liveliest mind in British poli- ~ tics today joins the" Mirror" team. ~ He writes a b o u t the Burgess- § Maclean scandal on Page 4. ~ Richard Crossman wri'fes about this Foreign Office scandal on Page Four. William Greig reports the latest facts on Page Two. II111111111111111 Ill IIIIIIIIIIIIIIl Ill Ill III IIIIIIIll IIIIIIlIIIll Ill IIIIIIIIIII~ 000141 �.. ,, ------- ------ --- --- --- - Document disclosed under the Access to Information Documen~r!-. IBfl,i?-,e. n lf?rtu de lo Lo.i sur_/'occes.a (infprflilotion : -~r·1 1. ; .:J ILIJ1JL;=i •. -·1· [1 • L::;:;J~ Damly Mirror, --- Act • , \ l r !~· j I [ido ·u)1\1 .{ f t'A r;·:il .. I ,.,,.~b!Ji 20th September:, . 1955. ... • 000142 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur l'acces /'information a SECRET September 19, 1955 BS.Ii!'{ L -.a~ • ~l?soiv I am attaching .for your information a memorandum, dated September 19, 1955, on the subject of Petrov 1 s statements on Burgess and MacLean. You may have already seen the news item in the press this morning. The A.P. p1"'ess report in the Gazette is substantially the same information as that contained 1 s memorandum. in Earnscliffe 2. Mr. Hunt who le.ft this memorandum with requested that if you had the opportunity., it might be useful to read the memorandum before the _ dinner this evening...,..;.......c.u S....:.... ,t.,...~ 2,/-,.JJ ..._......, __,._;.t. Ii, l\1r" Crean ~ ,.- 1.,1,.-• 3. inform.ation I You will recall similar to this -/ that Mr. Crean gave you orally on his return .from '"~'1i}@~oni 19-7- "¼-f I f- f. JI (:,s) 000143 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de fa Loi sur l'acces a /'information CONFIDENTIAL 11/LR.PETROV' S STATEMENTS REGARDING BURGESS AND I'fu\.OLEAN It is understood that Petrov, the aussian· cypher clerk who appeared before the Australian Royal Oommission on Espionage, has now published his • book which is also being serialized by the Sydney "Morning Herald" • . Petrov deals in some detail with-the story of Burgess and MacLean. His main points are: ... 2. (a) BUrgess and MacLean were·long-term agents. Soviet (b} At the time of their flight they were under by the British security investigation authorities. (c) They discovered that an investigation was taking place and reported to their Soviet contact who arranged their flight. (d) The flight Moscow. was planned and directed from (e) Since their flight they have worked for the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Anglo.American matters. (f) Before his flight MaoLean may have told his . • wife of his true destination. (g) At a later stage :Mrs. MacLean fully participated in the escape plan~ 3. The United Kingdom authorities.are not volunteering any statement on Petrov' s story. If questions are put on the foregoing specific points (but only if they are put) the Foreign Office will reply ·as given below. The answers to the points 4. in paragraph 2 above are:(a) We believe this to be true. (b) It is true that MacLean was under aetive investigation by the security authorities. BUrgess's suitability for continued foreign service employment was under investigation, /and 000144 �Document disclosed under the A~cess to Information Act Document divulgu,e en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a /'information and he had already been withdrawn from Washington. There was insufficient evidence to warrant MacLean's arrest, nor were there powers to prevent either man leaving the country. (c) and (d) We believe to be correct. (e) This may be correct, evidence. but we have no direct (f) We have no information to confirm. this view. (g) We presume this to mean the plan for Mrs. MacLean's own escape with her children from Geneva in September 1953. We cannot say to what extent Mrs. MacLean may have been a free agent or what pressure may have been put upon her when she disappeared from Geneva. 5. The United Kingdom High Conn:n.issioner's Office in Ottawa will not volunteer any comment on Petrov's statements but if questioned it is authorised to reply as in paragraph 4 above. No other questions will be answered without reference to London. Similar guidance has been sent to all United Kingdom diplomatic posts abroad and also to certain Consular posts. Office of the High Commissioner for the United Kingdom, Earnscliffe, Ottawa. 000145 �.. Document disclosed under the Access to In ormotion Act Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'acces a /'information MONTREAL GAZETTE September 19, 1955 Pair of Spies Knew Game Was tJp ❖------------~-------------------' carried an article today by Vla- neither knew of the other's spy London May 25, 1951. They were traced across the channel to France but no farther. Two years later, Maclean's wife Melinda slipped out of Switzerland with their three children and presumably went behind the Iron Curtain to join him. Asked whether the Government believes Burgess and Maclean are in Moscow, the Foreign Office spokesman said: "They may be but we have no direct evidence." Petrov, who deserted to the West last year, said in his artide that the Communists recruited Bur.ii;ess and Maclean 20 yf"ars ago while they were students at Cambridge but that er scale than had hitherto been suspected. There -have been unofficial suggestions that Maclean, a member or the committee which controlled wartime exchanges between the Western Allies on the development of the atomic bomb, might have taken valuable secrets to Russia. But official quarters here said Maclean had no technical ~nowledge of atomic developments. Giving the background on the '.night of the two diplomats Petrov said that Maclean, now 42, and Burgess, 44, appeale,d to the Ru~sians fo,: asylum af• ter diseovering they were being investigated by British securit)'! agents. ,. Petrov, former top So- work until a few weeks before Maclean, BurgessBothWere dimir viet agent in Australia. their departure. Donald Stuart Maclean, then He said they supplied Moscow 38, and Guy Francis de Money with secret British Foreign OfUnder ForeignOffice Eye Burgess, 40, disappeared from fice documents on a much greatLondon, Sept. 18-(JP)-The Foreign Office said today diplomats Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess were botl;l under investigation before they fled behind the Iron Curtain four years ago '"but we had no powers to stop them leaving the country." An official spokesmlin said the Foreign Office now believes the two were longtime Soviet spies. He said Maclean, a former •:~--------------head of the Foreign Office's American department, w a s rest. Nor were there powers to stop either of them leaving the J,Ulder active investigation at country." the time he skipped the counThe spokesman s'aid further try with Burgess. that the Foreign Office believed He said Burgess was under the two spies discovered they !nvestikation "as to his suitabwere under investigation and ility for continued foreign servreported to their Soviet control ice'~ and had already been withboss, who arranged for them drawn from a post in Britain"s to flee the country. Washington Embassy. The s .p o k e s m a n added: The Foreign Officf' madf' ''There was insufficient evidthesP disclosurf'~ after a Lonen e to warrant Maclean·s ar- don Sunday paper, The People, 000146 �Document disclosed under the Access to In ormotion Act ~ROUTINv SLIP TO:·• l"fr • :Mr. □ For Signature D For Action [l For Conrnents [l For Approval For Infonnation File and ~ [l Return [l space is not permanent character formally recorded for comments of a which should be in a memorandum) Destroy COMMENTS: (This , __________________ Ext, 252 (Rev. __,!I 11/52) 000147 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur J'accesa /'information . ... Defence L1a1 on (2)/ .. GCrean/mh pt 19, 19SS d • r 1t might be • •• t ~"i~ 1nro Lo on JULESLEGER 000148 �Document disclosed under the Access to lnformotion Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur l'acces a /'information COPY .. CONFIDENTIAL MR. PETROV'S STATEMENTSREGARDING BURGESSAND MACIEAN It is understood that Petrov, the Russian Cypher Clerk who appeared before the Australian Royal Commission on Espionage, has now published his book which is also being serialized by the Sydney "Morning Heraldn. 2. of Burgess Petrov deals and MacLean. in some detail with the story His main points are: (a) Burgess agents. and MacLean were long-term·Soviet (b) At the time investigation authorities. (c) They discovered that an investigation was taking place and reported to their Soviet contact who arranged their flight. (d) The flight Moscow. ( e) Since their flight they have worked for the So,viet Ministry of Foreign Affair's on AngloAmerican matters. (f) Before his flight wife of his true (g) At a later participated of their flight by the British was planned they were under security and directed from MacLean may have told destination. his stage Mrse MacLean fully in the escape plan. 3. The United Kingdom authorities are not volunteering any statement on Petrov 1 s story. If questions are put on the foregoing specif·ic points (but only if they are put) the Foreign Offi~e will reply as given below. 4. The answers to the points in paragraph 2 above are:(a) We believe this to be true.· (b) It is true that MacLean was under active investigation by the security authorities. Burgess 1 s suitability for continued foreign service employment was under investigation, /and· 000149 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a /'information and he had already been withdrawn frozm Washington. • There was insufficient evidence to warrant MacLean's arrest, nor were there powers to prevent either man leaving the country. (c) and (d) We believe to be correct@ (e) This may be correct, evidence. but we have no direct (f} We have no information to confirm this view. (g) We presume this to mean the plan for Mrs. MacLean's own escape with her children from Geneva in September 1953. We cannot say to what extent Mrs. MacLean may have been a free agent or what pressure may have been put upon her when she disappeared from Geneva. 5. . The United Kingdom High Coil.lilllissioner's Office in Ottawa will not volunteer any comment on Petrov•s statements but if questioned it is authorised to reply as in paragraph 4 above. No other questions will be answered without reference to London. Similar guidance has been sent to all United Kingdom diplomatic posts abroad and also to certain Consular posts. 19 September 1955. Office of the High Commissioner for the United Kingdom, Earnscliffe, Ot t a wa • 000150 �•• 'If Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Dot:ument divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a /'information \Office of the High ,Commissioner for the United Kingdom Earnscliffe Ottawa CONFIDENTIAL G.G. Crean. With the Complimentsof J.J.B. Hunt. Copy sent to Mr. McGill. September 20th, 1955. 1 000151 �-.........,--- Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act/ Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes /'information a T,ELEGRAM TO THE HIGH COMJvlISSIONER FOR THE UNITED KINGDOM OTTAWA Copy sent ,,hr·. Lerer; to: J .I • Macdonnell; ~ J Holnes; r. Wershof and ...-1r. Matthews 1. / ✓ j-:-.ropean :>i vision • • • • • • 000152 �- - Document disclosed under the Access to Information Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes Act a/'information DEPARTMENT OF EXTERNALAFFAIRS, CANADA. DESPATCH TO: ~~~E SECRETARY OF STATE_FOR . EXTERNAL AFFAIRS, OTTAWA,CANADA. .... Subject: ... ,J;);i.9?,,:pp.~a.r.&nce .. of .. Mr.s.•.. D.onald. MacLean • I •• I •••••••••••• I •••••••••••• I , I ••• ' I ••• " ••••••• I I Date;, . .<?~~<?P.E:£. +.~ 7 . .~ 9.~ ~-•· ......... . Enclosures: ... -~~- ...... , ..... Air or Surface Mail:, .. , ....... &ference: I ••••••••••••• >{'5:2. ...... 1:'1~~9~V:V., .. P.~ ~-·· ~---~ ~ ......................... . ••••••• I No: ..................................... FROM:... 'J:1ffl:: ..G.f\N!P.l.ll.W. QI;IARG.E. :U! AF.FAIRES .A~I.• , I RESTRICTED Security: .... ••• , -: , ... ----- Air,,., Post File No: ......................... ,. - Ottawa File No, t• I It t. t I I I I I ■ I I I ■ I •• I I ■ t. I I I I I It t I ■ I ■ t I I I It It It I• I I It' I I I I ■ t I -·So ~too - t.1-v tJ~, 2)0 " References As of ;ossible 5 --~--i 6, ~~ interest I attach herewit (\ • a copy of the comment in New Times No. 40 on the disap~ pearance in Switzerland of Mrs. MacLean. New Times denies vigorously that the affair has any "relation whatever to the Soviet Union" and claims that it has been used by the Western press to foster suspicion of the Soviet Union.. So far as I know this is the first time the Soviet ·press has commented on the disappearance of Burgess and MacLean, or Mrs. MacLean. • . .r;J rf7(Jc?'/fJ,,, ~· fi~. id ..,e,;J~ ~ ~ >v ~ tQ,'f\_~~ ;.~ i~~~ Internal Circulation Distribution to Posts London Ext, 180A CRev, 2/52) 000153 '? �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Ac~ Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a /'information 3 9 .. I I ( / r ,• ( . .) 000154 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur /'acces a /'information Article from NEWTI¥1ESNo. 40, 1953 Shades 6f Sherlock Holmes For over two weeks now there has been a clamorous campaign in the British, Swi~s and French bourgeois press around the myst~rious disappearance of Mrs. Melinda V.iacLean and her three children. • . The substance of the story, according to official British statements and press repor.ts, is this:: Mrs. Melinda MacLean, a British subject of American parentage, moved from Britain to Switzerland a year ago with her three children. ·she lived in Geneva with her mother, Mrs. Dunbar. On·September -11, she left Geneva by car with her three children. A few days later Ivirs. Dunbar received a telegram from Lausanne in which her daughter informed her that she and the children were in good health, and .asked that word be sent to the school that the children would be back soon. • There was no further news of Mrs. MacLean and.her children. The police of Switzerland, of every West-European country in fact, instituted a search for her, but according to the British press the inves~igations have proved futile. This has all the makings of a· Conan Doyle st'ory. The incident is by no means a rarity in the capitalist :world. But the present-day Sherlock Holmeses hav~ failed to find any trace of Mrs. MacLe~n. There is nothing new about that either, for over two years ago there was a similar mysterious incident involving .twp Englishmen, Donald MacLean (husband of Mrs. Melinda MacLean) and Guy Burgesse In the closing days of .. May 1951, the British press reported, these two Foreign Office officials left London in the best of spirits for a weekend's amusement in Paris. The nature of that amusement can be judged from the fact that the two officials, _again according to the British press, were known as habitues of Paris cafes and night clubs, and were well versed in the night life of Paris0 And then these "experts on Paris night life'" suddenly vanished into thin air.. The capitalist press and.. radio in Britain and other West-European countries, raised a hue and cry. The Daily Express even offered a generous reward for any information about MacLean and Burgess. There were reports, couched in mysterious terms,of "detailed reports" submitted by agents of the special, branch of Briti·sh military intelligence and Scotland Yard to the Prime Minister, of a "secret conference" at 10 Downing Street, and many.more sensational details connected.with the investigation. Then as now the same papers were compelled, in the end, to admit that there was absolutely no information that could throw light on the mysterious disappearance:;. of MacLean and his friend. In spite of this (and to a certain extent because of this) the capitalist press attempted to make the disappearance of the two Englishmen the pretext for one of its slander campaigns against - the. Soviet Union. Part of the British ·and American press hinted that the two officials had taken • with them "confidential docwnents" and that their flight had· been prompted by "political considerations". And although official British spoke~men, ·._in r~ply to questions from the press, were obliged to· adm:i;~,t~at :,there were no facts to corroborate these fabricat.ions. 'and ·that the disappearance of confidential documents was a: .pure -invention, the foul campaign continued. • • •• • • .000155 �L..__ Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a /'information 'f I, l , ., . '1 000156 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Do_cument divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a /'information • 2 - - Things reached a point when the Daily Express Washington correspondent, Henry Lowrie, sent a telegr·am to Donald MacLean in December 1952, care of••• New Times, Moscow. • "Reported in Washington", Lowrie wir.ed, "you and· Burgess editing New Times. Appreci_ate your cabling reply collect if accurate to London Daily Express".· Needless to say, the telegram caused much amusement in our off;i.ces, where Donald Mac.Lean _and Guy Burgess_ were ,known .only from the sensational stories in the.Western_press. • After the disappearance of Meli-nda -MacLean the _anti-Soviet slanderers again gave rein to their imaginati_on. With the direct encouragement of the British Foreign Office the capitalist press began to advance the most ·fantastic versions, all of them having a very definite purpose. The first "hyp~thesis", disseminated in mid-September by many British, Swiss and French papers, started in a rather roundabout way: Mrs~ MacLean, the press claimed, "might (1) have left Switzerland for the East" and gone to-Vienna. And although these very papers added that there were absolutely no facts, not .even any plausible grounds, to support_ that suggestion, it was used as a basis for further guesswork. The Swiss Die Tat, for example, reported on September 18 that Mrs. MadLean had "possibly ( 1) been kidnapped by the agents of a Communist country". The London Daily Express had .i.ts own version: the Soviet Union had deliberately engineered the disappearance of Mrs. MacLean to foster American distrust of Britain and in this way frustrate Anglo-American cooperation over atomic secrets. • The pat_ently provocative cha;racter of all these "hypotheses" is obvious. Yet on September 21, a British Foreign Office spokesman supported these stupidites, when he said that the disappearance of Mrs. MacLean in Switzerland "suggested it was likely that she had gone to Austria and disappeared there". The spokesman added, Reuter reports, that "it was thought that she had travelled in an easterly directionff. • . . . The campaign around the disappearance of Mrs. MacLea·n has obviously been instigated by ruling circles in the im_ perialist countries and bears all the hallmarks.of the unscrupulous methods which for several ye~rs now the engineers of the cold war have employed to poison/ttt~ernational atmosphere. It is only from this aspect that it holds any interest for the world. public.. It has no other significance> and no relation • ·whatever to the Soviet Union. The foul pens of·the_ capitalist press 1 and intelligence and diplomatic agents are trying to turn _the af:la:i.r into a political event of international importance with the obvious purpose of fostering suspicion_, no matter how absurd, among gullible people_ in Britain, France· and Switzerland and of keeping alive the sordid anti-Soviet campaign. ·.•, .', 000157 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divu/gue en vertu de la Loi sur l'acces a /'information ... ,,,,.., ,, •; ''. ' ·,l (. . -' .. ,, , I l • • , I J• ' '' ' ,r, I ,,,. ,I ·,· j f I .. : f: ,I _;. ~·.-!· •. , •..rJ ,, ! :• \ • ; '-~ ' ' ,I.. ·, • l I ,, •-, ,,: "' -- ' 1,. l 1.'1 000158 .. �... -- Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act D01<JJ_ment divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'acces /'information a DEPARTMENTOF EXTERNALAFFAIRS RjW,TING DATE -P-1:-c ,,; o , ~IP SECURITY C,-1.,-,,(,.......,.L:; CLASS' N [l --•A FROM: ) 0 For Signature 0 For O:mrnents O'Rlease ' Speak 0 For Information and D File O Destroy COMMENTS: e..~l-'1"'~• Pr. Ext. 252 0 For Action 0 For Approval 0 As Requested D Return �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en v rt!! d~1,la Loi sur l'a<[es a /'information PRIVY COUNC OFFICE 1 • ~;-<, tl,,,;,' I-~~.-:.~~ CONFIDENTIAL S6;;_(;o - L/o -V4_1 Memorandum for Mr. G. de T. Glazebrook I find these two articles a sensitive and brilliant analysis of Burgess and Maclean, and I believe they should be given a wide distribution to people who would be likely to understand them. I • The Maclean that I knew in Washington was the man Connolly describes ver.y accurately as "Sir Donald 11 and the alter~ was only occasionally and faintly apparent. I recall one occasion which may add something to Connol~y's analysis of him. My wife and I were to dine with Donald~ and Melinda one night before going on together to th~ annual diplomatic reception at the White House. When we arrived at the Macleans' house they were still dressing upstairs. Consequently we wandered around as one does in the drawing-room looking at things. It was a neat and charming room - the kind one would expect - with interesting books and good pictures, and obviously arranged with good taste and care. After a while Donald called over the stairs and we went up to their bedroom while they finished dressing. The contrast upstairs was quite extraordinary. The bedroom was a dirty shambles - not the normal disarray which can follow dressing in a hurry. 'i'...he bed was unmade and heaps of dirty linen lay about the floor so that we had to step over them in moving about. Even if this was the result of some unusual domestic crisis it seemed very odd that visitors should be casually'invited up to see it. The rest of the evening took the form of a series of delaying actions on Donald's part - long rounds of· cocktails, a late and drawn out dinner, insistence on more coffee - with the result that we did not arrive at the White House until after the President had retired. Donald was delighted at this, and I had a strong impression that he had been deliberately trying to spoil the occasion and prick the rather pompous bubble of a White House ceremony. This might not have been remarkable in many people but seemed at the time so much at odds with Donald's normal diplomatic personality. From what } 9-~~nolly says it would seem that. in Cairo the bedroom l,__::s moved downstairs into the drawing-room. I think that the remark attributed to Maclean in the second article (rWhat would you do if I told you I was·a Communist agent?") is probably very significant. The description of Burgess' activities on May 25 seems to follow a recognisable pattern - particularly the apparent use of the American 11lVIiller 11 to cover the purchase of passages to France, and the use of a cover name in introducing him to Melinda. Connolly suggests that the first duty of a secret agent is to 000160 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur /'acces a /'information - 2 - avoid detection by expressing conventional and not communist views. He points out that Burgess talked~ lot of communism. Ideally this is quite true, but the control of Maclean as an agent of a Soviet intelligence service would present very special problems. He could, I think, only be controlled by someone ot equal intellectual stature and a similar social background, hence the choice of a control would be very limited. Maclean 1 s exceptional value as an agent would call, if necessary, for exceptional risks of which Burgess may have been one. I how feel that it is very probable that Maclean was in fact a Soviet agent and that in para: 2(b) of his summing-up Connolly may have come very close to the truth. Connolly mentions Donald Maclean 1 s devoted love for his son~, Fergus and Donalbain. I remember some time ago reading a letter written to his wife by a Soviet agent called Alexander Rado when he was on his way to his death at the hands of the Russians. It contained a pitiful realization or what his clandestine work had done to the lives of his children. If our speculations are true, I suppose Donald must have some such realization. 000161 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur /'acces a /'information SECURITY CLASSIFICATION CONFIDENTIAL FROM: THE OFFICE OF THE HIGHCOMMISSIONER FOR CANADA, LONDON. 4 TO: 5 6 --- 7 8 -•-~ :-:: THE UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR EXTERNAL AFFAIRS, CANADA My Letter No. 2110 of May 20th, 1952. R ference .................................................................................... . bject: ..... ~~~-~~~- -~~-~~-~~~. 9.~r;?~ -~-~~~.?~.~-~P .. J:1~~~.f:~. ~1?-~. -~-~~~~~-~~ ... 10 7 OCT1952 I am enclosing, for your information, three sets of tw articles by Cyril Connolly, which appeared in "The Sunday Timestt on September 21st and 28th. We under stand from a member of the Foreign Office that Mr. Connolly had no access to information which is held by the United Kingdom authorities; nor, we understand, did he discuss the cases with United Kingdom officials. Copies CTeferred To.............. . 2. The chief interest in the articles appears to stem from Mr. Connolly's personal knowledge of Maclean and Burgess, and from his analysis of their careers and mental attitudes. The articles may be of some interest not only to the Department but to the R.C.M.P. who, we assume, are in possession of official United Kingdom information concerning the subversive aspect of the case. CANADA HOU SE. Post File Copy to: Washington with enc. . I . �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act ◄ Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur /'acces /'information a MT~P ~ c• ,~zu. ur -ou co·rce .Trmfc.~.rus 2np ,1.:: s G·· Gr; :II to·'aG~::=-~·oF •. ·.r:·:-!7T f"1Tff;r. l,Ei St,rm ...JJ_.. , ~ Sl.T~J'>-~:r-a,..,.,.Ct'G;T, ~n,011rra£:,~ o- TTf-T(: ci·., 80' r.~IJ ~ ·10 ro s• T, o , >T. T cT?T'. • I "iT?. h ••."O.J\'lT • "P-S t+T~T e..., ;U • Cl:f<I ru:i.,rcr ,:,1mn-r q.r.•• ~.,.rm WI,''.L.', f"I T,f ut 1, ']1 1U 1.,· o~ Hi' 1 r ... ,,. µi,:) "''f::'C:!12'8 .": ·c.- c:s..,e:..' !'"ffU (UJ .. ~ur. f1 ~·+--;• -,. •~rror" ~-rr,c·; L~·r.c:=-~ ffiT(WI.S+£' .,.) f''U:rcp :r;• ·rrT:1 I'\?, sbhE!S'T,C:(' C T ,E;C 2G 1:3 :-q:r :r .rrnn'2• ff'?-· -rr_r..,i:.,B:-~,) r-1nheg~... tr.: 1~:p.,a • J.'fL>) ;,~ ~i?''f' 'G~ $!, .. t • ,tr::r.r ':-: uo.,r: ouJ:\. ,t:O ,i:m··. ·n CJ,"' e~ 1 JJ tun o:r, nr:; r.£"~G• v,.y,Pr_11 :f :r.o,•.,C'l'~:rcu ./••O I g, .. µnq nn ., C ti()> £'1~(:f:~?2 OJ. Tr:u ('ll 1'..'~t:J P.L ~- 8.C ~lJ(l . i:..:[J "'0Ul 'f)J-11. • n;:rcu 'UJ r:'J, ('I. rps 'T, >G 1 c T- 11.orn. -:rn·, .c.-·,r,;0 n c u} . . .... .' 000163 �ocument isclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divu/gue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'acces a l'informati THE Mr. Connolly l'arly lin of nnd by Donald l\Jurl,•1111. In 1935 Marl,•11n ........ ,1 into th,· Forri11n l\U~ in tht• SEPTE~I RER 28. 19!'i2 ------ Cyril DI PLOMATS-11 Co11nolly to Mrs. Maclean ns " H.onalcl Styles." Burge had Pngagrd thP ca,· hy te!rphone at about two o'clork 1tncl thl'n gone ro11111I, p,ttri t11e c!Pposit. anct linc!ergone a Imel rtn\·rni,: te:st. At 5.30 he had recr1n-d a long telephone call at Oflir,·, -..1... rr hi, r••1rnt .. tion !"oOOII n1ounh·d. Hur••·~ "'•·nt from th,• 11.IJ.C. to th.For,·i«n Ofli,·r in 1914, and D<'purtnwnt TDIES. MISSING THE La•I -..rrk drpicrrd thr (;u} Bur«•"" SUNDAY Far•Ea!'r>l("rU in 1918. In 19·11 .'1urlran -..11~ JJO•h•d to ~ a,h,n,tlon a• act• in,t Fir-.t St•c-rt•LtrJ. and 011 hi ... rt·lurn four ~•·ars l.ntt-r "a• 01'1'"i111rd Coull .-llor in Cairo. Hut in Cuiro r11mr n hr,•akdo-..11. On ~o,rmb,•r b, J9j0. aftt•r •ix month ' lra,r. hr -..rnt hack to thr Forl'i«n Oll'irt> a, hrad of thr A11)rri,·1111 Division. NE day towards the rnd of 1950 Donald Maclean invitrd m<' to lunrht>on at his l'lub and talkt'd at length about the war in Korea. His argum,·nt was that what mattt•n·d most !n thr world was PPoplt•. The Konans wen• peopl<'. but !n the stage which thr war had reacht'd both sldt•s had rntirely forgotten this, and w<'re exploiting them for their own pre:;tlgr. It was essential to stop the war at all costs and get them established as people again This was not the orthodox Communist \"if'\\'. according to wh1rh only the Nort11 Koreans were ' people" and the South Koreans <as Burgrss m11mtained1 had really ~tarted thl' war. :\larlean went on to sugge,t that al! rolonial po: sessions in the Far East were mornlly untenable. and whl'n I pleaded that WI'should be allowed to keep Hong. kong and Malaya for their dollarearnmg capac1t1es he said that that was precisely the reason why we should give them up. as only then could we prov,. our.;plves m earnest and lay the basis of luture itO<Xl relations. 0 I I I Back at the F orcign Office dl611pp,.arance hav!' bel'fl put forward that 1t is be t to deal with a lew ol them like che. nml(l>. Lrt us flr~t take one baM>rllJn the thPory or a voluntary l'S<:ape I. NO!'f•POLITICAL.Thr LU:<,du- 'lhPn he had confided In rt. frn•nd that at last he would be apprarf'd on an alcohtlic fuque, ab!r to settle clown to his grPat to ll'ander about Ille,. Verlaine and task. thr acld1L1onol "fmal volume Riml,aud. and to start a new lt/e to 1,udv Gwendolen C!'cll'R b10- tor;f'thcr, gra11ln· ·01 thr. Tory Prime :\Unist!'r, This fits in with Donald's char:,rLonl Sall~bury, \\htch he thought ter. He 1s said to have d1sappPare the hcst b10:;raphy In Enghsh. once from a party for a few d&\ , !us flat. On Junr 7. a. the hue and cry in Sw1t1f'rland and been found lhAl11•r a quiet and mthn b!'gan III the Pre s. thrl'e telegrams Ing quietly In the next village. sohPr drnner Donald and " Hon11ld" u1rt\·l'd . one lrnm Guy Burgess Again he once remarked to a walk.eel m tlw arc!en l>onald to Ju mother m \I h1ch he sa11i tnend' that he wid11'd he coulrl then smcl that 1111•~ had tu hf> was e111bark111g on a long start a new hie a: a docker .n thP go to er. a I nrn<t I\ ho II\ r,t :\Irdner111nean and two East End, but that ration boo<. neurh) und that ht> 1111ghth,,rn to tmm :-.Iarlean hollclay; his mother and rrlentity cards now made 11, s y .1way tor the mght. Ht• 11nrl his wue. Toto Ladv im1>0.s1ble. Burge al~o had a 1noruL,;ed !,hat ht• would rNurn on lw sent a brief me. agel\lac!ean which reputation for disappearing l.Ji..t the mo:TO\I "nd took only h,s br:<'1· hr s1g11Pd "ith a ch!ldhoocl there would be much less n!a.:on • CTI.SC Wlth him whrn hf' left. name. to h1 I\ lie he wrote • Hn.d . for him to give up the kmd of to lea\e unrxpectl'dly ter11bly existence to which he was add1cte,I. .orry. Am quite well now. Don·t Neither could have Ja.-,ttng attracMidni~ht Arrh·al at \lOlT\' durlmg. I l01e you. Plea.e tion for the other. tor the lorcr don t stop lO\lllg ml'. Donald." All which united them would al:;o drt\'P Southampton t11ree sound plauMb!e but somehow them apart. and the wanderer~ I 'HE pair got mto th, lun><I c.1r unreal. unlc the} \1·ert' meant to would certa nly have been heard ot and clrme to Southampton ju.• bl' dC'll\·e1Pel al !ea. t a week b!'fore. agam for where they \I ere m comIll t1111rto n•, ch tlrf' 1'10.---ClllllllJt•I H,n·m1: acqi..1r<'d u little more puny 'incidents wotd he bound t,o v,• • F,,:a ., wh1cll Jett t mid• hackgrouncl. !t t us f'Xamme ome arii;e; and the e.ement of ant.1111:ht on n ~pt (' .. 11 ..,.eek nd rut e ·>! rhn theor.cs wt1h which we social aggresnon In such a flight to Sam :\I u uncl b,1Ck b1 the began. It will be noticed even now would have cau.~ed them to lea\e cruinn• I I. 1 ncls retu nlng , 'I lv on how vei; tew !acts we have. We som kmd of sta:.ement. '\londa.v Ill irnlnl(. "Wh.1t ,lbnt1t u. pee that Burg.. a net :\tarlean t.he enr?" vcU,d a µon r,a:,1i;e Wf're ColllllllllllSts at ambridge, A Twitch upon the we do not know - - 7 even If they Thread ever met after 1'Hf. b THE C01 CLl DL ·<; im,tqlm,,,,, of Mr. Cambnctge. Both 2. !i<l THEORIES WHICH IJ4PLY A w e re neurotic Conr,ol/y•.~ f)('rwmal am/ intimal<' 8twly of Guy p e r s o n alit1es FORCED MOVE. " A tu:itch 11pon the thread." The argument LS that with schizo/J11rf!PS.\mu/ Dona/,/ lfod,,,m. the t1ro memben phrenic charac- Burgess and Maclean were both agents. Maclean 1 or t,. r i st i c . In Communist of tlw Fon,iw, Of fin• . 'ta// 1dw rnni.\/,ed on .llny recent post both both! wa,; growmg indiscreet and and that they were had beha\·ed ~o unreliable. :!<>, 19;; I. 'f'/11,ir a"'·ial /mt day i11 E11;da11drerkle ;y that recalled before one <or both• could give awa~· oth!'rs who were more thl'\' had to be llad,,a11 ·.\ liirtlu/ay- is d(lw/y <'\ami11,•,l, I srnt secret and more important: that home. both _________ • _____ _J drunk too much thP\' were immedauely 1mpn•oned and then became or i1qu1Ciated and may have got PO crif'd: "B:trk \ ioll'nt and abu~he. both might fa1ther than an uncertain addre,-s he di', rr1becl as al>normal, both In Pari~. 11 they had rPfused to go. allegedly made confe 10ns 1many th!'\' would ha\·e been exposed to yP, rs apart, or bemg Ccimmunl~t the· Brit1Sh and brought disgrace on their families. Even so. it IS agents. and both \I ere notorious n mong their colleagues for their doubtlul II experienced diplomats 40 would s1gr. anti-Britt. h arguments and were aged 38 and their own death-warrants vmhb1ttl'r ngatn. t authontarianism nntl 1mperiali m. Both had risen out a murmur and depart without • a farewell. ra. t uncter wartm1P rond1tions and 1b1 They both tor ,l!acl.:an alo11e1 had I et lllllllltallll'd nn underto .t'ze r,racluillc-hke intormality· in their had gi~e11 illformatio11 Rus!ians at ome time. per/zaps appearance and habit and in the 011 one OC'casion only, a11d thi. 1rus genera! L>ecl-s1ttmgroom rasualnes:; preyrng mz Donald'~ co11scie11c<'. of their \lllY of life. Both had two If the mformat'.on wa. j!l\t'n In enemie. . aclol!'scenre and alcohol, Washmj!ton, It might have been nncl when thl' • vnmshect each was valuable. and U1e leak would thought by ht,, fnencl to have led have taken a long time to trace. th!' other astrny. Burge s might have had wmd m Washmgton of this inve Up;ation e\·en got himself sent home Association that ·was and through his erratic behaviour in order to warn :\Iaclean on his Kept Secret return. Burges.< might perhaps at on!' lime ha\·e been a kmd of private commi.5 ar to !\Iaclean. After hrs rar!'lree luncheon. then. on that last Friday, !\1actean was somehow tipped off that exposure was imminent. At 5.30 he telephones to his contact Burge who says .. L!'ave it all to me." I ,.f The ,takind ~lyth .. 134!rausr of McCarthy." I of a 000164 �ccess to lnformat'ion A acumen THE THE SUXDA.Y TDIES. SEPTE)IBER MISSING 21. 1952 Document divu/gue en vertu de la Loi sur l'acces a /'inform .DIPLOMATS pattl'm In Bur1tl' ~·'I ret11•lrri•MO!! In romantic lriPt.r!.~hlp hP 111:l'dto dommau,. but '"" mte1.ectua1 atlm:ration Y.as u. ually kef,t for the" e II ho were older than h m eU !'here 11ere atsc, uome w1t1, v:t:.,,m Maclean In 1913. The one reached his favourite authors were Mrs. the bourgeoisie entirely surrounded Cambridge by way of Eton anel Gaskell and Balzac and, later on. by Communists. like the Alcazar or he orelerred to drmk and argu ... Tn June. 1944 he had been tr nsTrinity, the other. two years later Mr. E. M. Forster. "Lenin had said Toledo. to the Ni,ws Depanmeo or . One day Burge."5"a friend came to frn· bv Gresham's School and Trinity Hall. They knew each othrr 111 somewhere tht\t he- had learnt more her shaken and yet unpre. PO. the 1''ore1gn Office, In 1946 to the about France from B Izac·s novels Cambridge and were both tllltn trom au m:,tuiy-oook.i. put Guv naa conba!'<l to him that 11..- otllce of the Mm1 r of Stat,. ... tr. was not just a. member but a. secret Hrctor McNeil. In 1947 t.o B branrh members of the left-wing circle together.lialzac wa..~ agent or the Communist Party, and , Fo1'f'lgn Officr ,. tmrl m 11148LOthr there. But there L~ no evid- thP greatestAccordingly writer or all times.'" ol tlir he had then Invited him to join in Far-Eas• rrn Orparrment ence ot that oppressive parental this work. The friend had relu eel Forr1,:n Offlcr authority which drive,; young men <Koestler.> Donald was ~eldom heard to talk with concern: and tor her part the In 1944, the year that Ouv Burto revolt. politic.~. Guy ne1er eemed to .·top. novelist felt that Burge. ·s ges went from the B.B.C. to the He was the type or bumpt1ou:1 Fascism was suddt>nly expla1t1Pd . r 01e11muau:f' do1,a d 1aclean .~ Marxist who saw himself as Salnt- M a secret agent he must have post,llcl to Wai;hmg rm as a• t,Pre-\Var Cambridge Ju~t. who enjoyed making the flesh bttn told to lnvp_o;t1gatPthe British mg Fu:,L ::,ccreta1 v. un u.-. I ot his bourgeois listeners creep by Fa..'!Cistsand hoped t.o pa II as one re-tum Marxists m 1948 he gave his picture or the jUl>tlce which Even SO, It WO..'! lmpo.'lsible to feel dmner-pa1 t~ to his fnt"nds. I. T was more than ten years since history would mete out to them. quite certain. for it would be m was a deli;,;h fut evening. he harl and promis- kel'plng with Burgess's neurotic become a good host. his charm WR-' I the end of the first world war, Grubby, intl'mpnate and a new generation was tf,owlng cuous. he Ioveel to moralise over his power-drive that he should prPtrnd based not on vanity but on up which found no outlet in home lnencls and satlr.f.l;e their smug to be an under-cover man. sincerltv and he would dlscU!>II so Y afterwards the novell~t foreign· affairs a.'I a student. not politics for the adventurous or cla.:. - uncon. cious behaviour, altruistic impulses o! the adole- rt-ckle or the reckoning In store. wu told that he had spent several an expert. He enJoyed the magascent. l\1arx1Sm satisfied both the But when bedtime ca.me. very late, days wrestling with his cons1'11ence zine that I then edited. which was a blue rag to Burge<sS.a v.-eakmJecrebel11ousness of ~·outh and Its and It was the moment to put the at the time of the Soviet-German analy. e away, the word "Prepo - pact and had decided to give up tion of culture into a socfet\ craving for dogma. terous" dying on his llp11, he would the whole business. This may well alrParlv dearl The Cambr1ctge Uommunlsts substituted a new lather or super-ego Imply a dl.spensatlon under which hav" been true. On his return from WaJ hmgton Here we have to decld!' wh!' her he was appointed Couns llor m tor the old one. and accepted a this onf' house at le-ast, this family, the. f' guests. might be spared the Burge visited Germanv wi a 1,;au o. " .1.nUona..o M.ic11:1111 new justice and a stricter i ..ee a authortty. They felt they had worst con equf'nces thanks to the secret Communist. a Nazi sym- coiu,uze ,md a love of justice; I see a or their brilliant pathiser or as a.n observer ror our soul that could not be deflected 1 exposed the weaknef~es of Liberal- protection rnend whose own Intelligence • Services, or-at ism· along with their elders' Ignor- hungPr-marchmg trom the straight course: and Is I va.riotis le\•eJs o! rusopportun:~mance of economic affairs. To this po.~1tlon would be "' rommand.ing in It that deep affection tor hts , in the happy workeri;' Utopia. as a!! Uuee. On one occasion he frlenrls which he always mani~eneratlon Communism made an It wa..~the time wnen J\oysslnla took l'Ome Bo.v SCout.s over to a ft'~t,.,1.. The worrl~ or Rt>tl"ll'v Intellectual appeal. standing tor A Matter of Choice rally at Cologne. before the Russian love, liberty and social justice and mattered. Baldwin about the father seemed to In January, 1939. he Jett the be c.oming true of the S<,n. A for a new approach to life and purge~ had taken place and the or Necessity B.B.C .. and In the autumn or 1940 Coum,c1111rat thirtv-tlve, ne seemea art Yet It was connected with a especial bitterness or Communist HE d1sap!)<'arance, towards the political party, and this party Is controversy had ansen. There were he was doing confidential work for In a fair way to equal his -parent's few ex-Communists. and the the War Office. At this time he was distinction. end of Mav la$t \·ear. of Guy not inclined to relinquish Its hold. very claim to represent the arrested tor bemg drunk In charge says Arthur party's Burge-ss and Donald faclean Is a • The Comlntern," extreme left wing was not di~outed. of a car and acquitted because he Koestler. "earned on a. white-slave m1·stery which cannot be solved A Breakdown 10 while so many factors remain traffic whose victims ,were young Unlike all other political parties, was working founeen hours a day and had just idealists flirtmlj unknown. and therefore any ,1•1th violence. 7 been 1n an airCairo explanation ran bC' based only on The feelini,:s of a balance of probabiht1es. THIS JS THE FIR T instalment of Mr. ra~\. January, such ~·oung mrn N 1950 word began to reach us Such solutions tall into two cate- are' de~cnhccl 111 1941, he goril's. according as they presupthat all was not so well. It was Connolly' s personal and intimate study of Guy was n<ffrls pose the disappearance to be a numerous said that uona.1ct, wnu,;e nigh once more In the ancl porm.s. or in matter of choicf' or of n!'resslty. R1trf{ess and Donald llfaclean, the t,rn member.~ B.B.C .. and there Liberal principles had received full i;uch tracts as A rnlunt11r.v flight might be poli. . . he remained for scope in enlightened Washington. Mr. St r p h <' n tical. as that of Hess to Scotland. by the of the Foreign Office sta.ff ll'ho 1·a111shed tmcards three years in had been so disheanened Spender's " I•'oror of a private and psychological poverty and corruption of the w a rd from nature, as when two boys run away Liberal Middle East that he had had some the end of May last year. It u·ill be, read u·ith i~~1:an ism." from school. kfnd of breakdown. It seems that involved 1 he The compelled exit. the forced They adopted a theory that sufficient rmrticular interest by those concerned with the :r;A1iec!1:eng~ ~ no hp raval nf move. implies escape under duress, thf' writers· own alcohol could release In one a • 11 • • • ·d [ • l i hat greatly the threat being either or private second personality which. though in an age o I eo og1ca appealed to him. country, and the 1 pecu l ,ar pro> ems arising blackmail or of public exposure; It might simulate the destructive elm e of Marxism or again it might be the result or wns conflict u·hirh is of ten projerted on the plane of ~~~~t~~ffy h \~ element. worked only good by hel~ an imperious recall by a. Power lethal. seldom Ing people to acknowledge the truth rivate 11ersonality A second and concludinrr hai. on work with about themselves and reveal t.trelr which regarded on!' or both or the P What WPr!' • highly sec re t two diplomats as in danger or as thrsr lll'O VOUlll! Donald entered O r Ra n1Sa.tioru, latent affinities. article will ap11ear next tt'eek ha\'ing become too dangerous. like? Donald • until he was able into the spirit of the Investigation There remain~ a possibility men and took as hi.! alter ego t.he name L _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _J to repre ent the was that thrv were sent abroad on a sMaclean • Foreign Office of " Gordon " from an export gin a n d 1· - haired. ~Peret mission. anrl another that tall. 11:1th great latent physical Communism then offered the con- He helped, for Instance. to remo1·e wilh a tusky wild boar on the label. they were lured abroad and then strength, When night tell h!S new elf took solarion ol a religion the anti-Russian bias from Poles but Int and rather l:irlnapped. flabb)' him, one was During the Spanish War I saw whom we were training for J)Oi'Sess:on. He sta.ml,kaea one 01 1 her!' are simply not enough Clll1SC'IIJUS Meeting t \\ o pa.rt:e . but got Into more much less of Burgess, who had now sabotage. ot both nmiab1lltv and fact. to exclude an.v or these \I eakne.·s. er·nu.s roub!e \\hen in •h .. comHe did not • seem .1oined the B.B C. in Bristol. A We now see the outline or the explanations. nor can we even preanimal but resemb,rd ternble thing had happened-he Ideal personalities or Burgess and pany o! a friend. he broke into the ~ume that the behaviour of both athf'pollt1cal clever helpless youth In a had become a Fa1:c1st ! Still sneer- Maclean. On the unstable rounds.- fir t apanmen• to hand m a block .Maclran and Burgess ls covered hv Huxley novel. an outsize Cherubino Ing at the bourgeois intellectual, he lions o! their a.dole. cence they were of flats and sharpened his tusks on the snme explanation. The most Intent on experience but now vaunted the intensel.v modern erectin!{ the selves whom they the I urniture striking fact-the suddenness or too shy andamnrous clumsy to succeed. The realism of the Nail ll'aders: his would like to be, the father ftgures Then on a boating ttip on the their dlsnppearancP-suggests a of an august atmosphere admiration for economic ruthle~s- or thl'ir day-dreams. the finished Nile, with some twentv people i.n panic, but even this Ruddenness shadow Jay heavy on him. and he sought ne. s and the short cut to power Imagos. With hl~ black hat and the party, he seized a rifle from an could have been counterfeited. The on the more impetuous and had swung him to the opposite umbrella, his brier-case under his otnc1.:iu.ssmtry and be1ta.n to 1mpe111 spontaneous thoroughness or the rt'fuge emancipated fringes of Bloomsbury extreme. He claimed to have arm-O.H.M.S.Donald ts .. Sir the safety or those nearest him bv search would seem to indicate that and Chelsea. Such a. young man Donald Maclean." the Tvrrell, the swinging it wildly. A Secretary at the Foreign Oflice first accepted the ran be set right by the devotion of ut tf'nderl a Nur!'mbc-rg Rally. Maclean. howevrr, a strong sup- Eyre Crowe of the second world the Embns.~v intervened, and in the thPory of kidnapping, and so would lnte111gent, older woman, and It pnrtr.r of the Spanish Repubhc. war. the last great Liberal dlplo- scuffle received a broken leg. The tend to exclude the notion of a an a misfortune that Donald was se<'mrd suddenlv to have acquired matist, terror of the unJust and two men returned home on sick secret mission <unless self-imposed 1. was ju t not quite able to Inspire such lea\·e. while M~ tacle:in wt,n wq. a backbone. morallv and phvsicallv hope ot the weak. "It 1t wasn't while a high French police official an attachment; charming, clever His appearance greatly improved. for you, Sir Donald," snarled on the boating trip. went to Spain has maintninPd that it would have and affectionate, he was still too his fat disappeared, and he had Ribbentrop, " we might still have for a rest with hl'r two son .. been Impossible for the two visitors unformed. become a personage. In 1935 he won the peace." What was the nature of Donald's to France to elude the dra~-net Guy Burgess, though he preferred had pa.~sed into the Foreign 8ur1tess. or course, ls a power spread lor thf'm w1tJlout the • prooutburst? It wa not just o,·erthe company of the able to the Office. an l from 1938 he was at behind the scenes: a btigadier in worK., but over-strum: the etfon ot lf·ction" of a poi1t.cal organisation. artistic, also moved on the edge or the Emba.<;sy in Paris. mufti. Brigadier Brllli,mt. D so There are, however, countries ht-Ing " Sir Donald," thl' whol" I rrme-mber some argument.'! F,R.S., the famous hlstonan. with pamphemalla where It might be possible !or two the same world. He was of a verv of " O.H.l\l.S .." had with him. I had telt a. great svm- boyish grin and cold blue eyes, been too much for him and he had able-bodied men to obtain work and different physique, tall - medium for special re\·erted to hL<;adolescence, or to still escape notice, but they are not In height, with blue eyes. an m- pathy for the Spanli;h Anarchlst..<1, s er on de d now quL~iti\e nose, i.ensual mouU1, curl~· with whom he w $ extremelv dutle.. With long stride and his ideal or ParL~ days. the free and so easily reached from the station at Rennes. in Britta.n.v. whence they hair and alert fox-terrier expres- .evere. as with all the other nori- hunched shoulders, untid,·, chain- solitary young !-CUlptor working all vanished on Mav 26, 1951. One sion. He was Immensely eneri,;etlc, Communist factions. and I detected smokmg. he ta IKs-walks and talks night in hlq attic. The return of in his reproaches the familiar -while the wholl' devili.h simpli- the repressed 1. famihar to psychomust also consider the possibility a great talker, reader, boaster, walker, who swam like an otter and pnggish tone of the Marxist, the city ot his plan unfold.~ and the annlysts, and there was also riow a that the.v are dead. drank, not like a feckles.~ underresonance of the "Father Found:' men from M.I thlS and ".\I.I. that. bnef return to his earl\• . exual As one ol the manv who knew both, and as one of the few who graduate, as Donald was apt to do, At the same time he could switch S.l.S. and S.O.E., lls~n dumb- ambi\'alence. " Gordon" had glnn " Mv Ood, Brill nt I "Sir sookP with Haclran on his last dav but like some Rabelaisian •botlle• tn a magL,terlal defence ot Cham- founded. Donald" the sack. The brrlaln's foreign policy and seemed believe vou're right-it could be enr ged junior p rtner would no in England, I ~hould like to swiper whose thirst was unquenchable. nblt'! to hold the two se!f-righteollll done." The Btigudier looked t hi: approach thP subJect lrom a diflonger put up with him. points of view simultaneously. watch and a chilled blue eye fixed ferent standpoint. Let us put aside V the facts of which we know so lltt111_ --+- ....nt·~~.,.,,,,!fflter e na sually spent in the Left-Bank t t momellt, so far as one lndicares with a little group or hardpactt-tce tn hla are doln 1'.,rever uncl nct by Cyril T HOSE who become obsessed with a puzzle are not very likely· to solve it. Herc ls one about which I have brooded tor a year and would l!ke to unburdC>n myself. Something ot what T have put down may cause pain; but that I must risk. 0t•cause where people are concC>rnC'd the truth can never be asct•rta!neo without painful things being ~aid, and because I feel that what I put down may lC>ad to somebody rcmcmbcri1'<,; the fact or phrase which will suddenly bring Jt all Into focus. It I did not bl'lll've (by Instinct rathC'r than reason> that the two peopll' about whom I am going to write may well have been victims or some unforeseen calamit.v. the puzzle would not exlsL and I should have nothing to say. I have had access to no secrets. I have not talked to many or the people I should like to, I offer no solution. only a tew suggestions. a meditation on human complexity which leads to murky bypaths but which. I hope, will show that no one has any right to jump to unfavourable conclusions about people or whom the; know nothing. I Connolly I I I I i T r -- ---- --------------- I I le~~ f • 0 I ('h "l'lrkr'rt ,·rn• hare . 111111It wa. n ACK In I onrlon hi' had si • Donald acl,.an. dP p1te his that hr hrg n tn hullel up hi m11nth • IP \P tn 11;rtwf'll and to thP For t n tnc,. ~--~--u;1~1p mm r·-1:&;;DOJllS1all►-Jfor-iibeir--rpnupp\' la • b!-lonirr~ w~ that of r npu•at ronm in I rPmrmbf'r I 1at IL HP as t!ll rltinkinit ancl wa. 1101\ -,appearance. n,:a rrl. S<' 1,wph ·rn c. ad1 grrw \'!'ry high lndrl'cl unrler~oin1t treatmtnt from l count rnnnced Dnn Q u t ,coteN 194n Dnnalrl Maclean had mar- woman psvrho-ann•,·~t. Hts apnPR"Donnld hnel mnnv admirable mtroH"rted and dlffidf'nt, an &-ntush rlrrl In Paris an American girl qunlltlrs. Hr. wa.~ responnnC'r \\'[IS tnghtPOlnll;: hi' hnel 10 L Lookini! Back to ldl'all~l and a. dreamer ,:lv!'n t.n silJIP and pam~taking. logical and as rlPllghtful P~ h!'r name. l\tl'hnel:i his srrentt)", his hands 11·oud udclen outburst., or aggr!'s.<lon: n• nlute In argument, Judiclou.'I Mnrhnf(. who bnrr him two sons. tremhle 111, fact' 11·n.~11s1m,!I·a Childhood whPre Guy Burge s. despite nnrl r1·en-trmprred and. l shoulrl Shi' brought bNh SWl'elnP.ss and lll'lr! l'l'llow and he lookPd as 1! he Into his lire-. Gnv Imel sprnt t hr night ~lttlng up In TWO fact,; dlstlngul~h Bunt 11 his intel11genr.l' wa a round-face-rt lmn1nne. an admirable Sv,1 anrl ttnrltrstnnrling brothrr. Ht' hncl grown much Burge s. however. as the war ll'rnt a tunnel. Though he remained I. nd Maclean from the ro-calle:i g n I cl en - patecl Sanrhn Panza, on lP<I a more t roublt>d e'>lstl'nce. c!Ptnched anrl amiable M ever I hnnc!SQmer, and hill tall figure. his .. atomic.. . pil',S-!in;t, th!'V UP exhiblt10ni~t. manl<'. grn\'e long facr and noblr brow, his A npw friend whom he had 1mirle was clrnr that hi' was mlsl'rnhle nr:,t known to have commlttPd t'xtrovert, a,·1dl~· rlar k suit, black hat and umbrella was tnkrn prl,·oner-of-war, and 1t accl m a \Pl"\' bacl wa1• In c-or,. any crime, 61'Cond. the,· arP C"n1cnl andyetargumentat1vt', romet1me \'Rgue 11·rre . rvrre and dtstlngul~herl On,. was notrrl that hr had hrcome 1·Pr.ntlon a kmd or shut Pr wo1:'rl mPmb,.rs of the go\·rrnlng cla.~~.or curious. and Incompetent. With all his f!'ll now that he was a rock, that If much morp Insulting and destruc- lull as If hr Imel returned to the high bureau('racv. the "they" toughnl" s. moreovPr, Guv Burgess one were In trouble he would help t!\•!' when he drank he seemed to somr IJnsic and inrommunkabk who ruie the "wf"" to whom lnU>ni;ely to be liked and and not Just let one down with a hit on the unforgivable thing to anx1rly. • rerugep• like Fuch and Pontecorv,, want!'d say to everyoneHis m!'ntnl and humble fl11;urt'.~ llkf' Nunn Mav wa.s lnc!Ped likeable, a. good conv<'r- rrprlmanct Some or his frl!'nds urged him to sadism whlrh sometlme:1 !Pd to his 1P~11m. and an tnthu~11U1Ir. ~long. rr t.rai ors the,· br. thrn satinnahsL pointing out that since h gl'ttlng knockerl out. did not builder-up or his fr1tnd.. Beneath t h"Y are traltnr.i to thrm elve. , t ·rlurle great klndnei;:1 to those In ehshkrel the life and dlsnt:treed wit 1 or his Mar 1s White Hope of the Br1 . a..~m all ra<r~ whrrr people t111• "tl'rrib:lltt\" thr pnllcv rould not go bark trouble. Abov!' all. he disliked Wllhout 1t hr srem to act ,wamst thPlr own nnah· e:; one divined the alTectlonall happening again nnvone to i:rt out or his rlutrhr ·; Others ate moral coward1re ol the public orei,:?n Office J><Jlltiral in 1 Prr t.q. we must go schoolboy. n.ssured him that he ll'0uld hP was an nffl'rttomtte bullv bark In rl11ldhond. bf' well enough to return to capable of acts of i:enPrnsHy, like a S()(ln An old Etonlan. an "Apostle" Politics begin In the nursery; no wnrk, wht('h, would prove the bPst REMEMBER, at the beilnning magnate or the Durk Age,;. who had taken a F1r~t In HI. torv one Is born patriotic nr unpatriotic, !lung for h1msp!f and his fnml11· or the war, mentioning to one At the same '1me he IHL~ctrmk- I Iw F0l'f'ljrll nmcr had tn ll'f'lt:h rtgh -111,ingor left-wing, and it Is at Cambridge, and was tempted tii lng and living extrnvagantlv. He his yc-ars of hnrd work against the child whOlle crav[ng !or Jove become a don. he yet : emed un ot our most famous diplomatic Is un1,11t1sfied, whn<,c desire for adventurer with a first-class mind. rrpresentallves that Donald was a was fond or luxury und display, of tllt' outlmrst. 11hich lhl'.I' put dnwn smtts at Clarlclges and ta. t cars pn11·11r L, thwart,.d. or whose lnnat«' who would always be In the rcnow, lrirncl or mme and receiving a to thf' stram or long hours anrl he drove ahominablv. He fnrnwl •·,,rial rh1tlrs In Cairo nnel Y.n P of justlre L, warped, that a framer of secret pollcle11. a glanc or mc-rrelullty. Satisfied whl('h belonged to the febrile war-time Washington. His reputat111n for a eventually may try tn become a financial wizard already. anti a that this lndee-d Willi so, he carl-SOC'ietv or lhr temporan Ci\'ll rrv,,Iu Jnnar\' nt a d1~ atnr. In future editor, at l!'ast, • of " ThP prnPt rnt11111; mmcl, sounrl 1uclcmrnt that Maelran wa..'I Sf'n·ant. Maclran to the •!>ecret nnd Though he enjo.vecl n rxphuned England ,;,.·,attach . plritual valurs Times." fllllC-t111dustryturned ·thr st·alr. a white hope, a "puer aureus •• c1tactel or the permnnc-nt. alr,nP. t.o c h I I rl h o o d and bout or luxury, he was lndll!erent 1 hep . .1cnmtr1.~L s repons bec11111e art,,lrscr-nre, r!Lsrn!Mlng p<>lltlcal to appearances and even hostilf' or the SNvirr- whosl' attalnThe position of Ru· has an allv more rnrouraglng, and by the act Inns of a l'Ubvrr ·tvf' nature a11 to his own. Unhke Donald, he mrnts and re. ponsibllltles werP had made things ens1rr for Com- autumn the rlr('1s1on was taken. On munist..,. who at first wrrp able to yr,uthlul <'apadr~. But In fact concealtel his &exual diffidence bv wrll beyond his yf'ars. Nnve111brr 6, nltf'r n particularly Unllke 11PrVI'their own and thl'ir adopted • such bl"hav1our In thf' young l.'1 over<onfldence. hean 11l~ht, Donald Wl"nt back to of r•n I rveallng hrcatL~I' It exwithout n. con flirt. t hr l-'ore1r,n Office as head or the What wa~ common to both Bur- Burge s hr wn.q without vanitv. I country thP s1mp!Pst rlistlnctlon prr • s tlw truP m"anlng of th!' gpss and Mnrlran at this time wa~ think Wavere-rs rl'lurnecl fn thtlr nllrg1- Amrrirnn D1vis1on <a position !f's, rel a lrmshlp with I he father in the-tr Instability; both wen• able bPtwern them is that Ir vou had anre and those 11ho had nPvrr 1111Prousthan it sounds 11nd \I hlch Jt.'I mr».L critical ph~ "· anrl ambittou.'! young mPn or h1i:1h , g11,·n . laclr-an a INtt•r. he would WR\!'red llf're suddenly re prcted, l111nh·rc1no sncml dUIIPSI, And hr hav" J)()strd It. Burgess wo4ld Burgt'SS now had a frienrl. R forrui:n hou1:ht a house n!'ar Wrsterham Guv Burg!' ~ lo t his rather at an intelhfi(Pnre and good conn.-ctlon havr forgotten It or diplomat. whom he con lc!Prrd the- l11r !us w1lr ancl rhlldren. to which r11r1;· aa;:,•, and his mnthn 110 who we-r!' somphow par0<lle.'1 of probablr whe,m tw Is d,.votnlr rrmarrlrrl; what thPY !,Pt out to be. Nobodv O!)<'n..rl 1t and thrn rf'I urn rel tn tell most lntere~tlng man he Imel e,·rr hr hoprcl tu rrturn almost p1•en Maclran Is thr child ,,r rli.<1t tn- roulcl takl' th!'m Quit!' Reriouslv; you what you should have said. mtt and with whom hP r11rr1erlon f'\'!'lllllg, R\oirling thP temptations g1wrhrd Librral parPnt.~; his thf'y wl'rt' two chnra<'ten; In a tale H11rgrss nncl a great I rlend or his a verbal crusarle In lnvour or Com• nl the I'll,\', fathPr, whr, WWI thPn Prr.slr!Pnt, Ru Ian novrl. Lat1rf'l and Harclv would somrtlmPs stay with a nmnlsm, P11rh taking a elitrerent or thl' Bnard 11r Education, clircl Pngngrel to play TalJpyran<I anel t11!f•11trrland beautllul woman. a line with thf' pntt'nl1nl convert, ont> whPn hr was nlnetl'rn. the \'0Ungtr Pitt. Burl[!' ·s. lnclel!'nl- no\"l'llst who. In tho.'le davs. rough. one . mnoth. Burge ~ wu 11orn ln J!Jl1, all •, wa a great reacler of fiction; rl' 1·mbled an Irreducible bastion or We may ch tingul. h ll. cert:1111 B I F I 000165 �' ,, r • ~ ~ THE SUNDAY TIMES. SEPTEl\lBER 28. 1952 ~ THE MISSING Last we~k Mr. Connolly depicted the early lives of by. Cyril Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean. In 1935 Maclean passed into the Foreign Office, where his reputation soon mounted. Burgess went from the B.B.C. to the Foreign Office in 1944, and was in the Far-Eastern De(>arunent in 1948. DIPLOM··ATS-II· e Q nfl O 11Y disappearance have been put forward that it is best to deal with a few of them like chess-openings, Let us first take one based on the theory of a voluntary escape. 1. NON-POLITICAL.The two dis- ' thought he had said MacArthur. to Mrs. Maclean as " Ronald Then he had confided In a and asked what he had to do Styles." Burgess had engaged the friend that at last he would be appeared on an alcoholic fugue, with it. car by telephone at about two able to settle down to his great to wander about like Verlaine and ' "Senator McCarthy," said Bur- o'clock and then gone round, paid task. the addition of a final volume Rimbaud and to start a new life All the deposit, and undergone a brief to Lady Gwendolen Cecil's bio- together. gess. " Terrible atmosphere. This fits in with Donald's characthese purges." driving test. At 5.30 he had graphy of the Tory Prime Minister, Salisbury, which he thought ter. He is said to have disappeared He seemed very well and almost received a long telephone call at Lord the best biography in English. once from a party for a few days jaunty, obviously pleased to be • his flat. On June 7, as the hue and cry in Switzerland and been found livAfter a quiet and rather back even if he went around saying In 1944 Maclean was began in the Press, three telegrams ing quietly . in the next village. he was convinced that America h!l.d sober dinner Donald and " Ronald " arrived : one from Guy Burgess Again, he once remarked to a posted to Washington as act• gone mad and was determined atJ. walked in the garden. Donald to his mother in which he said friend that he wished he coulcl ing Fir,;t Secretary, and 011 war. then said that they had to he was embarking on a long start a new life as a docker in thP his return four years later During the winter Donald go to see a friend who lived Mediterranean holiday; and two East End but that ration books was appointed Counsellor in Maclean had made a great effort nearby and that he might have to from Maclean, to his mother and identity cards now made it, He and his wife. To Lady Maclean impossible. to fit into his new existence as stay away for the night. Cairo. But in Cairo came Burgess also had a a commuter. Mrs. Maclean was promised that he would return on he sent a brief message which reputation for disappearing, out a preakdown. On November the morrow and took only hls brief- he signed with a chiJahood there would be much Jess reason expecting another child, and 6, 1950, after six months' Donald conscientiously refused to case with him when he left. rntme, to his wife he wrote : " Had . for him to give up the kind or leave, he went back to the go to.cocktail parties in order not to to leave unexpectedly, terribly existence to which he was addicted. Foreign Office as head of miss his evening train to Kent. By sorry. Am quite well now. Don't Neither could have lasting attracMidnight Arrival at May, however, he seemed to. be the An!,erican Division. worry, darling. I love you. Please tion for the other, for the force more about London of an evenmg, don't stop loving me. Donald." All which united them would also drive Southampton and it would be interesting if we three sound plausible but somehow them apart, and the .wanderers NE day towards the end of could discover if there was any HE pair got into the hired car· unreal, µnless they were meant to would certainly have been heard of I 1950 Donald Maclean sudden increase in these outings and drove to Southampton just be delivered at least a week before. again, for where they were m comafter the return of Guy Burgess. in time to reach the cross-Channel invited me to luncheon Having acquired a little more pany incidents would be bound t_o On one occasion in April. after vessel Fala.i.se, which left at mid- hackground. let us examine some arise; and the element of antiat his club and talked at length some feint attacks, he knocked night on a special week-end cruise nf the theories with which we social aggression m such a flight about the war in Korea. His down one of his greatest friends to Saint Malo and back by the began. It will be noticed even now would have caused them to leave argument was that what for taking' the side of Whittaker Channel Islands, l'etUl'nlng early·on how very few facts we have. We some kind of statement. mattered most· in the world Chambers, in the Hiss case. Monday morning. " What about suspect that Burgess and Maclean was people. The Koreans were Chambers, according to Donald. the car? " yelled a port garage were Communists at .Cambridge, was a doubleA Twitch upon the people, but in the stage which we do not know - - - - - - - - - - - - 7 even if they the war had reached both sides faced exhibitionist too revolting Thread ever met after had entirely forgotten this, and to be defended I THIS IS THE CONCLUDING instqlrnent of Mr. I •Cambridge. Both were exploiting them for their 2. (a) THEORIES WHICH IMPLY A by anyone. w e r e neurotic MOVE. " A twitch upon the own prestige. It was essential Donald's drinkConnolly' s personal and intimate study of Guy p e r s o n alities FORCED thread." The argument is that ing followed an to stop the war at all costs and with schizoand Maclean were both Burgess and Donald Maclean, the two members get them established as people .established phrenic charac- Burgess agents, Maclean (or routine. The again. t e r i s t i c s. In Communist was growing indiscreet and charming and of the Foreign Office Staff who 1.:anished on May recent posts both both) This was not the orthodox Com- amiable self was unreliable, and that they were munist view, according to which gradually 1e ft ' had behaved so recalled before one (or both) could 26, 1951. Their crucial last day in Englandrecklessly that give away others who were more only the North Koreans were behind, and the they had to be' secret and more important; that " people " and the, South Koreans hand which Maclean' s birthday.,-is closely examined. I sent home, both (as Burgess maintained) had really patted his friend L were immediately imprisoned drank too much they started the war. Maclean went on on the back or liquidated and may have got no and then became farther to suggest that all colonial posses- became a flail. A change would than an uncertain address Burgess cried: "Back violent and abusive, both might sions in the Far East were morally come into his voice like the attendant. in Paris. If they had refused to go, be described as abnormal, both they untenable, and when I pleaded that roll of drums for the cabaret. on Monday." would have been exp~sed to He ,had booked the two-berth allegedly made confessions (many the British we should be allowed to keep Hong- It took the form of an outand brought disgrace kong and Malaya for their dollar- burst of indignation, often directed cabin at Victoria on the Wednesday years apart) of being Communist on their families. Even so, it is earning capacities he said that that against himself, in which the in his own name, and on that day agents, and both were notorious doubtful if experienced diplomats was precisely the reason why we embittered idealist would aban- had invited a young American. among their colleagues for their aged 38 and 40 would ~ign should give them up, as only then don all compromise and castigate whom he introduced to various anti-British arguments and were their own death-warrants withagainst authoritarianism could we prove ourselves in earnest all forms of humbug and pretence. people as " Miller " and whom he bitter out a murmur and depart without had met on the Queen Mary, and imperialism. Both had risen and lay the basis of future good As the last train left for Sevenoaks returning from Washington, fast under wartime conditions and a farewell. relations. from faraway Charing Cross he when (b) They both (or Maclean alone) to accompany him. But Burgess had yet maintained an underwould wave a large hand, in some let him down at had given information to the the last moment. graduate-like informality in their bar, to his compa,nions. " Well, a,ncY- Burgess seems to have had the idea Russians at some time, perhaps Back at the Foreign appearance and habits and in the how, you're all right. And you arP. of a long holiday m France in his on one occasion only, and this was all right." The elected smiled hap- mind, but tha;; was unconnected general bed-sitting room casualness preying on Donald's conscience. Office of their way of life. Both had •two If the information was given in pily, but doubt was spreading like a with the week-end jaunt. For this not Friday evening he had an impor- enemies, adolescence and alcohol, Washington, it might have beeri WTE talked for a little about how frown on Caligula. "Wait-I'm and when they vanished each was valuable, the leak would W he felt at being back at work sure. Perhaps you aren't all right. dinner engagement which he thought by his friends to have led have taken and a long time to trace. and • Sir Donald " again, and he After all, you said this and this. tant never cancelled. the other astray. Burgess might have had wind in told me how fond he was of his col- In fact, you're very wrong. You At Saint l.V.lalo,where the boat leagues, how secure and womb-like won"t do at all. (Biff). And as for Washington of this investigation the Foreign Office seemed, tmd how you-you're the worst of the lot, arrived at 10 a.m., the two stayed even got himself sent l'Tome Association that was and well he had been treated. I men- but I suppose I must forgive you." on board, breakfasting and drinkthrough his erratic behaviour in ing beer till the others had left. tioned that I had at one time been (Bash.) order to warn Maclean on his Kept Secret Then at eleven they, too. went intended for the Diplomatic Serreturn. Burgess might perhaps Burgess·11 ashore, leaving behind vice and. that I had always at one time have been a kind Unexpected Visit from two suitcases. At the station. which HEY had everything in common, regarded it since with some of the of private commissar to Maclean. the Paris express had just left in fact, except each other; they After his carefree luncheon, then. wistfulness which he felt for litera- . Maclean lthey would have had plenty of were like two similar triangles sud- on that last Friday, Maclean was ture. We left rather late and he merged on the steps into a little AFTER a dinner-party on May 15 time to catch it) they took a taxi denly superimposed. When Donald somehow tipped off that exposure to Rennes, the junction some fifty pin-striped shoal of hurrying imminent. At 5.30 he telesix of us came back to my miles away. 'They did not speak met this liberator of irresponsibili- was officials, who welcomed him ties, when Don Quixote found his phones to his contact Burgess who on the way. They gave no tip to house : it was divided into two, and affectionately. says " Leave it all to me." the driver on the fare of 4.500 Sancho Panza, there was bound to One evening at the end of that Donald occasionally spent the francs be a combustion. and they arrived at Rennes night in the other flat. Pa t midwinter a friend came round for a in time to oat.oh the Then how was their association The ~faking of a drink. He said that he was in a nli,tht there was a battering n the station express again. They were not kept secret? I think myself that difficulty : he had been up very late door and I let him in, sober-drunk, noticed oh the train, which Myth with Donald the night before, and the first time I had seen him in reached Paris, via Le Mans, they must have renewed the CamDonald had said to him, " What this legendary condition. He began between five and six. From that bridge friendship in the summer of HIS theory bristles with difficulwould you do if I told you I was to wander round the room, blinking moment they have vanished. 1950, during Maclean's convaleties, but it does at least expl,;i.in at the guests as he divided the a Communist agent?" scence, and that Bu ess was part the sudden departure. And yet. like sheep from the goats, and then of what Maclean called his " ash- all who knew him, I am convinced " I don't know." went out to lie down to sleep in the Preparations for a can life," of which he was ashamed that Donald was not an active "Well, wouldn't you report me?" hall, stretched out on the stone and trying to cure himself. Hence Communist. He had a morbid in"I don't know. Who to? " floor under his overcoat like some Journey the secrecy. Were they Communist clination to suicide, and he would ,. "Well, I am. Go on, report me." figure from a shelter sketch-book. HEN Burgess had booked the agents? Surely the first duty of a say that only his love for his chilHis friend had woken up with The departing guests had to make tickets on the Wednesday he secret agent is to escape detection, dren kept him from it. This love their way over him, and I noticed a confused feeling that something conventional views and was the one emotion which he felt said the other name for the cabin ~press that, although in apparent coma, unpleasant lay before him. It was would probably be Miller; and on rise in his career. The more Com- without ambivalence, and he would he would raise his long stiff leg like an absurd situation, for it was Thursday night he seemed to be in munism they talked the less likely not have taken any drastic step impossible to be sure that Donald a drawbridge when one of the an agitated state " looking for the they were to be agents. And Bur- unless he had been convinced that goats was trying to pass. I put him was serious. My friend knew him it was for the best as far as their friend who was going with him." gess talked a great deal. so well that he could not believe it to bed in his absent friend's flat He seems to have spent much of happiness was concerned. and gave him an Alka-Seltzer was true. The whole incident breakfast in the morning. Friday with Miller, fetching him Perhaps Burgess and Maclean seemed preposterous in the light of Recklessness or from the Green Park Hotel in the are at last integrated. But, as On May 25, the day when day. and lunching with him. Maclean said, what matters most Burgess and Maclean left England, morning Deception? o'clock he rings up from is people, and that is what I arranged to greet some friends in At two club for the hired car, visits makes his case essentially tragic. Burgess Recalled from Schmidt's before lunching down his OULD this have been reckless- Guy Burgess always enjoyed garage with Miller, parks the the street at the Etoile. We met in the ness or a subtle double bluff? being himself, and for a while car near his New Bond Street flat. Washington the road. Donald was with them, and goes shopping, buying a white Both are just possible. Maclean, he lived his own dream, a realislooking rather creased and yellow, N August, 1950, Guy Burgess had casual but diffident. We all stood mackintosh (he had no mackm- however, in the fifteen years in tic example of the " new type which I had come across him, of diplomat " who is always debeen posted to the Washington on the pavement. I said to him, tosh), a fibre suitcase and a good Embassy as Second Secretary; he "You're Cyril Connolly, aren't you? many nylon shirts which did not remained always devoted to the manded in wartime. But Donald nonconformist but essentially non- Maclean, were it not for his lack had last visited Washington in -I'm Sir Donald Maclean"; this fit him. political little group of writers and of balance and emotional security, 1942. By the early spring of 1951 reference to our·conversation at his At 5.25 he left Miller at his painters whom he had known in had the qualities of a great public I things were not going so well for club was intended to efface our last hotel, saying "See you at 7.30." London and Paris. They were his servant. Yet with all his admirahim. The telegrams which he meeting. He seemed calm and He then went back to his flat. home. tion for people, he betrayed those drafted were often rejected as genial, and went off gaily to con- received the telephone call, and did Burgess ever appear at who loved him, humiliated those I being 'biased. there seemed tinue the luncheon with his packed into two suitcases an~ a allNor calculating. "Guy would help who trusted him, and discredited I nothing for him to do, he was friends, who were to rejoin me for brief-case four suits, his shirts, anybody in distress. He would make those who thought like him .... But not popular with his colleagues, coffee. blue Jeans, socks, handkerchiefs, a split-second decision and carry once again we are condemning he was drinking heavily again, At luncheon, they told m& when and his gaudy collection of tiesand on one day, February 28, he they an extensive wardrobe for two it out no matter what the conse- them unheard. came back, he had been melquences. He would certainly not do Meanwhile a myth is slowly was stopped three times for speed- low and confidential; he had nights at sea. At seven he had a anything to injure his country." transfiguring them. At first they ing, which led to an offici'.11com- talked about himself, about last drihk at his club. Later that how Like most people who feel they were seen in Montmartre and plaint. Then he gave a 11ft to a much better he felt, how he didn't evening the American rang up the in Brussels and been starved of love, Burgess Montparnasse, young man and let· him take the have to visit his psycho-analyst so flat to know why he had not been have and Maclean desired to raise the Bayonne, on the high pass to wheel. There was an accident, and it often, and how he was determined fetched. emotional temperature around Andorra, in a bar in Cannes and, turned out that the young man to take a hold on himself lest he Maclean's day was apparently had no . driving licence. Burgess got into any trouble which might quite inactive. Burgess is the agent, them to something higher than with brimming glasses, in a gardenpleaded diplomatic immunity. At bring disgrace upon his children. Maclean the patient, and there is in the world outside, and found n restaurant of Prague;,------, a consolation. If we believe about the same time an En~lish This year they 000166 That day was his birthday. The nothing to show that Donald in- drink visitor to the Embassy reported luncheon was his treat, and the tended going anywhere until he that emotional maladjustment was heard of playing it is Lubianka prison ~n him for anti-British tal~. He was week after he was gettin~ some was driven off from his J:iouse hy the key to their personalities, ., 0 T r I I I -------------.-' T T W I I C �;i-th it:··-- •• ··-· ··- ··-- ·- - ~~~•vb.y telephone at abo~t two able to settle· dow~;tGm~ di§r/mt'd Pw'lli~~~tfilf veittt1,l]flioicfH.fl°!ILctff¥tfifiri/prlfierifl'life "Senator McCarthy," said Bur- o'clock and then gone round, paid task, the additiotDoftJm~~U~ gess. " Terrible atmosphere. All the deposit, and undergone a brief to Lady Gwendolen . Cecil _s. bio- together. This fits in with Donald's characthese purges." driving test. At 5.30 he had graphy o~ the Tory ?nme M1mster, Sall~bury, wh~ch he ~hought ter. He is said to have disappeared He seemed very well and almost received a long telephone call at Lord the best biography m English. once from a party for a few days jaunty, obviously pleased to be • his flat. On June 7, as the hue and cry in Switzerland and been found livback even if he went around saying After a quiet and rather began in the Press, three telegrams ing quietly .in the next village. 1[ In 1944 Maclean was he was convinced that America h~d sober dinner Donald and "Ronald" arrived : one from Guy Burgess Again, he once remarked to a posted to Washington as act• gone mad and was determined mi walked in the garden. Donald to his mother in which he said friend that he wisbed he . coulrl ing First Secretary, and on war. then said that they had to he was embarking on a long st.art a new lit'e as a docker m th" 1 ) his return four years later During the winter Donald go to see a friend who lived Mediterranean holiday; and two East End, but that ration boo~f'Maclean had made a great effort nearby and that he might have to from Maclean, to his mother and identity cards now made it, was appointed Counsellor in to flt into his new existence as stay away for the night. He and his wife. To Lady Macl~an impossible. Cairo. But in Cairo c.-ame Burgess also had ~ 1 a commuter. Mrs. Maclean was promised that he would return on he sent a brief message ~h1ch reputation for disappearmg,- bu1> a ,breakdown. On November expecting another child, and the morrow and took only his brief- he signed with a childhood there would be much less reason_ 6, 1950, after six months' Donald conscientiously refused to case with him when he left. name, to his wife he wrote : " Had . for him to give up the kmd o1 leave, he went hack to the go to,cocktail parties in order not to to leave unexpectedly, terribly existence to which he was addicted. Foreign Office as head of miss his evening train to Kent. By sorry. Am quite well now. Don't Neither could have lasting attracMidnight Arrival at May, however, he seemed to. be the An,.erican Division. worry, darling. I love you. Please tion for the other, for the force more about London of an evenmg, don't stop loving me. Donald." All which united them would also dnvP S uthampton ' and it would be interesting if we three sound plausible but somehow them apart, and the wanderer~ NE day towards the end of could discover if there was any HE pair got into the hired car unreal, unless they were meant to would certainly have been heard of 1950 Donald Maclean sudden increase in these outings and drove to Southampton just be delivered at least a week before. again, for where they were m cominvited me to luncheon after the return of Guy Burgess. in time to reach the cross-Channel Having acquired a little more pany incidents would be bound t_o at his club and talked at length On one occasion in April, after vessel Falaise, which left at mid- hackground, let us examine some arise; and the element of antisome feint attacks, he knocked nig·ht on a special week-end cruise nf the theories with which we social aggression m such a flight about the war in Korea. His down one of his greatest friends to Saint Malo and back by the began. It will be noticed even now would have caused them to leav~ I argument was that what for taking the side of Whittaker Channel Islands, rettu·ntng early-on how very few facts we have. We some kmd of statement. mattered most in the world Chambers, in the Hiss case. Monday morning. " What about suspect that Burgess and Maclean was people. The Koreans were Chambers, according to Donald, the car? " yelled a port garage were Communists at '!Cambridge. A Twitch upon the people, but in the stage which was a doublewe do not know even if they the war had reached both sides faced exhibitionThread ist too revolting ever met after had entirely forgotten this, and to be defended THIS IS THE CONCLUDING in~tqlment of Mr. .Cambridge. Both 2. (a) THEORIES WHICH IMPLY A were exploiting them for their by anyone. w e r e neurotic FORCED MOVE, " A twitch the own prestige. It was essential Donald's drinkConnolly' s personal and intimate study of Guy p e r s o n alities thread." The argument up9n is that to stop the war at all costs and ing followed an with schizoand Maclean were both Burgess and Donald Maclean, the two members phrenic charac- Burgess get them established as people • e s t ab 1 is he d agents, Maclean <or , . routine. The t e r i s t i c s. In Communist both) was growing indiscreet and ' aga1~. charming and of the Foreign Office Sta/ f who vanished on May recent posts both This was not the orthodox Com- , amial:,lle self was and that they were had behaved so unreliable, munist view, according to which gradually 1 e ft recalled before one (or both) could 26, 1951. Their crucial last day in Englandrecklessly that only the North Koreans were behind, and the give away others who were more they had to M secret '' people " and the South Koreans ha n d which and more important; that Maclean' s birthday.-is closely examined. sent home, both (as Burgess maintained) had really patted his friend L ______________ _J drank too much they were immediately imprisoned started the war. Maclean went on on the back and then became or liquidated and may have got no to suggest that all colonial posses- became a flail. A change would attendant. Burgess cried: "Back violent and abusive, both might farther than an uncertain address Paris. If they had refused to go, sions in the Far East were morally come into his voice like the on Monday." be described as abnormal, both in untenable, and when I pleaded that roll of drums for the cabaret. they would have been exposed to allegedly made confessions (many He ,had booked the two-berth we should be allowed to keep Hong- It took- the form of an out- cabin at Victoria on the Wednesday years apart) of being Communist the British and brought disgrace kong and Malaya for their dollar- burst of indignation, often directed in his own name, and on t.tiat day agents, and both were notorious on their families. Even so, it 1s earning capacities he said that that against himself, in which the had if experienced diplomats invited a young American, among their colleagues for their doubtful was precisely the reason why we embittered idealist would abanaged 38 and 40 would sign anti-British arguments and were whom he introduced to various should give them up, as only then don all compromise and castigate people as " Miller " and whom he bitter their own death-warrants withagainst authoritarianism could we prove ourselves in earnest all forms of humbug and pretence. had met on the Queen Mary, out a murmur and depart without and imperialism. Both had risen and lay the basis of future good As the last train left for Sevenoaks when returning from Washington, fast under wartime conditions and a farewell. relations. from faraway Charing Cross he to accompany him. (b) They both (or Maclean alone) But Burgess had yet maintained an under- had would wave a large hand, in some let him down at the last given information to the moment. graduate-like informality in their bar, to his companions. "Well, any- Burgess seems to have had the idea appearance and habits and in the Russians at some time, perhaps Back at the Foreign how, you're all right. And you are of a long holiday m France in his general bed-sitting room casualness on one occasion only, and this was all right." The elected smiled hap- mind, but thao was unconnected of their way of life. Both had·two preying on Donald's conscience. Office pily, but doubt was spreading like a with the week-end jaunt. For this enemies, adolescence and alcohol, If the information was given m Washington, it might have been not Friday evening he had an imporE talked for a little about how frown on Caligula. "Wait-I'm and when they vanished each was valuable, and the leak would he felt at being back at work sure. Perhaps you aren't all right. tant dinner engagement whfoh he thought by his friends to have led have taken a long time to trace. and ' Sir Donald " again, and he After all, you said this and this. never cancelled. the other astray. Burgess might have had wind in told me how fond he was of his col- In fact, you're very wrong. You At Saint :tvralo, where the boat Washington of this Investigation leagues, how secure and womb-like won't do at all. (Bi//). And as for arrived at 10 a.m., the two stayed even got himself sent 1!ome the worst of the lot, the Foreign Office seemed, and how you-you're board, breakfasting and drinkAssociation that was and through his erratic behaviour in well he had been treated. I men- but I suppose I must forgive you." on ing l:,leer till the others had left. order to warn Maclean on his tioned that I had at one time been (Bash.) Kept Secret Then at eleven they, too, went return. Burgess might perhaps intended for the Diplomatic Serashore, leaving behind Burgess·g at one time have been a kind vice and. that I had always Unexpected HEY had everything in common, Visit from two suitcases. At the station, which of private commissar to Maclean. regarded it since with some of the the Paris express had just left in fact, except each other; they After his carefree luncheon. then, wistfulness which he felt for literaMaclean (they would have had plenty ot were like two similar triangles sud- on that last Friday, Maclean was ture. We left rather late and he time to catch it) they took a taxi merged on the steps into a little FTER a dinner-party on May 15 to Rennes, the junction some fifty denly superimposed. When Donald somehow tipped off that exposure imminent. At 5.30 he tele-j pin-striped shoal of hurrying of us came back to my miles away. They did not speak met this liberator of irresponsibili- was officials, who welcomed him housesix ties, when Don Quixote found his phones to his contact Burgess who on the way. They gave no tip to : it was divided into two, and says "Leave it all to me." affectionately. Donald occasionally spent the the driver on the fare of 4,500 Sancho Panza, there was bound to One evening at the end of that night be a combustion. francs and they alTived at Rennes in the other flat. P~t midwinter a friend came round for a The l\faking of a station in time to catch the Then how was their association drink. He said that he was in a nl;tht there was a batter!ng•}m the express again. They were not kept secret? I think myself that door and I let him in, sober-drunk, difficulty : he had been up very late :Myth noticed o'n the train, which they must have renewed the Camwith Donald the night before, and the first time I had seen him in reached Paris, via Le Mans, bridge friendship in the summer of this legendary condition. He began HIS theory bristles with difficulDonald had said to him, " What between five and six. From that 1950, during Maclean's convaleties, but it does at least exphtin would you do if I told you I was to wander round the room, blinking moment they have vanished. at the guests as he divided the scence, and that Burgess was part the sudden departure. And yet, like a Communist agent?" sheep from the goats, and then of what Maclean called his " ash- all who knew him, I am convinced " I don't know." went out to lie down to sleep in the Preparations for a can life," of which he was ashamed that Donald was not an active "Well, wouldn't you report me?" hall, stretched out on the stone and trying to cure himself. Hence Communist. He had a morbid infloor under his overcoat like some "I don't know. Who to? " Journey the secrecy. Were they Communist clination to suicide, and he would ' "Well, I am. Go on, report me." figure from a shelter sketch-book. HEN Burgess had booked the agents? Surely the first duty of a say that only his love for his childeparting guests had to make His friend had woken up with The tickets on the Wednesday he secret agent is to escape detection, dren kept him from it. This love way over him, and I noticed said the a confused feeling that something their conventional views and was the one emotion which he felt other name for the cabin ~press that, although in apparent coma, would probably unpleasant lay before him. It was he be Miller; and on rise in his career. The more Com- without ambivalence, and he would would raise his long stiff leg like an absurd situation, for it was a drawbridge when one of the Thursday night he seemed to be in munism they talked the less likely not have taken any drastic step impossible to be sure that Donald goats was trying to pass. I put him an agitated state " looking for the they were to be agents. And Bur- unless he had been convinced that it was for the best as far as their was serious. My friend knew hrm to bed in his absent friend's flat friend who was going with him." gess talked a great deal. , happiness was concerned. so well that he could not believe it and gave him an Alka-Seltzer He seems to have spent much of was true. The whole incident 1::ireakfastin the morning. Perhaps Burgess and Maclean Friday with Miller, fetching him seemed preposterous in the light of Recklessness or are at last integrated. But, as from the Green Park Hotel in the On May 25, the day when Maclean said, what matters most day. morning and lunching with him. Burgess and Maclean left England, At two o'clock he rings up from Deception? is people, and that is what I arranged to greet some friends in makes his case essentially tragic. club for the hired car, visits Burgess Recalled • from Schmidt's before lunching down his always enjoyed the garage with Miller, parks the COULD this have been reckless- Guy Burgess the street at the Etoile. We met in near his New Bond Street flat, ness or a subtle double bluff? being himself, and for a while ashington ' the road. Donald was with them, car and goes shopping, buying a wh~te Both are just possible. Maclean, he lived his own dream, a realis, looking rather creased and yellow, N August, 1950, Guy Burgess had casual but diffident. We all stood mackintosh (he had no mackm- however, in the fifteen years in tic example of the " new type tosh) a fibre suitcase and a good which I had come across him, of diplomat " who is always debeen posted to the Washington on the pavement. I said to him, always devoted to the manded in wartime. But Donald Embassy as Second Secretary; he "You're Cyril Connolly, aren't you? many' nylon shirts which did not remained nonconformist but essentially non- Maclean, were it not for his lack had last visited Washington in -I'm Sir Donald Maclean"; this flt him. political little group of writers and of balance and emotional security, 1942. By the early spring of 1951 reference to our·conversation at his At 5.25 he left Miller at his painters whom he had known in the qualities of a great public things were not going so well for club was intended to efface our last hotel, saying "See you a~ 7•3o." London and Paris. They were his had servant. Yet with all his admirahim. The telegrams which he meeting. He then went back to his flat. home. He seemed calm and tion for people, he betrayed those drafted were often rejected as genial, and went off gaily to con- received the telephone call, a nd Nor did Burgess ever appear at who loved him, humiliated those being biased, there seemed tinue the luncheon into two suitcases and a t· , G Id h with his packed e 1P who trusted him, and discredited nothing for him to do, he was friends, who were to rejoin me for brief-case four suits, his shirts, all ca 1cula mg. • uy wou blue jeans, socks, handkerc~iefs, anybody in distress. He would make those who thought like him .... But not popular with his colleagues, coffee. ·s gaudy collection of tiesa split-second decision and carry once again we are condemning he was drinking heavily again, At luncheon, they told me when and hl it out no matter what the conse- them unheard. and on one day, February 28, he they an extensive wardrobe for two quences. He would certainly not do came back, he had been melMeanwhile a myth is slowly was stopped three times for speed- low and confidential; nights at sea. At seven he had a . t . . . t ,, he had last drihk at his club. Later that anythmg transfiguring them. At first they o mJure 11is coun ry. ing, which led to an official com- talked about himself, about how and Like most people who feel they were seen in Montmartre plaint. Then he gave a 11ft to a much better he felt, how he didn't evening the American rang up the in Brussels and young man and let· him take the have to visit his psycho-analyst so flat to know why he had not been have been starved of love, Burgess Montparnasse, fetched. and Maclean desired to raise the Bayonne, on the high pass to wheel. There was an accident, and it often, and how he was determined emotional temperature around Andorra, in a bar in Cannes and, turned out that the young man to take a hold on himself les't he Maclean's day was apparently to something higher than with brimming glasses, in a gardenhad no ,driving licence. Burgess got into any trouble which might quite inactive. Burgess is the agen_t, them in the world outside, and found ,1 restaurant of Prague. pleaded diplomatic immunity. At bring disgrace upon his children. Maclean the patient, and there is drink a consolation. If we believe This year they have been about the same time an English That day was his birthday. The nothing to show that Donald in- that emotional maladjustment was heard of playing chess in the visitor to the Embassy reported luncheon was his treat, and the tended going anywhere until he the key to their personalities, it is him for anti-British talk. He was week after he was getting some was driven off from his house by . hard to see how they could possess Lubianka prison and running an import-export business in Prague; recalled from Washington as compassionate leave, for his wife His birthday luncheon the control to serve a foreign coun- and Guy Burgess as visiting " generally unsuitable " and arrived would be going to hospital for the Burgess. lasted from 12.30 until after 2.30 try coolly and ruthlessly for twenty Browning's villa (" What's become home in the Queen Mary on May 4. baby; he asked if ~e could come - champagne and oysters at t k 11th t· i e .rme n of Waring? ") north-east of Venice, A f,ew days later I ran into him down and visit my friends for some Wheeler's, then some more solid years a nd ye w_or a_ And so for many years they will be in the street. He came up with his part of the till!-e. They had be~n food at Schmidt's; he was at work executive capac1t1es for their own. seen until the mystery is solved, I think that Burgess was a Marxusual shaggy, snarling-playful very kind to him when he was 111, till 5.30 and he went home by his if it ever is, haunting the Old manner and said he was just back and he was now in effect making usual train. But it may be that ist in his mental processes and an World's pleasure-traps about the the telephone call which Burgess anti-Marxist individualist in his from America. them a favourable report. . season of their disappearance, received at 5.30 was some kind of personality. Maclean, it may be, After spending the afternoon m "Where were you?" had something on his conscience, bringing with them strawberries his office he went off to Charing s o s from Maclean. "Washington." During May Burgess had had his which however, was a pa1ticularly and hot weather and escapist Cross and caught his usual train "What was it like?" to Sevenoaks. That evening worries, but he had been offered tende; one; possil:.lly,above all, he leanings: a portent 000167 • dle "Absolutely frightful." Burgess arrived at Donald's house an important jol:.lon a newspaper had a fear about his mental summer's spring. "Why?" at Tatsfield-he had driven down and he was going out to dinner to condition. World copyright : re'"r:rrrnmr""in clinch this on the day he vanished. So many explanations of their whole or part f" I in a hired car-and was introduced of McCarthy." "Because ~'1!tflFtm:lfa I Office, where his reputation soon mounted. Burgess went from the B.B.C. to the Foreign Office in 1944, and was in the Far-Eastern Department in 1948. ! 0 T - - -, r I I W T A T W w I �f " ----'-I ,_ ....... THE SUNDAY TIMES, SEPTEMBER 21. 1952 ---------------------------------------------------------------------~ THE MISSING HOSE who become obsessed with a puzzle are· not very likely to solve it. Here is one about which I have brooded tor a year and would like to unburden myself. Something of what I have put down may cause pain; but that I must risk, because where people are concerned the truth can never be ascertained without painful things being mid, and because I feel that what I put down may lead to somebody remembering the fact or phrase which wlll suddenly bring it all into focus. T DIPLOMATS pattern in Burgess's rel<ttinn,shios. In romantic friendship he liked to dommate, but ms mtellectua1 ; admiration was usually kept for those who were older than himself. !'here were also cromes with whom he preferred to drink and argue. In June, 1944, he had been transferred to the News Department of the Foreign Office, in 1946 to the office of the Minister of State. Mr. Hector McNeil, in 1947 to B branch (Foreign Office), and in 1948 to the Far-Eastern Department of the Foreign Office. In 1944, the year that Guy Burgess went from the B.B.C. to the rore1gn Ulhce uonald Maclean was posted to Washington as actmg First l:iecretary. On 111:; return in 1948 he gave -I!. dinner-part} to his friends. It was a delightful evening, he had become a good host, his charm was based not on vanity but on sincerity, and he would discuss foreign affairs as a student, not • an expert. He enjoyed the magazine that I then edited, which was , a blue rag to Burgess, a weak injec- ! tion of culture into a society , alreadv dead On his return from Washingtr11.j he was appointed Counsellor m ~ ca.no. " 1n Dona.ta IV1a.c1eau .l see a courage and a love of justice; I see a soul that could not be deflected 1 from the straight course; and I see j in it that deep, affection for his ' friends which he always manifested." The worc!,s of Rtanlt"v Baldwin about the father seemed to 1 be coming true of the son. A I Counsellor at thirty-five, ne seemed / in a fair way to equal his parent's distinction. by Cyri,l Connolly Maclean in 1913. The one reached his favourite authors were Mrs. the bourgeoisie entirely surrounded Cambridge by way of Eton and Gaskell and Balzac and, later on, by Communists, like the Alcazar of Trinity, the other, two years later, Mr. E. M. Forster. " Lenin had said Toledo. by Gresham's School and Trinity , Oneshaken day Burgess's friendimpressed. came to and yet Hall. They knew each other "t somewhere that he had learnt more her Cambridge and were both about France from Balzac's novels Guy had confided to him that ue members of the left-wing circle than trom au rnswry-oooll.:; put was not just a member but a secret there. But there is no evid- together. Accordingly Balzac was agent of the Communist Party, and ence of that oppressive parental the greatest writer of all times." he had then invited him to join in this work. The friend had refused authority which drives young men (Koestler.) Donald was seldom heard to talk with concern; and for her part the to revolt. politic::;. Guy never seemed to stop. novelist felt that • Burgess's He was the type of bumptious Fascism was suddenly explained : Pre-War Cambridge Marxist who saw himself as Saint- as a secret agent he must have Just, who enjoyed making the flesh been told to investigate the British of his bourgeois listeners creep by Fascists and hoped to pass· as one. Marxists his picture of the justice which Even so, it was impossible to feel If I did not believe (by instinct T was more than ten years since history would mete out to them. quite certain. for it would be in rather than reason) that the two the end of the first world war, Grubby, intemperate and promis- keeping with Burgess's neurotic people about whom I am going to write may well have been victims of and a new generation was growing cuous. he loved to moralise over his power-drive that he should pretend up which found no outlet in home friends and satirise their smug to be an under-cover man. some unforeseen calamity, the Years afterwards the novelist puzzle would not exist and I should politics for the adventurous or class - unconscious behaviour, so altruistic impulses of the adole- reckless of the reckoning in store. was told that he had spent several have nothing to say. I have had access to no secrets. scent. Marxism satisfied .both the But when bedtime came, very late, days wrestling with his conscience I have not talked to many of the rebelliousness of youth and its and it was the moment to put the at the time of the Soviet-German analyses away, the word "Prepos- pact and had decided to give up people I should like to, I offer no craving for dogma. The Carnbrictge Communists sub- terous" dying on his lips, he would the whole business. This may well solution, only a few suggestions, a stituted a new father or super-ego imply a dispensation under which haw• been true. • meditation on human complexity the •old one, and accepted a this one house at least, this family, Here we have to decide whether which leads to murky bypaths but for new justice and a stricter these guests, might be spared the Burgess visited Germanv as a which, I hope, will show that no authority. They felt they had worst consequences. thanks to the secret Communist, a Nazi symone has any right to jump to exposed the weaknesses of Liberal• protection of their brilliant pathiser or as an observer for our unfavourable conclusions about ism' alohg with their elders' ignor- hunger-marching friend whose own Intelligence Services or-at people of whom they know nothing. ance of economic affairs. To this position would bP sr> ~ommanding various levels of his opportunismgeneration Communism made an in the happy worke_rs' Utopia. as all thJ·ee. On one occasion he appeal. standmg tor It was the time when Abyssinia took some Boy Scouts over to a A Matter of Choice intellectual love, liberty and social justice and mattered, before the Russian rally at Gol<>gne. for a new approach to life .and purges had taken place and the In January, 1939, he left the or Necessity art. Yet it was connected with a especial bitterness of Communist B.B.C., and in the autumn of 1940 HE disappearamoe, t.owards the political party, and this party is controversy had arisen. There were he was doing confidential work for end of May last year, of Guy not inclined to relinquish its hold. very few ex-Communists. and the the War Office. At this time he was "The Comintern," says Arthur party's claim to represent the arrested for being drunk in charge Burgess and Donald Maclean 1s a Koestler, " carried on a white-slave extreme left-wing was not disputed. of a car and acquitted because he mystery which cannot be solved traffic whose victims ,were young Unlike all other political parties, was working fourteen hours a day A Breakdown m while so many factors remain idealists flirtin\l and had just unknown, and therefore any with violence. ' I I been in an airCairo explanation can be based only on The feelings of FIRST . M r . .. , raid. a balance of probabilities. HIS IS THE instalment of By January, N 1950 word began to reach us Such solutions fall into two cate- such young men , l d • • d G 1941 h gories, according as they presup- are described in that all was not so well. It was Connolly s persona an intimate stu y of uy one; mar! Int~! pose the disappearance to be a numerous nov~ls said that vona1ct, whose hlgl1 and poems. or m B D ld M h b Liberal principles had received full matter of choice or of necessity. • such tracts as urgess and ona ac ean, t e two mem ers B.B.C., and there scope in enlightened Washington, A voluntary flight might be poliMr. Stephen / h F . Off. ff h . h d d he remained for had been so disheartened by the tical, as that of Hess to Scotland, Spender's " Foro t e orezgn zce sta w o vanis e towar s three years in or of a private and psychological poverty and corruption of the nature, as when two boys run away Middle East that he had had some the end of May last year. It will be read with :~g~ean of breakdown. It seems that from school. involved • l • b h d • h I ments. His posi- kind The compelled exit, the forced They he adopted a theory that sufficient no bet.raval of partzcu ar interest y t ose concerne wit t ie tion became one move, implies escape under duress, the writers' own • • • 'd l • l t hat greatly alcohol could release in one a the threat being either of private country, and the I pecu l'iar pro bl ems arising in an age o z eo ogica appealed to him, second personality which, though blackmail or of public exposure; it might simulate the destructive dose of Marxism conflict which is often pro7'ected on the plane of involving 11i m element, worked only good by helpor again it might be the result of was seldom • eventually in an imperious recall by a Power ing people to acknowledge the truth which regarded one or both of the le~ak a t w e re private personality. A second and concluding ~t~~~ w~i~\ ';i~~ about themselves and reveal their two diplomats as in danger or as affinities. Donald entered these_ two young article will appear next week o r g a nisations, latent having become too dangerous. into the spirit of the investigation men like? Donald • until he was able There remains a possibility Maclean w as L _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _] to represent the and took as his alter ego t,he name ' that they were sent abroad on a s an d y - haired, Foreign Office. of " Gordon " from an export gin secret mission, and another that tall, with great latent physical Communism then offered the con- He helped, for instance, to remove with a tusky wild boar on the label. they were lured abroad and then strength, When night tell his new self took but fat and rather solation of a religion. the anti-Russian bias from Poles kidnapped. possession. He stampedea one 01 flabby. Meeting him, one was During the Spanish War I saw whom we were training for There are stmply not enough two parties, but got into more of both amiability and much less of Burgess, who had now sabotage. facts to exclude any of these conscious He did not seem joined the B.B.C. in Bristol. A We now see the outline of the serioui: trouble when. in thP comexplanations, nor can we even pre- aweakness. animal but resembled terrible thing had happened-he ideal personalities of Burgess and pany of a friend, he broke into the r sume that the behaviour of both thepolitical clever helpless youth in a had become a Fascist! Still sneer- Maclean. on the unstable founda.- first apartment to hand in a block Maclean and Burgess is covered by Huxley novel, an outsize Cherubino ing at the bourgeois intellectual, he tions of their adolescence they were of flats and sharpened his tusks on the same explanation. The most on amorous experience but now vaunted the intensely modern erecting the selves whom they the furniture. striking fact----the suddenness of intent Then on a boating trip on the clumsy to succeed. The realism of the Nazi leaders: his would like to be, the father figures their disappearance-suggests a too shy and of an august atmosphere admiration for economic ruthless- of their day-dreams, the finished Nile, with some twenty people in panic, but even this suddenness shadow the party, he seized a rifle from an lay heavy on him, and he sought ness and the short cut to power Imagos. With his black hat and could have been counterfeited. The refuge on the more impetuous and had swung him to the opposite umbrella, his brief-case under his otrtc1ous sentry and. began to 1mpenispontaneous thoroughness of the emancipated fringes of.Bloomsbury extreme. He claimed to have arm-O.H.M.S.-Donald is "Sir the safety of those nearest him by search would seem to indicate that and Chelsea. Such a young man attended a Nuremberg Rally. Donald Maclean," the Tyrrell, the swinging it wildly. A Secretary at the Foreign Office first accepted the ~an be set right by the devotion of Maclean. however, a strong sup- Eyre Crowe of the second world the Embassy intervened, and in the theory of kidnapping, and so would an intelligent, older woman, and it porter of the Spanish Republic, war, the last great Liberal diplo- scuffle received a broken leg. The tend to exclude the notion of a a misfortune that Donald was seemed suddenly to have acquired matist, terror of the unjust and two men returned home on sick secret mission (unless self-imposed), was just not quite able to inspire such a backbone. morally and physically. hope of the weak. "If it wasn't leave. while Mrs. Maclean wh" was while a high French police official an charming, clever His appearance greatly improved, for you, Sir Donald," snarled on the boating trip, went to Spain has maintained that it would have and attachment; affectionate, he was still too his fat disappeared, and he had Ribbentrop, " we might still have for a rest with her two sons. been impossible for the two visitors unformed. become a personage. In 1935 he won the peace." What was the nature of Donald's to France to elude the dra~-net Guy Burgess, though he preferred had passed into the Foreign Burgess, of course, is a \)OWer outburst? It was not just overspread for them ,..,ithout the' protection" of a political organisation. the company of the able to the Office, and from 1938 he was at behind the scenes : a brigadier in work, but over-strain; the etfort ot artistic, also moved on the edge of the Embassy in Paris. mufti, Brigadier Brilliftnt.. D.S.O .. being " Sir Donald," the wholP There are, ho;wever, countries I remember some arguments F.R.S., the famous historian, with paraphernalia of " O.H.M.S.," had where it might 1:iepossible for two the same world. He was of a very able-bodied men to obtain work and different physique, tall - medium with him. I had felt a great sym- boyish grin and cold blue eyes, been too much for him and he had now for special reverted to his adolescence, or to still escape notice, but they are not in height, with blue eyes, an in- pa thy for the Spanish Anarchists, seconded With long stride and his ideal of Paris days, the free and so easily reached from the station quisitive nose, sensual mouth, curly with whom he was extremely duties. hair and alert fox-terrier expressevere, as with all the other nonhunched shoulders, untidy, chain- solitary young sculptor working all atRennes, in Brittany, whence they vanished on May 26, 1951. One sion. He was immensely energetic, Communist factions, and I detected smoking, he talks-walks and talks night in his attic. The return of must also consider the possibility a great talker, reader, boaster, in his reproaches the familiar -while the whole devilish simpli- the repressed is familiar to psychowalker, who swam like an otter and priggish tone of the Marxist, the city of his plan unfolds and the analysts, and there was also now a that they are dead. As one oi the many who knew drank, not like a feckless under- resonance of the " Father Found." men from M.I. this and M.I. that. brief return to his early sexual both, and as one of the few who graduate, as Donald was apt to do, At the same time he could switch S.I.S. and S.O.E., listen dumb- ambivalence. " Gordon" had given " My God, Brilliant, I " Sir Donald " the sack. The spoke with Maclean on his last dav but like some Rabelaisian bottle- to a magisterial defence of Cham- founded. in England, I should like to swiper whose thirst was unquench- berlain's foreign policy and seemed believe you're right----it could be enraged junior partner would no able. able to hold the two self-righteous done." The Bri~adier looked at his longer put up with him. approach the subject from a difpoints of view simultaneously. watch and a chilled blue eye fixed ferent standpoint. Let us put aside His evenings in Paris were the chief of the Secret Service., the facts of which we know so little Contrasts in Their usually spent in the Left-Bank "At this moment, sir," and there Six ,Months' Leave for and consider the personalities cafes with a little group of hard- was pack-ice in his voice, "my involved. In so far as one indiCharacters Maclean working painters and sculptors. chaps are doing it." vidual can ever understand During the daytime he, too, another, we may find that we have physical type to which worked very hard, and it was now ACK in London he had six grounds to eliminate some of these THE Burgess's War-Time months' leave to get well and to Donald Maclean, despite his that he began to build up his explanations and so narrow down make up his mind about the future. the value of X, as we shall name puppy fat, belonged was that of reputation in the Foreign Office, Life He was still drinking and was now the factor responsible for their the elongated, schizophrenic, sad- and we must remember that it undergoing treatment from a grew very high indeed. joint disapp~arance. countenanced Don Q u i x o t ewoman psycho-analyst. Hii; appearN 1940 Donald Maclean had marDonald had many admirable I introverted and diffident, an Scottish qualities. He was respon- . ried in Paris an American girl ance was frightening : he had lost Looking Back to idealist and a dreamer given to sible and painstaking, logical and as delightful as her name, Melinda his serenity, his hands would who bore him two sons. tremble, his face was usually a sudden outbursts of aggression; resolute in argument, judicious Marling, Childhood brought both sweetness and livid yellow and he looked as if he whereas Guy Burgess, despite and even-tempered and, I should She understanding into his life. Guy had spent the night sitting up in\ an admirable son and WO facts distinguish Burgess his intelligence. was a round-faced, imagine, Though he remained brother. He had grown much Burgess, however, as the war went . a tunnel. . and Maclean from the so-called g o 1d e n - pated Sancho Panza, handsomer, and his tall figure, his on. led a more• troubled existence. detached and amiable as ever. it ·" atomic " spies-first, they are extrovert. A new friend whom he had made was clear that he was miserable manic, grave long face and noble brow, his not known to have committed cynical and exhibitionist, avidly dark suit, black hat and umbrella was taken prisoner-of-war, and it and in a very bad way. In conany crime, second, they are curious, yetargumentative, vague were severe and distinguished. One was noted that he had become versation a kind of. shutter would members of the governing class, of and incompetent.sometimes With all his felt now that he was a rock, that if much more insulting and destruc- fall as if he had returned to the high bureaucracy. the "they" moreover, Guy Burgess one were in trouble he would help tive when he drank-he seemed to some basic and incommunicable who rule the " we " to whom toughness. intensely to be liked and and not just let one down with a hit on the unforgivable thing to anxiety. refugees like Fuchs and Pontecorvo wanted say to everyone. His mental a good conver- reprimand. Some of his friends urged him to and humble figures like Nunn May was indeed likeable, sadism. which sometimes led to his resign, pointing out that since he and an enthusiastic belong. If traitors thev be, then sationalist getting knocked out, did not of his friends. Beneath disliked the life and disagreed with they are traitors to themselves. builder-up exclude great kindness to those in the policy he could not go back " terribilita " of his Marxist White Hope of the But. as m all cases where people the trouble. Above all, he disliked without it all happening again. analyses one divined the affectionseem to act against their own ate moral cowardice of the public anyone to get out of his clutches: Others assured him that he would Foreign Office political interests. we must go schoolboy. he was an affectionate bully soon be well enough to return to back to childhood. capable of acts of generosity, like a work, which would prove the best An old Etontan, an " Apostle " Politics begin in the nursery; no REMEMBER, at the beginning magnate of the Dark Ages. thing for himself and his family. who had taken a First In History one is born patriotic or unpatriotic, of the war, mentioning to one the same time he was drink- The Foreign Office had to weigh right-wing or left-win15, and it is at Cambridge, and was tempted to of our most famous diplomatic ingAtand living extravagantly. He his years of hard work against the child whose craving for love become a don, he yet seemed an fond of luxury and display, of the outburst, which they put down is unsatisfied, whose desire for adventurer with a first-class mind, representatives that Donald was a was suites at Claridges and fast cars who would always be in the know, friend of mine and receiving a which he drove abominably. He to the strain of long hours ant: power is thwarted, or whose innate formfll cncial rlnties in Cairo and sense of justice is warped, that a framer of secret policies, a glance of incredulity. Satisfied to the febrile war-time Washington. His rep • a eventually may try to become a financial wizard already. and a that this indeed was so, he belonged cafe-society of the temporary Civil penetrating mind, sou 000168 t revolutionary or a dictator. In future editor, at least, of " The explained that Maclean was Servant. Maclean to the secret and quiet industry tur Times." Though he enjoyed a England wa attacp. s iritual values citadel of the permanent. The psycmatnst's re""',.,.,,......,,...,..., •as indifferent a white hope, a "puer aureus" more encouraging, and by I 1 I T T I z t:ifrt ~f6ira11;~1y, f I B I T I �the bourgeoisie entirf)pj'ff{lffoiffie/&d.ed ~ret'lw~~tpJ!YRfrns1t-wttd~homby Communists, llb:llulllel'ltlti.-O~n ~Ll1fe'fOl'.l'.#~k-r/lcAfli:!iili m~rmatUin Toledo. In June. 1944. he had 6een tr.1.ns. One day Burgess's friend came to fern>cl to the News Department of her shaken and yet impressed. the Foreign Office, in 1946 to the Guy naa conticted Lo him that ne office of the Minister of State. Mr. was not just a member but a secret Hector McNeil, in 1947 to B branch agent of the Communist Party, and (Foreign Office), and in 1948 to the he had then invited him to join in Far-Eastern Department of the this work. The friend had refused Foreign Office. with concern: and tor her part the In 1944, the year that Guy Burnovelist . felt that Burgess's gess went from the B.B.C. 'to the Fascism was suddenly explained: rore1gn uthce iJonald Maclean was Pre-War Cambridge as a secret _agent_ he must gave posted to Washington as actbeen_told to mvest1gate the_ Bnt1sh mg First ::iecretary. un 111:; Marxists Fascists and hoped to pass as one. return in 1948 he gave "Even so, it was impossible to feel dinner-partt to his friends. It T was more than ten years since quite certain, for it would be in was a delightful evening, he had the end of the first world war, keeping with Burgess's neurotic become a good host, his charm was and a new generation was growing power-drive that he should pretend based not on vanity but on up which found no outlet in home to be an under-cover man. sincerity, and he would discuss politics for the adventurous or Years afterwards the novelist foreign affairs as a student, not altruistic impulses of the adoleW8.$ told that he had spent several an expert. He enjoyed the magascent. Marxism satisfied both the days wrestling with his conscience zine that I then edited, which was rebepiousnesds of youth and its at the time of the Soviet-German a blue rag to Burgess, a weak injeccravmg for ogma. pact and had decided to give up tion of culture into a society The Cambrictge Communists subthe whole business. This may well ah·Padv dead stituted a new father or super-ego havP been true. _ On his return from washingtc'. for the old one, and accepted a Here we _h!J,Ve to decide whether he was appointed Counsellor 1,i new justice and a stricter Burgess v1s1ted. Germany as a <;ai10. .. ln lJonam .tvucw,rn J. see a authority. They felt they had secre~ Communist. a Nazi sym- courage and a love of justice; I see a exposed the weaknesses of Liberalpath1ser o~ as an observer for our soul that could not be deflected , ism' ong with their elders' ignorown Intelligence _Serv1cest or-at from the straight course; and I see I ance of economic affairs. To this various levels of his oppor u;11sm- in it that deep, affection for his generation Communism made an as all three. On one occasion he friends which he always manitook some Boy Scouts over to a fegted." The wordf' of Rtan\ev l A Matter of Choice intellectual appeal. standing for love, liberty and social justice and rally at Go~ne. Baldwin about the father seemed to for a new approach to life .and In Janua~y, 1939, he left the be coming tl'Ue of the son. A or Necessi:ty a1t. Yet It was connected with a B.B.C., an!=!m the aut1:1mn of 1940 Counsellor at thirty-tive, he seemed he was domg confidei:it1~l work for in a fair way to equal his parent's HE disappearance, towards the political party, and this party is inclined to relinquish its hold. the War Office._At this t1qie he was distinction. end of May last year, of Guy not "The Comintern," says Arthur arrested for bemg drunk m charge Burgess and Donald Maclean is a Koestler, " carried on a white-slave of a car and acquitted because he mystery which cannot be solved traffic whose victims ,were young was working fourteen hours a day A Breakdown in while so many factors remain idealists flirtm\l and had just unknown, and therefore any with violence. ( - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 7 been in an airCairo explanation can be based only on The feelings of FIRST Mr. raid a balance of probabilities. such young men HIS IS THE instalment of By January, N 1950 word began to reach us Such solutions fall into two catedescribed in 1941, he gories, according as they presup- are all was not so well. It was novels Connolly' s personal and intimate study of Guy was saidthatthat pose the disappearance to be a _numerous uona1d, wnu.se mgh and poems. or in once more in the matter of choice or of necessity. Liberal principles had received full such tracts as Burgess and Donald Maclean, the two members B.B.C., and there scope in enlightened Washington, A voluntary flight might be poli- M r. Ste p h e n . . . he remained for had been so disheartened tical, as that of Hess to Scotland, by the Spender's .. Forof the Forezgn Offzce staff who vanzshed towards three• years in or of a private and psychological poverty and corruption of the Middle East that he had had some nature, as when two boys run away t:'.ttira11~~~ the end of May last year. It will be read with :~~g~ean!:tfr~: of breakdown. It seems that from school. involved • ,_ • b h d • l h ments. His posi- kind The compelled exit, the forced They he adopted a theory that sufficient no betraval of partzcuwr interest y t ose concerne wzt i t e tion became one move, implies escape under duress, the writers' own alcohol could release in one a • • • f 'd l • l th a t greatly the threat being either of private country, and the I pecu iar pro bl ems arzszng in an age o z eo ogzca appealed to him, second personality which, though blackmail or of public exposure; it might simulate the destructive • o f ten pro7ecte • d on t he p lane o f involving or again it might be the result of dose w a s of sMarxism e 1d O m con fl'zct w h'ic h zs eventually himin element, worked only good by helpan imperious recall by a Power ing people to acknowledge the truth th about al. private personality A second and concludincr o liaison work wi which regarded one or both of the le th themselves and reveal their W h a t w e r e • highly s e c r e t two diplomats as in danger or as latent affinities. Donald entered these two young article will appear next week o r g a nisations, having become too dangerous. like? Donald • until he was able into the spirit of the investigation There remains a possibility men Maclean w as L _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _J to represent the and took as his alter ego the name that they were sent abroad on a s a n d y - haired, Foreign Office. of " Gordon " from an export gin secret mission, and another that tall, with great latent physical Communism then offered the con- He helped, for instance, to remove with a tusky wild boar on the label. they were lured abroad and then strength, When night tell his new self took but fat and rather solation of a religion. the anti-Russian bias from Poles kidnapped. Meeting him. one was During the Spanish War I saw whom we were training for possession. He siampectea one 01 There are stmply not enough flabby. two parties, but got into more both amiability and much less of Burgess, who had now sabotage. facts to exclude any of these conscious of He did not seem joined the B.B.C. in Bristol. A We now see the outline bf the serioul' trouble when. in t-hP comI explanations, nor can we even pre- aweakness. animal but resembled terrible thing had happened-he ideal personalities of Burgess and pany of a friend, he broke into the sume that the behaviour of both thepolitical clever helpless youth in a had become a Fascist! Still sneer- Maclean. On the unstable founda- first apartment to hand in a block Maclean and Burgess is covered by Huxley novel, an outsize Cherubino ing at the bourgeois intellectual, he tions of their adolescence they were of flats and sharpened his tusks on the same explanation. The most on amorous experience but now vaunted the intensely modern erecting the selves whom they the furniture. striking fact-the suddenness of intent Then on a boating trip on the shy and clumsy to succeed. The realism of the ~azi leaders: his would like to be, the father figures their disappearance-suggests a too shadow of an august atmosphere admiration for economic ruthless- of their day-dreams, the finished Nile, with some twenty people in panic, but even this suddenness lay heavy on him, and he sought ness and the short cut to power Imagos. With his black hat and the party, he seized a rifle from an could have been counterfeited. The refuge on the more impetuous and had swung him to the opposite umbrella. his brief-case under his otlic1oussentry-and began to 1mpenJ . spontaneous thoroughness of the emancipated of.Bloomsbury extreme. He claimed to have arm-0.H.M.S.-Donald is "Sir the safety of those nearest him by 1 search would seem to indicate that and Chelsea. fringes a young man attended a Nuremberg Rally. Donald Maclean," the Tyrrell, the swinging it wildly. A Secretary at the Foreign Office first accepted the ran be set rightSuch by the devotion of Maclean. however, a strong sup- Eyre Crowe of the second world the Embassy intervened, and in the theory of kidnapping, and so would an intelligent, older and it porter of the Spanish Republic, war, the last great Liberal diplo- scuffle received a broken leg. The tend to exclude the notion of a was a misfortune thatwoman, Donald was seemed suddenly to have acquired matist, terror of the unjust and two men returned home on sick secret mission (unless self-imposed), just not quite able to inspire such a backbone, morallv and physically, hope of the weak: "If 1t wasn't leave, while Mrs. Maclean wb" wAs while a high French police official an attachment; clever His appearance greatly improved, for you, Sir Donald," snarled on the boating trip, went to Spain has maintained that it would have and affectionate, charming, he was still too his fat disappeared, and he had Ribbentrop, " we might still have for a rest with her two sons. been impossible for the two visitors become a personage. In 1935 he won the peace." What was the nature of Donald's to France to elude the dra~-net unformed. Guy Burgess, though he preferred had passed into the Foreign 'Burgess, of course, ls a power outburst? It was not just overspread for them without the ' prothe company of the able to the Office. and from 1938 he was at behind the scenes : a brigadier in worK. but over-strain: the e!fort ot tection" of a p01itical organisation. mufti, Brigadier Brilliant. D.S.O. being " Sir Donald." the who1P There are. ho;wever, countries artistic, also moved on the edge of the Embassy in Paris. I remember some arguments F.R.S., the famous historian, with paraphernalia of " O.H.M.S.," had where it might lle possible !or two the same world. He was of a very different physique, tall medium with him. I had felt a great symboyish grin and cold blue eyes, been too much for him and he had able-bodied men to obtaih work and now for special reverted to his adolescence, or to still escape notice, but they are not in height, with blue eyes. an in- pa thy for the Spanish Anarchists. seconded With long stride and his ideal of Paris days, the free and so easily reached from the station quisitive nose, sensual mouth, curly with whom he was extremely duties. at Rennes, in Brittany, whence they hair_ and alert fox-terrier expres- severe, as with all the other non- hunched shoulders, untidy, chain- solitary young sculptor working all vanished on May 26, 1951. One sion. He was immensely energetic, Communist factions. and I detected smoking, he talKs-walks and talks night in his attic. The return of must also consider the possibility a great talker, reader, boaster. in his reproaches the familiar -while the whole devilish simpli- the repressed is familiar to psychowalker, who swam like an otter and priggish tone of the Marxist, the city of his plan unfolds and the analysts, and there was also now a that they are dead. As one o1 the many who knew drank, not like a feckless under- resonance of the " Father Found.'' men from M.I. this and M.I. that, brief return to his early sexual both. and as one of the few who graduate, as Donald was apt to do, At the same time he could switch S.I.S. and S.0.E.. listen dumb- ambivalence. " Gordon " had given "My God, Brilliant, I " Sir Donald " the sack. The spoke with Maclean on his last dav but like some Rabelaisian bottle- to a magisterial defence of Cham- founded. could be enraged junior partner would no in England, I should like to swiper whose thirst was unquench- berlain's foreign policy and seemed believe you're right-it able to hold the two self-righteous done." The Brigadier looked at his longer put up with him. approach the subject from a dif- able. points of view simultaneously. watch and a chilled blue eye fixed ferent standpoint. Let us put aside His evenings in Paris were the chief of the Secret Service., the facts of which we know so little Contrasts in Their usually spent in the Left-Bank "At this moment. sir," and there Six -Months' Leave for and consider the personalities cafes with a little group of hard- was pack-ice in his voice, " my involved. In so far as one indiCharacters Maclean working painters and. sculptors. chaps are doing it." vidual can ever understand During the daytime he, too, another, we may find that we have . . ACK in London he had six grounds to eliminate some of these THE physical type to which worked very hard, and it was now Burgess's War-Time months' leave to get well and to explanations and so narrow down . Donald Maclean, despite his that he began to build up his make up his mind about the future. the value of X, as we shall na~e puppy fat, belonged was that of reputation in the Foreign Office, Life , He was still drinking and was now and we must remember that it th_e fa~tor responsible for their the elongated, schizophrenic, sadundergoing treatment from a grew very high indeed. Jomt disappearance. countenanced Don Q u i x o t eN 1940 Donald Maclean had mar- woman psycho-analyst, His apoParDonald had many admirable introverted and diffident, an Scottish qualities. He was respon- - ried in Paris an American girl ance was frightening : he had lost Looking Back to idealist and a dreamer given to sible and painstaking, logical and as delightful as her name. Melinda his serenity, his hands would who bore him two sons. tremble, his face was usually a sudden outbursts of aggression: resolute in argument, judicious Marling, Childhood She brought both sweetness and livid yellow and he looked as if h,e whereas Guy Burgess, despite and even-tempered and, I should understanding into his life. Guy had spent the night sitting up in, an admirable son and WO facts distinguish Burgess his intelligence. was a round-faced, imagine, Burgess, however, as the war went a tunnel. Though he remained brother. He had grown much and Maclean from the so-called g o 1den - pated Sancho Panza, handsomer, and his tall figure, his on, led a more -troubled existence. detached and amiable as ever, it " atomic " spies-first, they are extrovert. manic. grave long face and noble brow, his A new friend whom he had made was clear that he was miserable not known to have committed cynical and exhibitionist, avidly dark suit, black hat and umbrella was taken prisoner-of-war, and it and in a very bad way. In conany crime, second, they are curious, yetargumentative, vague were severe and distinguished. One was noted that he had become versation a kind of shutter would members of the governing class, of and incompetent.sometimes With all his felt now that he was a rock, that if much more insulting and destruc- fall as if he had returned to the high bureaucracy, the "they" moreover, Guy Burgess one were in trouble he would help tive when he drank-he seemed to some basic and incommunicable who rule the " we " to whom toughness, intensely to be liked and and not just let one down with a hit on the unforgivable thing to anxiety. refugees like Fuchs and Pontecorvo wanted say to everyone. His mental Some of his friends urged him to a good conver- reprimand. and humble figures like Nunn May was indeed likeable, sadism. which sometimes led to his resi~n, pointing out that since he 1 and an enthusiastic belong. If traitors thev be. then sationalist getting knocked out, did not disliked the life and disagreed with builder-up of his friends. Beneath they are traitors to themselves. exclude great kindness to those in the policy he could not go back of his Marxist White Hope of the But. as m all caBes where people the " terribilita" trouble. Above all. he disliked without 1t all happening agaln. one divined the affectionseem to act against their own analyses anyone to get out of his clutches: Others assured him that he would ate moral cowardice of the public Foreign Office political interests, we must go schoolboy. he was an affectionate bully soon be well enough to return to back to childhood. capable of acts of generosity, like a work, which would prove the best An old Etonian, an " Apostle " Politics begin in the nursery; no REMEMBER, at the beginning magnate of the Dark Ages. thing for himself and his family. who had taken a First In History one is born patriotic or unpatriotic, o! the war, mentioning to one the same time he was drink- The Foreign Office had to WPigh right-wing or left-win~. and it is at Cambridge, and was tempted to of our most famous diplomatic ingAtand living extravagantly. He his years of hard work against become a don. ne yet seemed an the child whose cravmg for love fond of luxury and display, of the outburst. which they put down is unsatisfied, whose desire for adventurer with a first-class mind, representatives that Donald was a was suites at Claridges and fast cars the strain of long hours anci power is thwarted, or whose innate who would always be in the know, friend of mine and receiving a which he drove abominably. He to formril 0 ocial rluties in Cairo and sense of justice is warped, that a framer of secret policies. a glance of incredulity. Satisfied belonged to the febrile war-time Washington. His reputation for a financial wizard already. and a eventually may try to become a that this indeed was so, he cafe-society of the temporary Civil penetrating mind, sound judgment revolutionary or a dictator. In future editor, at least, of " The explained that Maclean was Servant. Maclean to the secret and quiet industry turned the scale. Though he enjoyed a England wa attach spiritual values Times." citadel of the permanent. The psycmatnst's reports became a white hope, a " puer aureus" alone to c hi 1 d ho o d and bout of luxury, he was indifferent more encouraging, and by the to appearances and even hostile The position of Russia as an ally adolescence, dismissing political of the Service whose attainactions of a subversive nature as to his own. Unlike Donald, he ments and responsibilities were had made things easier for Com- autumn the decision was taken. On who at first were able to November 6, after a particularly youthful escapades. But in fact concealed his sexual diffidence by well beyond his years. Unlike munists, i::erve their own and their adopted heavy ni~ht, Donald went back to such behaviour in the young is over-confidence. Burgess he was without vanity. I country without a conflict. the Foreign Office as head of the often revealing because it exWhat was common to both Burdistinction Waverers returned to their allegi- American Division (a position lei<s presses the true meaning of the gess and Maclean at this time was think the simplest relationship with the father in their instability; both were able between them is that if you had ance and those who had never onerous than it sounds and which its most critical phase. and ambitious young men of high given Maclean a letter, he would wavered were suddenly respected. involved no social duties), and he Guy Burgess lost his father at an intelligence and good connections have posted it. Burgess would Burgess now had a friend, a foreign bought a house near Westerham 1 •early age, and his mother (to who were somehow parodies of probably have forgotten it or diplomat, whom he considered the for his wife and children, to which whom .he is devoted) remarried; what they set out to be. Nobody opened it and then returned t.o tell most interesting man he had ever he hoped to return almost every met and with whom he carried on evening, avoiding the temptations Maclean is the child of distin- could take them quite seriously; you what you should have said. guished Liberal parents; his they were two characters in a late Burgess and a great friend of his a verbal crusade in favour of Com- of the city. father, who was then President Russian novel. Laurel and Hardy would sometimes stay with a munism, each taking a different [To be cont 000169 of the Board of Education, died engaged to play Talleyrand and talented and beautiful woman. a line with the potential convert, one when he was nineteen. the younger Pitt. Burgess, incident- novelist who, in those days, rough. one smooth. Burgess wai; uorn in 1911, ally, was a great reader of fiction; resembled an irreducible bastion of We may distinguish a. certain oded tor a year and would e to unburden myself. Something of' what I have put down may cause pain; but that I must risk, because where people are concerned the truth can never be ascertained without painful things being mid, and because I feel that what I put down may lead to somebody remembering the fact or phrase which will suddenly bring It all into focus. If I did not believe (by instinct rather than reason) that the two people about whom I am going to write may well have been victims of some unforeseen calamity, the puzzle would not exist and I should have nothing to say. I have had access to no secrets. I have not talked to many of the people I should like to, I offer no solution, only a few suggestions, a. meditation on human complexity which leads to murky bypaths but which, I hope, will show that no one has any right to jump to unfavourable conclusions about people of whom they know nothing. 1 Maclean in 1913. The one reached Cambridge by way of Eton and Trinity, the other, two years later, by Gresham's School and Trinity Hall. They knew each other :at. Cambridge and were both members of the left-wing circle there. But there is no evidence of that oppressive parental authority which drives young men to revolt. I T his favourite authors were Mrs. Gaskell and Balzac and, later on, Mr. E. M. Forster. "Lenin had said somewhere that he had 1earnt more about France from Balzac's novels th an !rom au rnswry-book:, put together. Accordingly Balzac was the greatest writer of all times." (Koestler.) Donald was seldom heard to talk polit1c:;, Guy never seemed to stop. He was the type of bumptious Marxist who saw himself as SaintJust, who enjoyed making the flesh of his bourgeois listeners creep by his picture of the _justice which history would mete out to them. Grubby, intemperate and promiscuous, he loved to moralise over his friends and satirise their smug class - unconiscious behaviour, so reckle:;s of the reckoning in store. But when bedtime came, very late, aanndalyitsews asawtahye, mthoemwen rtdtc?.pPurtept h~ 0 05 terous" dying on hfs lips, he would imply a dispensation under which this one house at least, this family, these guests, might be spared the worst consequences, thanks to the protection of their brilliant hunger-marching friend whose po.c;i•ion would bP so commanding m the happy workers' Utopia. It was the time when Abyssinia mattered, before the Russian purges had taken place and the especial bitterness of Communist controversy had arisen. There were very few ex-Communists. and the party's claim to represent the extreme left-wing was not disouted. Unlike all other political parties. I T I z· l B I T I �- -- -- - --------------------------;:;D-oc_u_m_e_n~t-d;7'is-c/;-.o-se-d7"u_n_d7"e-r":'1th'"'e,..A~c-c-es-s"'!t-o""Jn-,-or_m_a'"'t'"'10-n""A~c"!'tDocument divulgue en vertu de la Loisur /'acces a /'information • THE SUNDAY TIMES. SEPTEl\lBER T.HE MISSING HOSE who become obsessed with a puzzle are not very likely to solve it. Here is one about which I have brooded tor a year and would like to unburden myself. Something of what I have put down may cause pain; but that I must risk, oecause where people are concerned the truth can never be ascertained without painful things being said, and because I feel that what I put down may lead to somebody remembering the fact or phrase which will suddenly bring it all into focus. T 21. 1952 DIPLOMATS by Cyril Connolly Maclean in 1913. The one reached Cambridge by way of Eton and Trinity, the other, two years later, by Gresham's School and Trinity Hall. They knew each other At Cambridge and were both members of the left-wing circle there. But there is no evidence of that oppressive parental authority which drives young men to revolt. the bourgeoisie entirely surrounded by Communists, like the Alcazar of Toledo. day Burgess's friend came to herOneshaken and yet impressed. Guy nact conficted to him that ne was not just a member but a secret agent of the Communist Party, and he had then invited him to join in t.his work. The friend had refused with concern: and for her part the novelist felt that Burgess's Fascism was suddenly explained : Pre-War Cambridge as a secret agent be must have been told to investigate the British Fascists and tioped to pass as one. l\.farxists Even so, It was impossible to feel If I did not believe (by instinct T was more than ten years since quite certain, for it would be in rather than reason) that the two the end of the first world war, keeping with Burgess's neurotic people about whom I am going to power-drive that he should pretend write may well have been victims of and a new generation was growing up which found no outlet in home to be an under-cover man. some unforeseen calamity, the Years afterwards the novelist puzzle would not exist and I should politics for the adventurous or altruistic impulses of the adolewas told that he had spent several have nothing to say. days wrestling with his conscience I have had access to no secrets. scent. Marxism satisfied both the rebelliousness of youth and its at the time of the Soviet-German I have not talked to many of the craving for dogma. pact and had decided to give up people I should like to, I offer no The Cambrictge communists subthe whole business. This may well solution, only a few suggestions, a a new father or super-ego havP been true. meditation on human complexity stituted the old one, and accepted a Here we have to decide whether which leads to murky bypaths but for new justice and a stricter Burgess visited Germany as a which, I hope, will show that no authority. They felt they had secret Communist, a Nazi,,. svmone has any right to jump to exposed the weaknesses of Liberalpathiser or as an observer cor our unfavourable conclusions a b o u t ism along with their elders' ignorown Intelligence _Services1 or-at people of whom they know nothing. ance of economic affairs. To this various levels of hIS opponunismgener;i.tion Communism made an as all three. On one occasion he took some Boy Soout.s over to a A •Matter of Choice intellectual appeal, standing for love, liberty and social justice and rally at Cologne. • for a new approach to life and In January, 1939, he left the or Necessity art. Yet it was connected with a B.B.C., and in the autumn of 1940 he was doing confidential work for HE disappearance, towards the political party, and this party is not inclined to relinquish its hold. the War Office. At this time he was end of May last year, of Guy "The Comintern," says Arthur arrested for being drunk in charge Burgess and Donald Maclean is a Koestler, "carried on a white-slave of a car and acquitted because he mystery which cannot be solved traffic whose victims were young was working fourteen hours a day A Breakdown in while so many factors remain idealists flirting and had just unknown, and therefore any with violence.'' I - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - I been in an airCairo explanation can be based only on The feelings of FIRST . M r. raid. a balance of probabilities. such young men HIS IS THE instalment of By January, N 1950 word began to reach us i Such solutions fall into two cateConno ll y , s persona l an d intimate • • d f G uy 1941, he was gories, according as they presup- are described in that all was not so well. It was numerous novE:ls stu y o once more in the said that Donald, whuse nigh pose the disappearance to be a and poems. or in B l D ld M z h b Liberal had received full matter of choice or of ne'cessity. such tracts as urgess anc ona ac ean, t e ·two mem ers B.B.C., and there scope inprinciples enlightened Washington, A voluntary flight might be poliMr. Stephen / h F . Off" ff h . J d d he remained for been so disheartened by the tical, as that of Hess to Scotland, Spender's " Foro t e orezgn ice sta w o vanis ie towar . s three years in had poverty and corruption of the or of a private and psychological Middle East that he had had some nature, as when two boys run-away i".f;~ra11~~~ the end of May last year. It will be read with :~~~~ean kind of breakdown. It seems that from school. They involved • la • b l d • h h ments. His posiThe compelled exit, the forced no betraval of particu r interest y t iose concerne wit t e tion became one he adopted a theory that sufficient move, implies escape under duress, the writers' own · pro blems arising • • in • an age oI i"deo l.ogica • l that greatly alcohol could release in one a the threat being either of private country, and the I pecu 1tar appealed to him, second personality which, though blackmail or of public exposure; it might simulate the destructive dose of seldom Marxism conflict which is often pro7·ected on the plane of involving himin element, worked only good by help. or again it might be the result of was eventually an imperious recall by a Power people to ac~nowledge the truth th ing private personality. A second and concluding ~ liaison which regarded one or both of the letwhal.a t were about themselves and reveal their highly work s e cwi r e t latent affinities. Donald entered two diplomats as in danger or as these two young tl t. [ t k• Or g a nisations, having become too dangerous. men like? Donald r ice wi appear nex wee until he was able into the spirit of the Investigation There remains a possibility Maclean was L _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _j to represent the and took as hiis alter ego the name that they were sent abroad on a s a n d y - haired, Foreign Office. of " Gordon " from an export gin secret mission, and another that tall, with great latent physical Communism then offered the con- He helped, for instance, to remove with a tusky wild boar on the label. they were lured abroad and then strength, When ni_ght fell his new self took but fat and rather solation of a religion. the anti-Russian bias from Poles kidnapped. possession. He stampedect one or flabby. Meeting him, one was During the Spanish War I saw whom we were training for There are simply not enough two parties, but got into more of both amiability and much less of Burgess, who had now sabotage. , facts to exclude any of these conscious He did not seem joined the B.B.C. in Bristol. A We now see the outline o! the serious trouble when. in thP com, explanations, nor can we even pre- aweakness. pany of a friend, he broke into the animal but resembled terrible thing had happened-he ideal personalities of Burgess and sume that the behaviour of both thepolitical clever helpless youth in a had become a Fascist! Still sneer- Maclean. On the unstable founda- first apartment to hand in a block Maclean and Burgess is covered by Huxley novel, an outsize Cherubino ing at the bourgeois intellectual, he tions of their adolescence they were of flats and sharpened his tusks on the same explanation. The most intent on experience but now vaunted the intensely modern erecting the selves whom they the furniture. fact-the suddenness of too shy andamorous I striking Then on a boating trip on the to succeed. The realism of the Nazi leaders: his would like to be, the father figures their disappearance-suggests a shadow of clumsy an august atmosphere admiration for economic ruthless- of their day-dreamsb the finished Nile, with some twenty people in panic, but even this suddenness lay. heavy on the party, he seized a nfle from an him, and he sought ness and the short cut to power Imagos. With his lack hat and could have been counterfeited. The refuge on the more impetuous and had swung him to the opposite umbrella, his brief-case under his ollicious sentry and began to 11npe.n1 spontaneous thoroughness of the emancipated fringes of Bloomsbury extreme. He claimed to have arm-O.H.M.S.-Donald is "Sir the safety of those nearest him by search would seem to indicate that Chelsea. Such a young man attended a Nuremberg Rally. Donald Maclean," the Tyrrell, the swinging it wildly. A Secretary at the Foreign Office first accepted the and can be set right by the devotion of Maclean. however, a strong sup. Eyre Crowe of the second world the Embassy intervened, and in the theory of kidnapping, and so would intelligent, older woman, and it porter of the Spanish Republic, war, the last great Liberal diplo- scuffle received a broken leg. The tend to exclude the notion of a an was a misfortune that Donald was seemed suddenly to have acquired matist, terror of the un.lust and two men • returned home on sick secret mission (unless self-imposed), just not quite able to inspire such a backbone. morally and physicallv. hope of the weak. " If it wasn't leave, while Mrs. Maclean wbn wAs while a high French police official an attachment; clever His appearance greatly improved, for you, Sir Donald," snarled on the boating trip, went to Spain has maintained that it would have and affectionate, charming, he was still too his fat disappeared, and he had Ribbentrop, " we might still have for a rest with her two sons. been impossible for the two visitors unformed. become a personage. In 1935 he won the peace." What was the nature of Donald's to France to elude the drag-net It was not just overGuy Burgess, though he preferred had passed into the Foreign Burgess, of course, is a J?OWer outburst? spread for them wit.hout the "protection" of a political organisation. the company of the able to the Office. and from 1938 he was at behind the scenes : a brigadier in work, but over-strain; the etfort ot being " Sir Donald," thP who1P artistic, also moved on the edge of the Embassy in Paris. mufti, Brigadier Brilliant. D.S.O .. There are, however, countries I remember some arguments F.R.S., the faµ1ous historian, with- paraphernalia of " O.H.M.S.," had where it might be possible for two the same world. He was of a very able-bodied men to obtain work and different physique, tall - medium with him. I had felt a great sym- boyish grin and cold blue eyes, been too much for him and he had· still escape notice, but they are not in height, with blue eyes, an in- pathy for the Spanish Anarchists, s e c on d e d now for special reverted to his adolescence, or to With long stride and his ideal of Paris days, the free and so easily reached from the station quisitive nose, 5ensual mouth, curly with whom he was extremely duties. atRennes, in Brittany, whence they hair and alert fox-terrier expres- severe, as with all the other non- hunched shoulders, untidy, chain- solitary young sculptor working all vanished on May 26, 1951. One sion. He was immensely energetic, Communist factions, and I detected smoking, he talkS-walks and talks night in his attic. The return of must also consider the possibility a great talker, reader, boaster, in his reproaches the familiar -while the whole devilish simpli- the repressed is familiar to psychowalker, who swam like an otter and priggish tone of the Marxist, the city of his plan unfolds and the analysts, and there was also now a that they are dead. As one oi the many who knew drank, not like a feckless under- resonance of the "Father Found." men from M.I. this and M.I. that, brief return to his early sexual both. and as one of the few who graduate, as Donald was apt to do, At the same time he could switch S.I.S. and S.O.E., listen dumb- ambivalence. " Gordon " had given " My God, Brilliant, I " Sir Donald " the sack. The spoke with Maclean on his last av but like some Rabelaisian bottle- to a magisterial defence of Cham- founded. could be enraged junior partner would no in England, I should like to swiper whose thirst was unquench- berlain's foreign policy and seemed believe you're right-it able. able to hold the two self-righteous done." The Bril}adier looked at his longer put up with him. approach the subject from a difpoints of view simultaneously. watch and a chilled blue eye fixed ferent standpoint. Let us put aside His evenings in Paris were the chief of the Secret Service. the facts of which we know so little Contrasts in Their usually spent in the Left-Bank " At this moment, sir," and there Six ,Months' Leave for and consider the personalities cafes with a little group of hard- was pack-ic.e in his voice, "my involved. In so far as one indiCharacters Maclean working painters and sculptors. chaps are doing it." vidual can ever understand During the daytime he, too, another, we may find that we have THE physical type to which ACK in London he had six worked very hard, and it was now grounds to eliminate some of these Burgess's War-Time months' leave to get well and to Donald Maclean, despite his that he began to build up his explanations and so narrow down make up his mind about the future. the value of X, as we shall name puppy fat,, belonged was that of reputation in the Foreign Office, Life He was still drinking and was now the factor responsible for their the elongated, schizophrenic, sad- and we must remember that it grew very high indeed. undergoing treatment from a joint disappearance. countenanced Don Q u i x o t eN 1940 Donald Maclean had marwoman psycho-analyst. His apoParDonald had many admirable introverted and diffident, an Scottish qualities. He was responried in Paris an American girl ance was frightening : he had lost Looking Back to idealist and a dreamer given to sible and painstaking, logical and as delightful as her name, Melinda his serenity, his hands would who bore him two sons. tremble his face was usually a sudden outbursts of aggression; resolute in argument, judicious Marling, Childhood She brought both sweetness and livid yellow and he looked as if he whereas Guy Burgess, despite and even-tempered and, I should understanding into his life. Guy had spent the night sitting up in an admirable son and WO facts distinguish Burgess his intelligence, was a round-faced, imagine, brother. He had grown much Burgess, however, as the war went a tunnel. Though he remained and Maclean from the so-called g o 1 de n - pated Sancho Panza, handsomer, and his tall figure, his on, led a more troubled existence. detached and amiable as ever, it " atomic " spies-first, they are exhibitionist, manic, grave long face and noble brow, his A new friend whom he had made was clear that he was miserable not known to have committed extrovert, avidly dark suit, black hat and umbrella was taken prisoner-of-war, and it and in a very bad way. In conany crime, second, they are cynical andyetargumentative, sometimes vague were severe and distinguished. One was noted that he had become versation a kmd of shutter would 1 members of the governing class, of curious, and incompetent. With all his felt now that he was a rock, that if much more insulting and destruc- fall as if he had returned to the high bureaucracy, the '.'they" toughness, moreover, Guy Burgess one were in trouble he would help tive w.pen he drank-he seemed to some basic and incommunicablEf who rule the " we" to whom wanted intensely liked and and not just let one down with a hit on the unforgivable thing to anxiety. refugees like Fuchs and Pontecorvo was indeed likeable,to abe say to everyone. His mental conver- reprimand. Some of his friends urged him to and humble figures like Nunn May sationalist and an good sadism, which sometimes led to his resign, pointing out· that since he enthusiastic I belong. If traitors they be, then builder-up of his friends. getting knocked out, did not Beneath disliked the life and disagreed with they are traitors to themselves. exclude great kindness to those in the polic:y he could not go back " terribilita " of his Marxist White Hope of the But. as m all cases where people the trouble. Above all. . he disliked without 1t all happening again. analyses one divined the affectionseem to act against their own ate moral cowardice of the public anyone to get out of his clutches: Others assured him that he would Foreign Office political interests, we must go schoolboy. he was an affectionate bully soon be well enough to return to back to childhood. capable of acts of generosity, like a work, which would prove the best An old Etonian, an "Apostle" Politics begin in the nursery; no REMEMBER, at the beginning magnate of the Dark Ages. thing for himself and his family. one is born patriotic or unpatriotic, who had taken a First in History of the war, mentioning to one the same time he was drink- The Foreign Office had to weigh right-wing or left-wing, and it is at Cambridge, and was tempted to of our· most famous diplomatic ingAtand living extravagantly. He his years of hard work against the child whose craving for love become a don, he yet seemed an fond of luxury and display, of the outburst, which th.e,M,.m.U..aa,il!irl is unsatisfied, whose desire for adventurer with a first-class mind, representatives tnat Donald was a was suites at and fast cars to the strain of long 000170 power is thwarted, or whose innate who would always be in the know, friend of mine and receiving a which he Claridges abominably. He formf!l ~nrial rluties i d sepse of justice is warped, that a framer of secret policies, a g;;::,nce of incredulity. Satisfied belonged todrove the febrile war-time Washington. His repu1"""....,_..""'-n a eventuallv mav trv to become a financial wizard already.,,,..,fl and u 1"f'1l-i.l'.:i. that this indeed was so, he cafe-society of_the t~mp~rary Civi~ penetrating mind, sound judgment + I T his favourite authors were Mrs. Gaskell and Balzac •and, later on, Mr. E. M. Forster. "Lenin had said somewhere tha.t he had learnt more about France from Balzac's novels than trom a11 mswry-oook::, put together. Accordingly· Balzac was the greatest. writer of all times." (Koestler.) Donald was seldom heard to talk politic,;, Guy never seemed to stop. He was the type of bumptious Marxist who saw himself as SaintJust, who enjoyed making the flesh of his bourgeois listeners creep by hjs picture of the .iustice 'which history would mete out to them. Grubby, intemperate and promiscuous. he loved to moralise over his friends and satirise their smug class - unconscious behaviour, so reckless of the reckoning in store. But when bedtime came, very late, and it was the moment to put the analyses away, the word " Preposterous" dying on his lips, he would imply a dispensation under which this one house at least, this family, these guests, might be spared the worst consequences. thanks to the protection of their brilliant hunger-marching friend whose position would bP so rommanding in the happy workers' Utopia. It was tl1e time w11en Aoys~n!a mattered, before the Russian purges had taken place and the especial bitterness of Communist controversy had arisen. There were very few ex-Communists, and the party's claim to represent the extreme left-wing was not disputed. Unlike all other political parties, pattern in Burgess's rehtinnshi'os. In romantic friendship he liked to dominate, but nis mtellectua:l. admiration was usually kept for those who were older than himself. !'here were also cronies with whom he preferred to drink and argue. In June, 1944. he had been transferred to the News Department of the Foreign Office, in 1946 to the office of the Minister of State, Mr. Hector McNeil, in 1947 to B branch (Foreign Office), and in 1948 to the Far-Eastern Department of the Foreign Office. In 1944, the year that Guy Burgess went from the B.B.C. to the .l:'·oreignoffice. Oonald Maclean was posted to Washington as actmg First Secretary. On 111:; return in 1948 he gave a dinner-part;\- to his friends. It was a delightful evening, he had become a good host, his charm was based not on vanity but on sincerity, and he would discuss foreign affairs as a student, not an expert. He enJoyed the magazine that I then edited, which was a blue rag to Burgess, a weak injection of culture into a society alreadv dead On his return from Washington he was appointed Counsellor in Gairo. " in Dona.JctMa.c1ei:t.11.1 see a courage and a love of justice; I see a soul that could not be deflected from the straight course; and I see in it that deep affection for his friends which he always manifested." The wordR of Rtanlev Baldwin about the father seemed to be coming true of the son. A Counsellor at thirty-five, he seemed in a fair way to equal his parent's distinction. T I !e~frt ·u 1 1 1 B I T J ..I" J.. -...:1:.£.......... ... ... , ............ ~ ~ • l • , :f: ..] :I,].,.,.. ,..,,.,~,.., �very likely to solve it. Here is one about which I have brooded tor a year and would like to unburden myself. something of what I have put down may cause pain; but that I must risk. oecause where people are concerned the truth can never be ascertained without painful things being said, and because I feel that what I put down may lead to somebody remembering the fact or phrase which will suddenly bring it all into focus. If I did not believe (by instinct rather than reason) that the two people about whom I am going to write may well have been victims of some unforeseen calamity, the puzzle would not exist and I should have nothing to say. I have had access to no secrets. I have not talked to many of the people I should like to, I offer no solution, only a few suggestions, a meditation on human complexity which leads to murky bypaths but which, I hope, will show that no one has any right to jump to unfavourable conclusions about people of whom they know nothing. BBLZilllll&illbtt 31 Document divulgue en 1 those who were older than himself. the bourgeoisie entirely surrounded £hen· were also cronies with whom by Communists, like the Alcazar of he preferred to drink and argue. Toledo. In June, 1944, he had been transOne day Burgess's friend came to !erred to the News Department of her shaken and yet impresse<i. the Foreign Office, in 1946 to the Guy naa confiaed to him that ne office of the Minister of State, Mr. was not just a member but a secret Hector McNeil, in 1947 to B branch agent of the Communist Party, and (Foreign Office), and in 1948 to the he had then invited him to join in Far-Eastern Department of the t.his work. The friend. had refused Foreign Office. with concern: and for her part the In 1944, the year that Guy Burnovelist felt that Burgess's gess went from the B.B.C. to the Fascism was suddenly explained : r·oreign office. Donald Maclean was Pre-War Cambridge as a secret agent he must have posted to Washington as actbeen told to investigate the British mg First Secretary. On m:, Fascists and hoped to pass as one. return in 1948 he gave a Marxists Even so, it was impossible to feel dinner-part\ to his friends. It T was more than ten years since quite certain. for it would be in was a delightful evening, he had the end of the first world war, keeping with Burgess's neurotic become a good host, his charm was and a new generation was growing power-drive that he should pretend based not on vanity but on up which found no outlet in home to be an under-cover man. sincerity, and he would discuss politics for the adventurous or Years afterwards the novelist foreign affairs as a student, not altruistic impulses of the adolewas told th~t he had spent several an expert. He enjoyed the magascent. Marxism satisfied both the days wrestlmg with his conscience zine that I then edited, which was rebelliousness of youth and its at the time of the Soviet German a bl ue rag t O Bur gess , a weak i·niec · , • cravmg for dogma. pact and .had decided to • give up tion of culture into a society The Cambrictge Communists subthe whole business. This may well alreadv dead stituted a new father or super-ego ha.VPbeen true. . on his return from Washington for the old one, and accepted a Here we _have to decide whether he was appointed counsellor in new justice and a stricter Burgess visited. Germany as a uairo. " ln Dona.1aMacieau .1 .see a authority,. They felt they had secret• Commumst • a Nazrcsvm- courage and a love of justice; I see a d expose the weaknesses of Liberalpath1ser 01: as an obse;-ver or our soul that could not be deflected ism al1ng 'th ,thew elders' ignorOWJ?: Intelligence _Servicesl o_r-at from the straight course; and I see ance ot· economic a airs. To this va11ou.sle_velsof his oppor u~nsm- in it that deep affection for his generll, ion Communism made an as all thJee. On one occas10n he friends which he always man1took some Boy Scouts over to a fested." The wordi; of Rtanlev A Matter of Choice intellectual appeal, stanctmg for love, liberty and social justice and rally at Cologne. • Baldwin about the father seemed to for a new approach to life and In January, 1939, he left the be coming true of the son. A or Necessity art. Yet it was connected with a B.B.C., an~ m the autumn of 1940 counsellor at thirty-five, he seemed he was domg conflde:,:iti~lwork for in a fair way to equal his parent's HE disappearanoe, towards the political partyi. and this party is not inclined to relinquish its hold. the War Office.. At this t~e he was distinction. end of May last year, of Guy "The Comintern," says Arthur arrested for bemg drunk m charge Burgess and Donald Maclean Is a Koestler, " carried on a white-slave of a car and acquitted because he mystery which cannot be solved traffic whose victims were young was working fourteen hours a day A Breakdown in while so many factors remain unknown, and therefore any ~i~lis~io?~~~~& I I ~~~ i~a~n j~~~ Cairo explanation can be based only on The feelings of raid a balance of probabilities. such young men HIS IS THE FIRST instalment of Mr. By January, N 1950 word began to reach us Such solutions fall into two catedescribed in 1941, he . wthas that all was not so well. It was gories, according as they presup- are numerous novels Connolly' s personal and intimate study of Guy that Uonald, whuse nigh pose the disappearance to be a and poems, or in once more m e saict Liberal had received full matter of choice or of ne·cessity. such tracts as Burgess and Donald Maclean, the two members B.B.C., and there scope inprinciples Washington, A voluntary flight might be poli- Mr. Stephen . . . he remained for had been enlightened so disheartened by the tical, as that of Hess to Scotland, Spender's " Forof the Foreign Off ice staff who vanished towards three years in poverty and corruption of the or of a private and psychological 0 Middle East that he had had some nature, as when two boys run-away r'.f6~ral;~~~ the end of May last year. It will be read with ::~~eancfe~ kind of breakdown. It seems that from school. involved t icu • lar in • t eres t b y t ,iose 1 d wi"tl th e men ts. His posiadopted a theory that sufficient The compelled exit, the forced They no betraval of par concerne • i tion became one he alcohol could release in one a move, implies escape under duress. the writers' own z • bl • • • f "d l • l t h at greatly second which, though the threat being either of private country, and the pecu iar pro ems arising in an age o z eo .ogica appealed to him, it mightpersonality simulate the destructive blackmail or of public exposure; dose of Marxism conflict which is often pro7'ected on the plane of involving hi.m element, worked only good by helpor again it might be the result of was seldom eventually in people to ac~nowledge the truth an imperious recall by a Power th ing private personality • A second and concludin<1 liaison about themselves and reveal their which regarded one or both of the letwhal.at were e, highly work s e Cwi r e t latent affinities. Donald entered two diplomats as in danger or as these two young article will appear next week o r ~ a nisations, into the spirit of the investigation having become too dangerous. men like? Donald • until he was able There remains a possibility Maclean w as L _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _J to represent the Mid took as .hrisalter ego the name I that they were sent abroad on a s a n d y - haired, Foreign Office. of " Gordon " from an export gin secret mission, and another that tall, with great latent physical Communism then offered the con- He helped, for instance, to remove with a tusky wild boar on the label. they were lured abroad and then strength, When night fell his new self took but fat and rather solation of a religion. the anti-Russian bias from Poles kidnapped. flabby. Meeting him, one was During the Spanish War I saw whom we were training for possession. He stampeded one or There are simply not enough two parties, but got into more of both amiability and much less of Burgess, who had now sabotage. facts to exclude any of these conscious serious t1'0uble when. in thP comHe did not seem joined the B.B.C. in Bristol. A We now see the outline of the pany explanations, nor can we even pre- aweakness. of a friend, he broke into the animal but resembled terrible thing had happened-he ideal personalities of Burgess and first apartment sume that the behaviour of both thepolitical to hand in a block clever helpless youth in a had become a Fascist! Still sneerMaclean. On the unstable foundaMaclean and Burgess is covered by Huxley novel, an outsize Cherubino ing at the bourgeois intellectual, he tions of their adolescence they were of flats and sharpened his tusks on the same explanation. The most intent the furniture. amorous experience but now vaunted the intensely modern erecting the selves whom· they striking fact-the suddenness of too shy on Then on a boating trip on the clumsy' to succeed. The realism of the Nazi leaders: his would like to be, the father figures their disappearance-suggests a shadow and Nile, with some twenty: people in of an august atmosphere admiration for economic ruthlessof their day-dreams, the finished panic, but even this suddenness lay heavy on him, and he sought ness and the short cut to power Imagos. With his black hat and the party, he seized a rifle from an could have been counterfeited. The refuge on the more impetuous and had swung him to the opposite umbrella, his brief-case under his ollic1oussentry and began to 1mpen1 spontaneous thoroughness of the emancipated fringes of Bloomsbury extreme. He claimed to have arm-O.H.M.S.-Donald Is "Sir the safety of those nearest bim by search would seem to indicate that Chelsea. Such a young man attended a Nuremberg Rally. Donald Maclean," the Tyrrell, the swinging it wildly. A Secretary at the Foreign Office first accepted the and r.an be set right by the devotion of Maclean, however, a strong supEyre Crowe of the second world the Embassy intervened, and in the theory of kidnapping, and so would an intelligent, older woman, and it porter of the Spanish Republic, war, the last great Liberal diploscuffle received a broken leg. The tend to exclude the notion of a was that Donald was seemed suddenly to have acquired matist, terror of the unjust and two men • returned home on sick secret mission (unless self-imposed), just anotmisfortune quite able to inspire such a backbone, morally and physicallv. hope of the weak. " If it wasn't leave, while Mrs. Maclean wh<>wAi; while a high French police official an attachment; clever His appearance greatly improved, for you, Sir Donald," snarled on the boating trip, went to Spain has maintained that it would have and affectionate, charming, he was still too his fat disappeared, and he had Ribbentrop, " we might still have for a rest with her two sons. been impossible for the two visitors unformed. become a personage. In 1935 he won the peace." What was the nature of Donald's to France to elude the dra~-net It was not just overGuy Burgess, though he preferred had passed into the Foreign • Burgess, of course, is a i;>ower outburst? spread for them without the ' prowork, but over-strain; the elfort ot tection" of a political organisation. the company of the able to the Office. and from 1938 he was at behind the scenes : a brigadier in being " Sir Donald," thP whnlP artistic, also moved on the edge of the Embassy in Paris. mufti, Brigadier Brilliant. D.S.O., There are, however, countries I remember some arguments F.R.S., the fap,.ous historian, with• paraphernalia of " O.H.M.S.," had where it might be possible for two the same world. He was of a very too much for him and he had • able-bodied men to obtain work and different physique, tall - medium with him. I had felt a great sym- boyish grin and cold blue eyes, been to his adolescence, or to still escape notice, but they are not in height, with blue eyes, an in- pathy for the Spanish Anarchists, s e c on de d now for special reverted his ideal of Paris days, the free and quisitive nose, sensual mouth, curly with whom he was extremely duties. With long stride and so easily reached from the station solitary young sculptor working all hair and alert fox-terrier expressevere, as with all the other nonhunched shoulders, untidy, chainatRennes, in Brittany, whence they night in his attic. The return of vanished on May 26, 1951. One sion. He was immensely energetic, Communist factions, and I detected smoking, he talks-walks and talks the repressed is familiar to psychomust also consider the possibility a great talker, reader, boaster, in his reproaches the familiar -while the whole devilish simpli- analysts, and there was also now a walker, who swam like an otter and priggish tone of the Marxist, the city of his plan unfolds and the that they are dead. brief return to his early sexual drank, not like a feckless under• resonance of the "Father Found." men from M.I. this and M.I. that. As one o1 the many who lmew graduate, as Donald was apt to do, At the same time he could switch S.I.S. and s.O.E., listen dumb- ambivalence. " Gordon" had given I both. and as one of the few who " My God. Brilliant, I " Sir Donald " the sack. The ' spoke with Maclean on his Ill.st dav but like some Rabelaisian bottle- to a magisterial defence of Cham- founded. could be enraged junior partner would no in England, I should like ., to swiper whose thirst was unquench- berlain's foreign policy and seemed believe you're right-it longer put up with him. able. able to hold the two self-righteous done." The Bri~adier looked at his approach the subject from a difpoints of view simultaneously. watch and a chilled blue eye fixed ferent standpoint. Let us put aside His evenings in Paris were the chief of the Secret Service. Six ,Months' Leave for the facts of which we know so little Contrasts in Their usually spent in the Left-Bank " At this moment, sir," and there and consider the personalities cafes with a little group of hard- was pack-ice in his voice, '' my involved. In so far as one indiCharacters Maclean working painters and sculptors. chaps are doing it." vidual can ever understand During the daytime he, too, another, we may find that we have THE physical type to which ACK in London he had six worked very hard, and it was now grounds to eliminate some of these Burgess's War-Time months' leave to get well and to Donald Maclean, despite his that he began to build up his explanations and so narrow down make up his mind about the future. the value of X, as we shall name puppy fat,, belonged was that of reputation in the Foreign Office, Life He was still drinking and was now the factor responsible for their the elongated, schizophrenic, sad- and we must remember that it undergoing treatment from a grew very high indeed. joint disappearance. countenanced Don Q u i x o t ewoman psycho-analyst. Hi1<apoParN 1940 Donald Maclean had marDonald had many admirable ried in Paris an American girl ance was frightening : he had lost introverted and diffident, an Scottish qualities. He was responLooking Back to idealist and a dreamer given to sible and painstaking, logical and as delightful as her name, Melinda his serenity, his hands would Marling, who bore him two sons. tremble. his face was usually a sudden outbursts of aggression; resolute in argument, judicious She brought Childhood both sweetness and livid yellow and he looked as if he whereas Guy Burgess, despite and even-tempered and. I should understanding into his life. Guy had spent the night sitting up in an admirable son and WO facts distinguish Burgess his intelligence. was a round-faced, imagine, brother. He had grown much Burge&s, however, as the war went a tunnel. Though he remained and Maclean from the so-called go 1de n - pated Sancho Panza, handsomer, and his tall figure, his on, led a, more troubled existence. detached and amiable as ever, it ' " atomic " spies-first, they are extrovert, grave long face noble brow, his A new friend whom he had made was clear that he was miserable exhibitionist, manic, not known to have committed cynical and argumentative, avidly dark suit, blackand hat and umbrella was taken prisoner-of-war, and it and in a very bad way. In conany crime, second, they are curious, yet sometimes vague were severe and distinguished. One was noted that he had become versation a kmd of shutter would members of the governing class, of and incompetent. With all his felt now that he was a rock, that if much more insulting and destruc- fall as if he had returned to 1 the high bureaucracy, the "they" moreover, Guy Burgess one were in trouble he would help tive wben he drank-he seemed to some basic and incommunicabll who rule the " we " to whom toughness, intensely to be liked and and not just let one down with a hit orl the unforgivable thing to anxiety. refugees like Fuchs and Pontecorvo wanted say to everyone. His mental Some of his friends urged him to a good conver- reprimand. and humble figures like Nunn May was indeed likeable, sadism, which sometimes led to his resi~n, painting out that since he and an enthusiastic belong. If traitors thev be, then sationalist getting knocked out, did not dishked the life and disagreed with of his friends. Beneath they are traitors to themselves. builder-up exclude great kindness to those in the policy he could not go back " terribilita " of his Marxist White Hope of the But. as m all cases where people the trouble. Above all. he disliked without 1t all happening again. analyses one divined the affectionseem to act against their own ate moral cowardice of the public anyone to get out of his clutches; Others assured him that he would Foreign Office political interests, we must go schoolboy. he was an affectionate bully soon be well enough to return to back to childhood. capable of acts of generosity, like a work, which would prove the best An old Etonian, an " Apostle " Politics begin in the nursery; no REMEMBER, at the beginning magnate of the Dark Ages. thing for himself and his family. one is born patriotic or unpatriotic, who had taken a First in History of the war, mentioning to one the same time he was drink- The Foreign Office had to weigh right-wing or left-wing, and it is at Cambridge, and was tempted to of our· most famous diplomatic ingAtand living extravagantly. He years of hard work against the child whose craving for love become a don, he yet seemed an representatives that Donald was a was fond of luxury and display, of his the outburst, which they put down is unsatisfied, whose desire for adventurer with a first-class mind, suites at Claridges and fast cars to the of long hours and power is thwarted, or whose innate who would always be in the know, friend of mine and receiving a which he drove abominably. He formii l strain ~nC'ialrluties in Cairo and se.pse of justice is warped, that a framer of secret policies, a g;~nce of incredulity. Satisfied belonged to the febrile war-time Washington. His reputation for a eventually may try to become a financial wizard already. and a that this indeed was so, he cafe-society of the temporary Civil penetrating mind, sound judgment revolutionary or a dictator. In future editor, at .Jeast, of " The explained Servant, Maclean to the secret that Maclean was and quiet industry turned the scale. , Times." Though he enjoyed a England wa attach spiritual values of the permanent. The psycniatnst's reports became alone to c h i 1d h o o d and bout of luxury, he was indifferent a white hope, a "puer aureus" citadel Th·e position of Russia as an ally more encouraging, and by the adolescence, dismissing political to appearances and even hostile of the Service whose attainautumn the decision was taken. On actions of a subversive nature as to his own. Unlike Donald, he ments and responsibilities were had made things easier for Com- November after a particularly youthful escapades. But in fact concealed his sexual diffidence by well beyond his years. Unlike munists, who at first were able to heavy night,6, Donald went back to i;erve their own and. their adopted such behaviour in the young is over-confidence. Burgess he was without vanity. I country wlthout a conflict. the Foreign Office al? head of the often revealing because it exWhat was common to both Bur- think American Division (a lei::s the simplest distinction presses the true meaning of the gess and Maclean at this time was between them is that if you had Waverers returned to their allegi- onerous than it soundsposition and which ance and those who had never relationship with the father in their instability; both were able no social duties), and he its most critical phase. and ambitious young men of high given Maclean a letter, he would wavered were suddenly respected. involved posted it. Burgess would Burgess now had a friend, a foreign bought a house near Westerham Guy Burgess lost his father at an intelligence and good connections have probably have forgotten it or for his wife and children, to which diplomat, whom he considered the early age, and his mother ( to who were somehow parodies of whom he is devoted) remarried; what they set out to be. Nobody opened it and then returned tn tell most interesting man he had ever he hoped to return almost every met and with whom he carried on evening. avoiding the temptations Maclean is the child of distin- could take them quite seriously; you what you should have said. Burgess and a great friend or his a verbal crusade in favour of Com- of the city. guished Liberal parents; his they were two characters in a late father, who was then President Russian novel, Laurel and Hardy would sometimes stay .with a munism. each taking a different [To be of tb Board of Education, died engaged to play Talleyrand and talented and beautiful woman. a line with the potential convert, one when e was nineteen. the younger Pitt. Burgess, incident- novelist who, in those days, rough. one smooth. We may distinguish a certain Burgess was oorn in 1911, ally, was a great reader of fiction; resembled an irreducible bastion of 1 1 1 Maclean in 1913. The one reached Cambridge by way of Eton and Trinity, the other, two years later, by Gresham's School and Trinity Hall. They knew each other At Cambridge and were both members of the left-wing circle there. But there is no evidence of that oppressive parental authority which drives young men to revolt. I T his favourite authors were Mrs. Gaskell and Balzac •and, later on, Mr. E. M. Forster. " Lenin had said somewhere that he had learnt more about France from Balzac's novels t11an trom aa rusiury-ooo~::, put together. Accordingly aalzac was the greatest writer of all times:· (Koestler.) Donald was seldom heard to talk polit1cs. Guy never seemed to stop. He was the type of bumptious Marxist who saw himself as SaintJust, who enjoyed making the flesh of his bourgeois listeners creep by his picture of the justice 'which history would mete out to them. Grubby, intemperate and promiscuous. he loved to moralise over his friends and satirise their smug class· unconscious behaviour, so reckless of the reckoning in store. But when bedtime came, very late, and it was the moment to" put the analyses away, the moi·d Prepos,. terous " dying on his lips, he would imply a dispensation under which this one house at least, this family, these guests. might be spared the worst consequences, thanks brilliant, to the protection of their hunger-marching friend whose position would bP <;() <'nmmanding .n tlle ltappy workers' Utopi·a. 1 It was t11e time when Anyssjnia mattered, before the Russian purges had taken place and the especial bitterness of Communist controversy had arisen. There were very few ex-Communists, and the party's claim to represent the extreme left-wing was not disputed. unlike all other political parties, T I £.1t 1 I 1 B I . - T J �_____ ....,....,.,..,,..,......,,___________________________ ...________________ ~--oo:;oc~u7i-m;e;,nrtt-;;dl/Jis~c/~o;;;se~dT:u-;;;n~dke,r the Access io lnfo~~otion Act Document divulgue en vertu de Jo Loi sur /'acces a /'information I THE SUNDAY TIMES. SEPTEMBER 28. 1952 ,, THE MISSING by Cyril Last week Mr. Connolly depicted the early lives of Guy Burgees and Donald Maclean, In 1935 Maclean passed into the Foreign Office, where his reputation soon mounted. Burgess went from the B.B.C. to the Foreign Office in 1944, and was in • the Far-Eastern Departme~t in 1948. DIPL.OMATS-II Connolly disappearance have been put f?rward that it is best to deal with a few of them like chess-openings. Let us first take one based on the theory of a voluntary escape. thought he had said MacArthur, to Mrs. Maclean as " Ronald Then he had confided in a 1. NON-POLITICAL: The two disand as; ed what he had to do Styles." Burgess had engaged the friend that at last he would be appeared on an alcoholic fugue, with it. car by telephone at about two able to settle down to his great to wander about like Verlaine a~d " Senator . McCarthy," said Bur- o'clock and then gone round, paid task, the addition of a final volume Rimbaud and to start a new life Lady Gwendolen Cecil's biogess. " Terrible atmosphere. All the deposit, and undergone a brief to , graphy of the Tory Prime Minister, together. This fits in Donald's characthese purges." driving test. At 5.30 he had Lord Salisbury, which he thought ter. He is saidwith to have disappeared He seemed very well and almost received a long telephone call at the best biography in English. once from a party for a few days jaunty, obviously pleased to be his flat. On June 7, as the hue and cry in Switzerland and been found livAfter a quiet and rather back even if he went around saying began in the Press, three telegrams In 1944 Maclean was quietly in the next village. he was convinced that America had sober dinner Donald and " Ronald " arrived : one from Guy Burgess ing Again, he once remarked to a posted to Washington as act• Donald to his mother in which he said friend gone mad and was determined on walked in the garden. that he wished he coulrl ing First Secretary, and on war. then said that they had to he was embarking on a long start a new life as a docker in thP his return four years later go to see a friend who lived During the winter Donald Mediterl'anean holiday; and two East _End, but that ration boo~~ was appointed Coun~ellor in Maclean had made a great effort nearby and that he might have to from Maclean, to his mother and identity cards now made it to fit into his new existence as stay away for the night. He and his wiie. To Lady Maclean impossible. Cairo. But in Cairo came Burgess also had a a commdter. Mrs. Maclean was promised that he would rettu'Il on he sent a brief message which reputation for disappearing, but a breakdown. On November the morrow and took only his brief- he signed with a childhood there would be much less reason expecting another child, and 6, 1950, after six months' Donald conscientiously refused to case with him when he left. name to his wife he wrote : .. Had for him to give up the ki~d of leave, he went back to the go to cocktail parties in order not to to !~ave unexpectedly, terribly existence to which he was addicted. Foreign Office as head of miss his evening train to Kent. By sorry. Am quite well now. Don't Neither could have lasting attracMidnight Arrival at May, however, he seemed to be the American Division. worry darling. I love you. •Please tion for the other, for• the fo~ce more about London of an evening, don't ~top loving me. Donald." All which united them would also dnve Southampton and it would be interesting if we three sound plausible but somehow them apart, and the wanderers NE day towards the end of could discover if there was any HE pair got into the hired car unreal, unless they were meant to would certainly have been heard of 1950 Donald Maclean sudden increase in these outings and drove to Southampton just be delivered at least a week before. again, for where they were m comafter the return of Guy Burgess. in time to reach the cross-Channel invited me to luncheon Having acquired a little more pany incidents would be bound t_o On one occasion in April, after vessel Fa,laise, which left at mid- background. let. us examine some arise; and the element of antiat his club and talked at length about the war in Korea. His some feint attacks, he knocked night on a special week-end cruise nf the theories With which we social aggression in such a flight down one of his greatest friends to Saint Malo and back by the began. It will be noticed even now would have caused them to leave argument was that what for taking the side of Whittaker Channel Islands, returning early on how very few facts we have. We some kind of stateme, mattered most in the world Chambers in the Hiss case. Monday morning. " What about suspect that Burgess and Maclean was people. The Koreans were Chambers, according to Donald, the car? " yelled a port garage were Communists at Cambridge, was a doubleA Twitch upo!} the people, but in the stage which we do not know even if they the war had reached both sides faced exhibitionThread ist too revolting ever met after had entirely forgotten this, and to be defended THIS IS THE CONCLUDING instalment of Mr. Cambridge. Both were exploiting them for their 2. (a) THEORIES WHICH IMPLY A by anyone. w e r e neurotic FORCED " A twitch upon the own prestige. It was essential Donald's drink- [ Connolly' s personal and intimate study of Guy p e r s o n alities thread.'' MOVE. The argument is that ing followed an to stop the war at all costs and with schizoand Maclean were both established Burgess and Donald Maclean, the two members get them established as people phrenic charac- Burgess Communist agents, Maclean (or routine. Th e t e r i s t i c s. In both) again. was growing indiscreet and charming and of the Foreign Office Staff who vanished on May recent posts both unreliable, This was not the orthodox Com- amiable self was and that they were had behaved so recalled before munist view, according to which gradually 1 e ft one (or both) could 26, 1951. Their crucial last day in Englandrecklessly that give away others only the North Koreans were behind, and the who were more they had to be " people " and the South Koreans hand secret and more impor_tant; that which Maclean's birthday-is closely examined. I ______________ .J sent home, both (as Burgess maintained) had really patted his friend L were immediately imprisoned drank too much they started the war. Maclean went on on the or liquidated and may have got r,o back and then became to suggest that all colonial posses- became a flail. A change would attendant. Burgess cried : " Back violent and abusive, both might farther than an uncertain address sions in the Far East were morally come into his voice like the on Paris. If they had refused to go, Monday." • be described as abnormal, both in untenable, and when I pleaded that roll of drums for the cabaret. they would have been exposed to allegedly made confessions (many He had booked the two-berth we should be allowed to keep Hong- It took the form of an outthe British and brought disgrace kong and Malaya for their dollar- burst of indignation, often directed cabin at Victoria on the Wednesday years apart) of being Communist on their families. Even so, it is earning capacities he said that that against himself, in which the in his own name, and on that day agents, and both were notorious doubtful if experienced diplomats was precisely the reason why we embittered idealist would aban- had invited a young American, among their colleagues for their aged 38 and 40 would ~ign should give them up. as only then don all compromise and castigate whom he introduced to various anti-British arguments and were their own death-warrants withagainst authoritarianism could we prove ourselves in earnest all forms of humbug and pretence. people as " Miller " and whom he bitter out a murmur and depart without and lay the basis of future good As the last train left for Sevenoaks had met on the Queen Mary, and imperialism. Both had risen a farewell. when returning from Washington, fast under wartime conditions and relations. from faraway Charing Cross he to accompany him. (b) They both <or Maclean alone) But Burgess had yet maintained an underwould wave a large hand, in some let him down at tJ:ie last given information to the moment. graduate-like informality' in their had bar, ,to his companions. "Well, ~n~Russians at some time, perhaps Back at the Foreign seems to have had the idea appearance and habits and in the on how, you're all right. And you am Burgess one occasion only, and this was of a long holiday m France in his general bed-sitting room casualness pr'eying on Donald's conscience. all right." The elected smiled hap- mind, Office that was unconnected ot' their way ot' life. Both had two If the information was given in pily, but doubt was spreading like a with thebutweek-end jaunt. For this E talked for a little about how frown on Caligula. "Wait-I'm not Friday evening he had an impor- enemies. adolescence and alcohol, Washington, it might have been he felt at being back at work sure. Perhaps you aren't all right. tant dinner engagement which he and when they vanished each was valuable, and the leak would thought by his friends to have led have taken a long time to trace. and " Sir Donald " again, and he After all, you said this and this. never cancelled. the other astray. Burgess might have had wind in told me how fond he was of his col- In fact, you're very wrong. You At Saint Malo, where the boat Washington of this investigation leagues, how secure and womb-like won't do at all. (Bi//). And as for arrived at 10 a.m., the two stayed and even got himself sent home the Foreign Office seemed, and how you-you're the worst of the lot, on board, breakfasting and drinkAssociation that was through his erratic behaviour in well he had been treated. I men- but I suppose I must forgive you.'' ing beer till the others had left. order to warn Maclean on his tioned that I had at one time been <Bash.) Kept Secret Then at eleven they. too, went return. Burgess might perhaps intended for the Diplomatic Serashore, leaving behind Burgess·s at one time have been a kind vice and that . I had always Unexpected Visit from two suitcases. At the station, which HEY had everything in common, of private commissar to Maclean. regarded it since with some of the the Paris express had just left in fact, except each other; they After his carefree luncheon. then. wistfulness which he felt for literaMaclean (they would have had plenty ot were like two similar triangles sud- on that last Friday, Maclean was ture. We left rather late and he merged on the steps into a little AFTER a dinner-party on May 15 time to catch it) they took a taxi denly superimposed. When Donald somehow tipped off that exposure to Rennes, the junction some fifty was imminent. At 5.30 he telepin-striped shoal of hurrying six of us came back to my miles away. They did not speak met this liberator of irresponsibili- phones to his contact Burgess who officials, who welcomed him ties, when Don Quixote found his on the way, They gave no tip to house : it was divided into two, and says "Leave it all to me.'' I affectionatel.y. Sancho Panza, there was bound to the driver on the fare of 4,500 One evening at the end of that Donald occasionally spent the francs and they arrived at Rennes be a combustion. I winter a friend came round for a night in the other flat. Past mid- station , in time to catch the Then how w.11,s their association The Making of a drink. He said that he was in a night there was a battering on the express again. They were not difficulty : he had been up very late door and I let him in, sober-drunk, noticed on the train, which kept secret? I think myself that :Myth with Donald the night before, and the first time I had seen him in reached Paris, via Le Mans, they must have rene'X,ed the CamDonald had said to him, " What this legendary condition. He began between five and six. From that bridge friendship in t?l'e summer of HIS theory bristles with difficul1950, during Maclean's convalewould you do if I told you I was to wander round the room, blinking moment they have vanished. ties, but it does at least explain at the guests as he divided the a Communist agent?" scence, and that Burgess 'Yas part the sudden departure. And yet. like sheep from the goats, and then of what Maclean called his " ash- all who knew him, I am convinced " I don't know.'' went out to lie down to sleep in the Preparations for a can life," of which he was ashamed that Donald was not an active "Well, wouldn't you report me?., hall, stretched ottt on the stone and trying to cure himself. Hence Communist. He had a morbid in" I don't know. Who to? " floor under his overcoat like some Journeyr the secrecy: Were they Communist clination to suicide, and he would "Well, I am. Go on, report me.'' figure from a shelter sketch-book. HEN Burgess had booked the agents? Surely the first duty of a say that only his love for his chilHis friend had woken up with The departing guests had to make tickets on the Wednesday he secret agent is to escape detection, dren kept him from it. This love their way over him, and I noticed a confused feeling that something said the other name for the cabin express conventional views and was the one emotion which he felt that, although in apparent coma, unpleasant lay before him. It was without ambivalence, and he would would raise his long stiff leg like would probably be Miller; and on rise in his career. The more Com- not have taken any drastic step an absurd situation, for it was he Thursday night he seemed to be in munism they talked the less likely a drawbridge when· one of the impossible to be sure that Donald goats was trying to pass. I put him an agitated state "looking for the they were to be agents. And Bur- unless he had been convinced that was serious. My friend knew him to bed in his absent friend's flat friend who was going with him." gess talked a great deal. it was for the best as far as their happiness was concerned. so well that he could not believe it and gave him an Alka-Seltzer He seems to have spent much of was true. The whole incident breakfast Perhaps Burgess and Maclean Friday with Miller, fetching him in the morning. seemed preposterous in the light of Recklessness or are at last integrated. But, as the Green Park Hotel in the On May 25, the day when from day. Maclean said, what matters most morning and lunching with him. Burgess and Maclean left England, At Deception? is people, and that is what I two o'clock he rings up from I arranged to greet some friends in makes his case essentially tra~ic. club for the hired car. visits Burgess Recalled from Schmidt's before lunching down his Guy Burgess always enjoyed OULD this have been recklessgarage with Miller, parks the the street at the Etoile. We met in the ness or a subtle double bluff? being himself, and for a while car near his New Bond Street flat, Washington the road. Donald was with them, Both are just possible. Maclean, he lived his own dream, a realislooking rather creased and yellow, and goes shopping, buying a white N August, 1950, Guy Burgess had casual but diffident, We all stood mackintosh (he had no mackin- however, in the fifteen years in tic example of the " new type been posted to the Washington on the pavement. I said to him, tosh) a fibre suitcase and a good which I had come across him, of diplomat " who is always deEmbassy as Second Secretary; he "You're Cyril Connolly, aren't you? many nylon shirts which did not remained always devoted to the manded in wartime. But -Donald nonconformist but essentially non- Maclean, were it not for his lack had last visited Washington in -I'm Sir Donald Maclean"; this fit him. political little group of writers a~d of balance and emotional security, 1942. By the early spring of 1951 reference to our conversation at his At 5.25 he left Miller at his painters whom he had known m had the qualities of a great public things were not going so well for club was intended to efface our last hotel, saying " See you a~ 7.30.·• London and Paris. They were his servant. Yet with all his admirahim. The telegrams which he meeting. He seemed calm and He then went back to his flat. home. tion for people, he betrayed those drafted were often rejected as genial, and went off gaily to con- received the telephone call, and Nor did Burgess ever appear at who loved him, humiliated those being biased, there seemed tinue the - luncheon with his packed into two suitcas~s an?_ a nothing for him to do, he was friends, who were to rejoin me for brief-case four suits, his shuts, all calculating. " Guy would help who trusted him, and discredited not popular with his colleagues, coffee, blue jeans, socks. handkerc~iefs, anybody in distress. He would make those who thought like him .... But a split-second decision and carry once again we are condemning he was drinking heavily again, and his gaudy collection of tiesAt luncheon, they told me when and on one day, February 28, he they came back, he had been mel- an extensive wardrobe for two it out no matter what the conse- them unheard. Meanwhile a myth is slowly was stopped three times for speed- low and confidential; he had nights at sea. At seven he had a quences. He would certainly not do transfiguring them. At first they ing which led to an official com- talked about himself, about how last drink at his club. Later that ,anything to injure his country." Like most people who feel they were seen in Montmartre and plaint. Then he gave a lift to a much better he felt, how he didn't evening the American rang up the young man and let him take the have to visit his psycho-analyst so flat to know why he had not been have been starved of love, Burgess Montparnasse, •in Brussels and and Maclean desire~ to raise the Bayonne, on the high pass to wheel. There was an accident, and it often, and how he was determined fetched. temperature around Andorra, in a bar in Cannes and, turned out that the young man to take a hold on himself lest he Maclean's dav was apparently emotional had no driving licence. Burgess got into any trouble which might quite inactive. Burgess is the agent, them to something higher than with brimming glasses, in a gardenpleaded diplomatic immunity. At bring disgrace upon his children. Maclean the patient, and there is in the world outside, and found '1 restaurant of Prague. This year they about the same time an English nothing to show that Donal? in- drink a consolation. If we believe That day was his birthday. The visitor to the Embassy reported luncheon was his treat, and the tended going anywhere until he that emotional maladjustment was heard of playing ch 00 0172 the key to their personalities, it is Lubianka prison and him for anti-British talk. He was week after he was getting some wa.~ driven off from his house by recalled from Washington as compassionate leave, for his wife Burgess. His birthday luncheon hard to see how they coul_dpossess import-export business in Prag~e; "11PnPrJ:1.llv nni:mit h , " 0 T f I ------------7 W T T W C I �Last week depicted the early Cuy Blll"gcss and Maclean. In 1935 Maclean pa~sed into the Foreii:n Officl', whl're his reputation soon mounted. Burgess went from the B.B.C. to the Foreign Office in 1944, and was in \ the Far-Eastern Department in 1948. yr1 a few of them like chess-openings. Let us first take one based on the thought he had said MacArthur, to Mrs. Maclean as " Ronald Then he had confided in a theory of a voluntary escape. 1. NON-POLITICAL: The two dis- ' and asked what he had to do Styles." Burgess had engaged the friend that at last he would be appeared on an alcoholic fugue, with it. car by telephone at about two able to settle down to h!s great to wander about like Verlaine and "Senator McCarthy," said Bur- o'clock and then gone round, paid task, the addition of a final volume Rimbaud and to start a new life gess. " Terrible atmosphere. All the deposit, and undergone a brief to Lady Gwendolen Cecil's bio- together. , graphy of the Tory Prime Minister, these purges." driving test. At 5.30 he had Lord Salisbury, which he thought This fits in with Donald's character. He is said to have disappeared He seemed very well and almost received a long telephone call at the best biography in English. once from a party for a few days jaunty, obviously pleased to be his flat. On June 7, as the hue and cry in Switzerland and been found livback even if he went around saying After a quiet and rather began in the Press, three telegrams In 1944 Maclean was he was convinced that America had sober dinner Donald and " Ronald " arrived : one from Guy Burgess ing quietly in the next village. posted to Washington as actgone mad and was determined on walked in the garden. Donald to his mother in which he said Again, he once remarked to a ing First Secretary, and on war. then said that they had to he was embarking on a long friend that he wished he coulrl new life as a· docker in thP his return four years later During the winter Donald go to see a friend who lived i\foditerranean holiday; and two st.art .aEnd, but that ration books was appointed Counsellor in Maclean had made a great effort nearby and that he might have to from Maclean, to his mother Ea.st identity cards now made it, to fit into his new existence as stay away for the ri.ig·ht. He and his wife. To Lady Maclean and Cairo. But in Cairo came Burgess als'? had a a commdter. Mrs. Maclean was promised that he would return on hfl sent a brief message which impossible. a breakdown. On November reputation for disappearing, but expecting another child, and the morrow and took only his brief- he signed with a childhood there 6, 1950, after six months' would be much less reason Donald conscientiously refused to case with him when he left. name, to his wife he wrote : ••Had for him to give up the kind of leave, he went back to the go to cocktail parties in order not to to leave unexpectedly, terribly existence to which he was addicted. Foreign Office as head of miss his evening train to Kent. By sorry. Am quite well now. Don't Neither could have lasting attracMidnight Arrival at the American Division. May, however, he seemed to be worry, darling. I love you. ·Please tion for the other, for· the force more about London of an evening, don't stop loving me. Donald." All which united t11emwould also dnve Southampton and it would be interesting if we three sound plausible but somehow them apart, and the wanderers : NE day towards the end of could discover if there was any HE pair got into the hired car unreal, unless they were meant to would certainly have been heard of 1950 Donald Maclean sudden increase in these outings and drove to Southampton just be delivered at least a week before. again, for where they were in cominvited me to luncheon after th return of Guy Burgess. in time to reach the cross-Channel Having acquired a little more pany incidents would be bound t_o! at his club and talked at le:µgth on one occasion in April, after vessel Falai.se, which left at mid- hackground, let us examine some arise; and the element of 9?ti· some feint !1.ttacks, he knocked night on a special week-end cruise about the war in Korea. His nf the theories with which we aggression in such a flight • down one of his greatest friends to Saint Ma.lo and back by the began. It will be noticed even now social argument was that what for taking the side of Whittaker Channel Islands, returning early on how very few facts we have. We would have caused them to leave • some ki.nd of stateme, mattered most in the world Chambers in the Hiss case. Monday morning. " What about that Burgess and Maclean was people. The Koreans were Chambers, according to Donald, the car? " yelled a port garage .~uspect were Communists at Cambridge, people, but in the stage which was a doubleA Twitch upo!1 the we do not know the war had reached both sides faced exhibitioneven if they too revolting Thread ever met after had entirely forgotten this, and ist be defended I THIS IS THE CONCLUDING instalment of Mr. Cambridge. Both were exploiting them for their to by anyone. 2. (a) THEORIES WHICH IMPLY A w e r e neurotic FORCED MOVE. " A twitch own prestige. It was essential upon the Donald's drink- [ Connolly' s personal and intimate study of Guy p e r s o n alities thread." The argument is that ! to stop the war at all costs -and ing followed an with schizoestablished Burgess and Maclean were both Burgess and Donald Maclean, the two members get them established as people phrenic characroutine. The again. t e r i s t i c s. In Communist agents, Maclean (or charming and of the Foreign Office Staff who vanished on May recent posts both both) was growing indiscreet and This was not the orthodox Com- amiable self was and that they were had behaved so unreliable, munist view, according to which gradually 1 e f t before one (or both) could 26, 1951. Their crucial last day in Englandrecklessly that recalled only the North Koreans were behind, and the they had to be give away others who were more , " people " and the South Koreans hand which Maclean' s birthday-is closely examined. ______________ _JI sent home, both secret and more important; that I (as Burgess maintained) had really patted his friend L were immediately imprisoned . drank too much they started the war. Maclean went on on the back or liquidated and may have got oo and then became farther to suggest that all colonial posses- became a flail. A change would than an uncertain address Burgess cried : " Back violent and abusive, both might sions in the Far East were morally come into his voice like the attendant. be described as abnormal, both in Paris. If they had refused to go, untenable, and when I pleaded that roll of drums for the cabaret. on Monday." , He had booked the two-berth allegedly made confessions (many they would have been exposed to we should be allowed to keep Hong- It took the form of an outBritish and brought disgrace kong and Malaya for their dollar- burst of indignation, often directed cabin at Victoria on the Wednesday years apart) of being Communist the their families. Even so, it is earning capacities he said that that against himself, in which the in his own name, and on that day agents, and both were notorious on doubtful experienced diplomats was precisely the reason why we embittered idealist would aban- had invited a young American, among their colleagues for their aged 38 if and 40 would ~ign should give them up, as only then don all compromise and castigate whom he introduced to various anti-British arguments and were their own death-warrants withagainst authoritarianism could we prove ourselves in earnest all forms of humbug and pretence. people as " Miller " and whom he bitter a murmur and depart without and lay the basis of future good As the last train left for Sevenoaks had met on the Queen Mary, and imperialism. Both had risen out a farewell. relations. from faraway Charing Cross he when returning from Washington, fast under wartime conditions and (b) They both <or Maclean alone> to accompany him. But Burgess had yet maintained an underwould wave a large hand, in some had given information to the let him down at tl:1e last moment. graduate-like informality in their bar, :to his companions. " Well, ~my. Russians at some time, perhaps Back at the Foreign how, you're all right. And you arfl Burgess seems to have had the idea appearance and habits and in the on one occasion only, and this was all right." The elected smiled hap- of a long holiday in France in his general bed-sitting room casualness preying on Donald's conscience. Office pily, but doubt was spreading like a mind, but thai was unconnected of their wav of life. Both had two If the information was given in the week-end jaunt. For this enemies. adolescence and alcohol, Washington, it might have been E talked for a little about how frown on Caligula. "Wait-I'm not with evening he had an impor- and when they vanished each was he felt at being back at work sure. Perhaps you aren't all right. Friday tant dinner engagement which he thought by his friends to have led valuable, and the leak would and " Sir Donald " again, and he After all, you said this and this. never have taken a long time to trace. cancelled. the other astray. told me how fond he was of his col- In fact, you're very wrong. You Burgess might have had wind in At Saint Malo, where the boat leagues, how secure and womb-like won't do at all. (Biff). And as for Washington of this investigation arrived at 10 a.m., the two stayed the Foreign Office seemed, and how you-you're the worst of the lot, even got himself sent home Association that was and well he had been treated. I men- but I suppose I must forgive you." on board, breakfasting and drinkthrough his erratic behaviour in ing beer till the others had left. tioned that I had at one time been (Bash.) order to warn Maclean on his . Then at eleven they, too, went Kept Secret intended for the Diplomatic Serreturn. Burgess might perhaps ashore, leaving behind Burgess·11 vice and that I had always at one time have been a kind Unexpected Visit from two suitcases. At the station, which HEY had everything in common, regarded it since with some of the of private commissar to Maclean. the Paris express had just left in fact, except each other; they After his carefree luncheon. then, wistfulness which he felt for literaMaclean \they would have had plenty ot ture. We left rather late and he were like two similar triangles sud- on that last Friday, Maclean. was merged on the steps lnto a little AFTER a dinner-party on May 15 time to catch it) they took a taxi denly superimposed. When Donald somehow tipped off that exposure to Rennes, the junction some fifty pin-striped shoal of hurrying six of us came back to my miles away. They did not speak met this liberator of irresponsibili- was imminent. At 5.30 he teleofficials, who welcomed him to his contact Burgess who house : it was divided into two, and on the way. They gave no tip to ties, when Don Quixote found his phones affectionatel.y. says " Leave it all to me." I the driver on the fare of 4,500 Sancho Panza, there was bound to Donald occasionally spent the One evening at the end of that be a combustion. francs and they aiTived at Rennes I night in the other flat. Past midwinter a friend came round for a in time to catch the Then how WAlS their association The A1aking of a f drink. He said that he was in a night there was a battering on the station express again. They were not kept secret? I think myself that difficulty : he had been up very late door a~d I let him in, sober-drunk, on the train, which they must have rene)ied the CamMyth with Donald the night before, and the first time I had seen him in noticed reached Paris, via Le Mans, Donald had said to him, " What this legendary condition. He began between five and six. From that bridge friendship in tHe summer of HIS theory bristles with difficulwould you do if I told you I was to wander round the room, blinking moment they have vanished. 1950, during Maclean's convaleties, but it does at least expl<tin at the guests as he divided the a Communist agent?" scence, and that Burgess was part the sudden departure. And yet. like sheep from the goats, and then "I don't know." of what Maclean called his " ash- all who knew him, I am convinced went out to lie down to sleep in the Preparations for a can life," of which he was ashamed that Donald was not an active "Well, wouldn't you report me?" hall, stretched otit on the stone and trying to cure himself. Hence Communist. He had a morbid in" I don't know. Who to? " floor under his overcoat like some Journey' the secrecy'. Were they Communist clination to suicide, and he would "Well, I am. Go on, report me." figure from a shelter sketch-book. HEN Burgess had booked the agents? Surely the first duty of a say that only his love for his chilHis friend had woken up with The departing guests had to make tickets on the Wednesday he secret agent is to escape detection, dren kept him from it. This love their way over him, and I noticed a confused feeling that something said the other name for the cabin express conventional views and was the one emotion which he felt that, although in apparent coma, unpleasant lay before him. It was would probably be Miller; and on rise in his career. The more Com- without ambivalence, and he would an absurd situation, for it was he would raise his loI).gstiff leg like Thursday night he seemed to be in munism they talked the less likely not have taken any drastic step a drawbridge when one of the impossible to be sure that Donald an agitated state " looking for the they were to be agents. And Bur- unless he had been convinced that was serious. My friend knew him goats was trying to pass. I put him friend who was going with him." gess talked a great deal. it was for the best as far as their to bed in his absent friend's flat so well that he could not believe it happiness was concerned. He seems to have spent much of was true. The whole incident and gave him an Alka-Seltzer Friday with Miller, fetching him Perhaps Burgess and Maclean seemed preposterous in the light of ,breakfast in the morning. the Green Park Hotel in the Recklessness or are at last integrated. But, as. On May 25, the day when from day. and lunching with him. Maclean said, what matters most Burgess and Maclean left England, morning Deception? two o'clock he rings up from is people, and that is what arranged to greet some friends in At club for the hired car, visits makes his case essentially tra~ic. Burgess Recalled from ISchmidt's before lunching down his OULD this have been reckless- Guy• Burgess always enjoyed garage with Miller, parks the the street at the Etoile. We met in the ness or a subtle double bluff? being himself, and for a while car near his New Bond Street flat, Washington the road. Donald was with them, and goes shopping, buying a wh!te Both are just possible. Maclean, he lived his own dream, a realis- , looking rather creased and yellow, however, in the fifteen years in tic example of the " new type N August, 1950,Guy Burgess had casual but diffident. We all stood mackitltosh (he had no mackinbeen posted to the Washington on the pavement. I said to him, tosh) a fibre suitcase and a good which I had come across him, of diplomat" who is always deEmbassy as Second Secretary; he "You're Cyril Connolly, aren·t you? many nylon shirts which did not remained always devoted to the manded in wartime. But -Donald nonconformist but essentially non- Maclean, were it not for his lack had last visited Washington in -I'm Sir Donald Maclean"; this fit him. 1942. By the early spring ~f 1951 reference to our conversation at his At 5.25 he left Miller at his political little group of writers and of balance and emotional security, things were not going so well for club was intended to efface our last hotel saying "See you at 7.30." painters whom he had known m had the qualities of a great public London and Paris. They were his servant. Yet with all his admirahim. The telegrams which he meeting. He seemed calm and He then went back to his flat. tion for people, he betrayed those drafted were often rejected as genial, and went off gaily to con- received the telephone call, and home. Nor did Burgess ever appear at who loved him, humiliated those being biased, there seemed tinue the luncheon with his packed into two s~itcas~s an~ a nothing for him to do, he was friends, who were to rejoin me for brief-case four suits, his shirts, all calculating. "Guy would help who trusted him, and discredited not popular with his colleagues, coffee. blue jeans socks, handkerchiefs, anybody in distress. He would make those who thought like him .... But a split-second decision and carry once again we are condemning he was drinking heavily again, and his ga'udy collection of tiesAt luncheon, they told me when and on one day, February 28, he they came back, he had been mel- an extensive wardrobe for two it out no matter what the conse- .them unheard. was stopped three times for speed- low and confidential; he had nights at sea. At seven he had a quences. He would certainly not do Meanwhile a myth is slowly Ing which led to an official com- talked about himself, about how last drink at his club. Later that ,anything to injure his country." transfiguring them. At first they plaint. Then he gave a lift to a Like most people who feel they were seen in Montmartre and better he felt, how he didn't evening the American rang up the have young man and let him take the much been starved of love, Burgess Montparnasse, in Brussels and flat to know why he had not been have to visit his psycho-analyst so wheel. There was an accident, and it often, and how he was determined fetched. and Maclean desire~ to raise the Bayonne, on the high pass to turned out that the young man temperature around Andorra, in a bar in Cannes and, Maclean's day was apparently emotional take a hold on himself lest he had no driving licence. Burgess to quite inactive. Burgess is the agent, them to something higher than with brimming glasses, in a gardengot into any trouble which might pleaded diplomatic immunity. At bring disgrace upon his children. Maclean the patient, and there is in the world outside, and found '1 restaurant of Prague. about the same time an English This year they have been That day was his birthday. The nothing to show that Donald in- drink a consolation. If we believe visitor to the Embassy reported luncheon was his treat, and the tended going anywhere until he that emotional maladjustment was heard of playing chess in the him for anti-British talk. He was week after he was getting some was driven off from his house by the key to their personalities, it is Lubianka prison and running ah recalled from Washington as compassionate leave, for his wife Burgess. His birthday luncheon hard to see how they could possess import-export business in Prague; " generally unsuitable " and arrived would be going to hospital for the lasted fram 12.30 until after 2.30 the control to serve a foreign coun- and Guy Burgess as visiting home in the Queen Mary on May 4. baby; he asked if he could come - champagne and oysters at try coolly and ruthlessly for twenty Browning's villa (" What's become A few days later I ran into him down and visit my friends for some Wheeler's, then some more solid years and yet w_o~kall the ~ime in of Waring? ") north-east of Venice. in the street. He came up with his part of the time. They had be~n food at Schmidt's; he was at work executive capacities for thell" own. And so for many years they will be usual shaggy, snarling-playful very kind to him when he was 111, till 5.30 and he went home by h:s I think that Burgess was a Marx- seen until the mystery is solved, manner and said he was just back and he was now in effect making usual train. But it may be that ist in his mental processes and an if it ever is, haunting the Old from America. the telephone call which Burgess anti-Marxist individualist in his World's pleasure-traps about the them a favourable report. After spending the afternoon in received at 5.30 was some kind of personality. Macleat?,, it m3:y be, season of their disappearance, "Where were you?" had something on his conscience, bringing with them strawberries his office he went off to Charing S O S from Maclean. "Washington." which, however, was a J?articularly and hot weather and escapist During May Burgess had had his Cross and caught his usual train "What was it like?" to Sevenoaks. That evening worries. but he had been offered tender one; possibl:y, above all, he leanings : a portent of the mi die " Absolutely frightful." 000173 Burgess arrived at Donald's house an important job on a newspaper had a fear about his mental summer's spring. "Why?" at Tatsfield-he had driven down and he was going out to dinner to condition. World copyright : 1·ea.,.,,_.,_.,..._.in So •many explanations of their I In a hired car-and was introduced clinch this on the day he vanished. whole or part to "Because of McCarthy." 0 T f I -------------, 1 1 W T T W I C I I �o ment disc osed un e Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loisur /'acces a /'information ,, THE SUND.AY TIMES. ·THE SEPTEl\lBER MISSING HOSE who become o sessed with a puzzle are not very likely to solve it. Here is one about which I have brooded tor a year and would Maclean in 1913. The one reached like to unburden myself. Some- Cambridge by way of Eton anrl the other, two years later, thing of what I have put down Trinity, by Gresham's School and Trinity may cause pain; but that I Hall. They knew each other "t and were both must risk, because where Cambridge people are concerned the truth members of the left-wing circle there. But there is no evidcan never be ascertained with- ence of that oppressive parental out painful things being i::ald, authority which drives young men and because I feel that what I to revolt. put down may lead to somebody remembering the fact or Pre-War Cambridge phrase which will suddenly Marxists bring it all into focus. T 21. 1952 DIPLOMATS by Cyril Connolly the bourgeoisie entirely surrounded by Communists, like the Alcazar of Toledo. One day Burgess's friend came to her shaken and yet impressed. Guy had contiaed to him that ne was not just a member but a secret agent of the Communist Party, and he had then invited him to join in this work. The friend had refused with concern: and tor her part the novelist felt that Burgess's Fascism was suddenly explained : as a secret agent he must have been told to investigate the British Fascists and hoped. to pass as one. Even so, it was impossible to feel If I did not believe (by instinct T was more than ten years since quite certain, for it would be in rather than reason) that the two the end of the first world war, keeping with Burgess's neurotic people about whom I am going to power-drive that he should pretPnd write may well have been victims of and a new generation was growing up which found no outlet in home to be an under-cover man. some unforeseen calamity, the Years afterwards the novelist puzzle would not exist and I should politics for the adventurous or altruistic impulses of the adolewas told that he had spent several have nothing to say. days wrestling with his conscience I have had access to no secrets. scent. Marxism satisfied both the at the time of the Soviet-German rebelliousness of youth and its I have not talked to many of the craving for dogma. pact and had decided to give up people I should like to, I offer no The Cambridge Communists subthe whole business. This mav well solution, only a few suggestions, a have been true. meditation on human complexity stituted a new father or super-ego Here we have to declde whether which leads to murky bypaths but for the old one, and accepted n Burgess visited Germany as a justice and a stricter which, I hope, will show that no new They felt they had secret Communist. a Nazi symone has any right to jump to authority. exposed the weaknesses of Liberalpathiser or as an observer for our unfavourable conclusions ab out own Intelligence Servicesl or-at people of whom they know nothing. ism along with their elders' ignorvarious levels of his oppor unismance of economic affairs. To this generation Communism made an as all three. On one occasion he took some Boy Scouts over to a intellectual appeal, standmg for .A Matter of Choice love, liberty and l;?OCialjustice and rally at Cologne. for a new appr6ach to life ¢nd In January, 1939, he left the or Necessity B.B.C., and in the autumn of 1940 art. Yet it was connected with a he was doing confidential work for HE disappearance, towards the political party, and this party is the War Office. At this time he was end of May last year, of Guy not inclined to relinquish its hold. arrested for being drunk in charge Burgess and Donald Maclean 1s a " The Comintern," says Arthur of a car and acquitted because he mystery which cannot be solved Koestler, " carried on a white-slave was working fourteen hours a day A Breakdown in while so many factors remain traffic whose victims were young idealists flirting had just k d th f un nown, an ere oreonly any I and been in an airCairo explanation can be based on with violence.'' raid. a balance of probabilities. t~~~g~i~ THIS IS THE FIRST instalment of Mr. By January, N 1950 word began to reach us Such solutions fall into two cate- are described in , Z d, , d fG 1941, he was that all was not so well. lt was gories. according as they presup- numerous novels Connolly s persona an intimate stu y o uy said that Donald, whu::;e mgh once more In the pose the disappearance to be a and poems, or in B d D ld 111 l t b Liberal principles had received full B.B.C., and there matter of choice or of necessity. such tracts as Urt!ess an ona two mem ers 1r ac ean, tne A voluntary flight might be poli• M v • he remained for scope in enlightened Washington, so disheartened by the tlcal, as that of Hess to Scotland, Sp~nd~;,; of the Foreign Office staff who vanished towards three years in had been and or of a private and psychological corruption of the European propa- poverty Middle East that he had had some nature,aswhentwoboysrunaway r:r;1ral1~~~ the end of Maylast year. !twill be readwith ganda depart- kind of breakdown. It seems that ments. His posifrom school. They involved • l · by t hose concerne d wit· h t he adopted a theory that sufficient The compelled exit, the forced no betraval of particu ar interest tion became one he could release in one a move, implies escape under duress. the writers' own z· bl •• • ·d l · z that greatly alcohol personality which, though the threat being either of private country, and the I pecu iar pro ems arising in an age o i eo ogica appealed to him, second blackmail or of public exposure; it might simulate the destructive involving him 0 worked only good by helpor again it might be the result of ~ of s1!t'J~~ conflict which is often. projected on the plane of eventually i n element, an imperious recall by a Power 1 h people to acknowledge the truth liaison work with ing about themselves reveal their which regarded one or both of the a t were private personality. A second and concluding highly s e Cr e t latent affinities. and Donald entered o r g a nisations, into the spirit of tb.e ii~~~!p~~~~! fto icrai:e~i~rs. 0 r as th ese_two young article will appear next week investigation until he was able and took as hi« alter ego There remains a possibility menlike? t.he name Maclean Donald was I_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ - - •_J to represent the of that th ey were sen t a broa d on a s a n d y _ haired, " Gordon " from an export gin Foreign Office. secret mission, and another that tall, with great latent physical Communism then offered the con- He helped, for instance, to remove with a tusky wild boar on the label. When night tell his new self took they were lured abroad and then strength, but fat and rather the anti-Russian bias from Poles solation of a religion. kidnapped. for possession. He stampede<:! one v1 During the Spanish War I saw whom we were training There are simply not enough fla bby. Meet·mg h.im, one was much two parties, but 11:ot into more less of Burgess, who had now sabotage. facts to exclude any of these conscious of both amiability and ser:ou.s trouble when. in th,, comA weakness. He did not seem joined the B.B.C. in Bristol. We now see the outline of the pany of a friend, he broke into the explanations, nor can we even pre- a political animal but resembled terrible thing had happened-he ideal personalities of Burgess and first apartment to hand in a block sume that the behaviour of both the clever helpless youth in a had become a Fascist! Still sneer- Maclean. On the unstable foundaMaclean and Burgess is covered by Huxley novel, an outsize Cherubino ing at the bourgeois intellectual, he tions of their adolescence they were of flats and sharpened his tusks on the same explanation. The most 1 t the furniture. vaunted the intensely modern erecting the selves whom they striking fact-the suddenness of n ent on amorous experience but now of the Nazi leaders: his would like to be, the father figures Then on a boating trip on the their disappearance-suggests a too shy and clumsy to succeed. The realism admiration for economic ruthless- of their day-dreamsb the finished Nile, with some twenty people in panic, but even this suddenness shadow of an august atmosphere and the short cut to power Imagos. With his lack hat and the party, he seized a rifle from an could have been counterfeited. The lay heavy on him, and he sought ness swung him to the opposite umbrella, his brief-case under his ottlc1oussentrv and began to 1mperu spontaneous thoroughness of the refuge. on the ~ore impetuous and .. had extreme. claimed to have arm-O.H.M.S.-Donald is " Sir the safety of "those nearest him by search would seem to indicate that emancipated frmges of Bloomsbury attended a He Nuremberg Rally. . and Chelsea. Such a young man Donald Maclean," the Tyrrell, the swinging it wildly. A Secretary at the Fore1g~ Office _firstaccepted the , ran be set right by the devotion of Maclean, however, a strong sup- Eyre Crowe of the second world the Embas~y intervened, and in the theory of k1dnappmg, and _sowould an intelligent, older woman, and it porter of the Spanish Republic, war, the last great Liberal diplo- scuffle received a broken leg. The . tend to. e:;cclude the not~on of a was a misfortune that Donald was seemed suddenly to have acquired matist, terror of the unjust and two men returned home on sick secret m1s~1on(unless self-impose~). just not quite able to inspire such a backbone, morallv and physicall:v. hope of the weak. " If 1t wasn't leave, while Mrs. Maclean who was while a high French police official tt hm . h · 1 has maintained that it would have an a ac . ent, c armmg, _cever His appearance greatly improved, for you, Sir Donald," snarled on the boating trip, went to Spain been impossible for the two visitors and affect10nate, he was still too his fat disappeared, and he had Ribbentrop, "we might still have for a rest with her two sons. become a personage. In 1935 he won the peace." What was the nature of Donald's to France to elude the dra~-net unformed. had passed into the Foreign It was not just overBurgess, of course, is a power outburst? spread for them without the • proGuy Burgess, though he preferred Office, and from 1938 he was at work, but over-strain; the effort ot behind the scenes : a brigadier in tection " of a political organisation. the_ cpmpany of the able to the mufti, Brigadier BrilliRnt. D.S.O .. being " Sir Donald," the wholP There are, however, countries art1St1c, also moved on the edge of the Embassy in Paris. I remember som~ arguments F.R.S., the famous historian, with paraphernalia of " O.H.M.S.," had where it might be possible for two tJ:?.esame worlq. He was of a very able-bodied men to obtain work and 91ffer~nt ph:ys1que, tall - medtum with him. I had felt· a great sym- boyish grin and cold blue eyes, been too much for him and he had pathy for the Spanish Anarchists, s e con d e d now for special reverted to his adolescence, or to still escape notice, but they are not m . ~eight, with blue eyes, an inWith long stride and his ideal of Paris days, the free and so easily reached from the station qu!s1t1ve nose, &ensual m_outh, curly with whom he was extremely duties. atRennes, in Brittany, whence they h_a1r and aler~ fox-terrier exprE;S- severe. as with all the other non- hunched shoulders, untidy, chain- solitary young sculptor working all vanished on May 26, 1951. One s1on. He was rmmensely energetic, Communist factions, and I detected smoking, he talks-walks and talks night in his attic. The return of must also consider the possibility a great talker, r_eader, boaster, in his reproaches the familiar -while the whole devilish simpli- the repressed is familiar to psychothat they are dead. walker, who s_wamlike an otter and priggish tone of the Marxist, the city of his plan unfolds and the analysts. and there was also now a As one o1 the many who knew clrll,nk, not like a feckless under- resonance of the " Father Found.·• men from M.I. this and M.I. that, brief return to his early sexual both, and as one of the few who grad~ate, as Donald w~s apt to do, At the same time he could switch S.I.S. and. S.O.E., listen dumb- ambivalence. "Gordon" had given " My God, Brilliant, I " Sir Donald " the sack. The , spoke with Maclean on his last dav bu~ llke some ~abela1S1an bottle- to a magisterial defence of Cham- founded. in England, I should like to sw1per whose thirst was unquench- berlain's foreign policy and seemed believe you're right-it could be enraged junior partner would no able to hold the two self-righteous done." The Brigadier looked at his longer put up with him. approach the subject from a dif- able. points of view simultaneously. watch and a chilled blue eye fixed ferent standpoint. Let us put aside His evenings in Paris were the chief of the Secret Service. the facts of which we know so little Contrasts in Their "At this moment, sir," and there Six -Months' Leave for usually spent in the Left-Bank and consider the personalities cafes with a little group of hard- was pack-ice in his voice, " my involved. In so far as one indiCharacters Maclean working painters and sculptors. chaps are doing it." vidual can ever understand During the daytime he, too, another, we may find that we have THE physical type to which ACK in London he had six worked very hard, and it was now grounds to eliminate some of these Burgess's War-Time Donald Maclean, despite his that he began to build up his months' leave to get well and to explanations and so narrow down make up his mind about the future. the value of X, as we shall name puppy fat, belonged was that of reputation in the Foreign Office, Life He was still d1inking and was now the factor responsible for their the elongated, schizophrenic, sad- and we must remember that it grew very high indeed. undergoing treatment from a joint disappearance. countenanced Don Q u i x o t eN 1940 Donald Maclean had marwoman psycho-analyst. Hi!' apoearDonald had many admirable introverted and diffident, an Scottish qualities. He was responried in Paris an American girl ance was frightening : he had lost Looking Back to idealist and a dreamer given to sible and painstaking, logical and as clelightful as her name. Melinda his serenity, his hands would Marling, who bore him two sons. tremble, his face was usually a sudden outbursts of aggression; resolute in argument, judicious She brought Childhood sweetness and livid yellow and he looked as if he whereas Guy Burgess, despite and even-tempered and, I should understanding both into his life. Guy had spent the night sitting up in imagine, an admirable son and WO facts distinguish Burgess his intelligence. was a round-faced. Though he remained brother. He had grown much Burgess. however, as the war went a tunnel. and Maclean from the so-called g o 1d e n - pated Sancho Panza, handsomer, and his tall figure, his on, led a more troubled existence. detached and amlable as ever, it "atomic" spies-first, they are extrovert, A new friend whom he had made was clear that he was miserable manic, grave long face and noble brow, his not known to have committed cynical and exhibitionist, avidly dark suit, black hat and umbrella was taken prisoner-of-war, and it and in a very bad way. .In conany crime, second, . they are curious, yetargumentative, vague were severe and distinguished. One was noted that he had become versation a kind of shutter would members of the governing class, of and incompetent.sometimes With all his felt now that he was a rock, that if much more insulting and destruc- fall as if he had returned to the high bureaucracy, the "they" toughness, moreover, Guy Burgess one were in trouble he would help tive when he drank-he seemed to some basic and incommunicable who rule the " we " to whom intensely to be liked and and not just let one down with a hit on the unforgivable thing to anxiety. refugees like Fuchs and Pontecorvo wanted say to everyone. His mental Some of his friends urged him to a good conver- reprimand. and humble figures like Nunn May was indeed likeable, sadism, which sometimes lecl to his resign, pointing out that since he and an enthusiastic belong. If traitors they be, then sationalist getting knocked out, did not d • n1 e an d d"JSagreed with builder-up of his friends. Beneath they are traitors to themselves. exclude great kindness to those in the islikpolicy ed th e he "terribilita" of his Marxist \Vhite Hope of the could not go back l3ut. as m all cases where people the trouble. Above all. J:le disliked without 1t all happening again. analyses one divined the affectionseem to act against their own ate anyone to get out of. his clutches; Others assured him that he would moral cowardice of the public Foreign Office political interests, we must go schoolboy. he was an affect1ona~e bully soon be well enough to return to back to childhood. capable of acts of generosity, like a . work, which would prove the best An old Etonlan. an " Apostle " Politics begin in the nursery; no REMEMBER, at the beginning magnate of the Dark Ages. thing for himself and his family. who had taken a First in History one is born patriotic or unpatriotic, of the war, mentioning to one . At the ~ame time he was drink- 'J'.he Foreign Office had to weigh ·right-wing or left-wing, and it is at Cambridge, and was tempted to of our most famous diplomatic mg and hving extravagantly. He his years of hard work against the child whose craving for love become a don, he yet seemed an fond of lu?-ury and display, of the outburst, which they put down is unsatisfied, whose desire for adventurer with a first-class mind, representatives that Donald was a was smtes at Clandges and fast cars to , the strain of long hours and power is thwarted, or whose innate who would always be in the know, friend of mine and receiving a which he drove abominably. He forrncil "ocial rluties ---....d sense of justice is warped, that a framer of secret policies, a glance of incredulity. Satisfied belonged febrile war-time Washington. His rep 000174 a eventually may try to become a flhancial wizard already. ancl a that this indeed was so, he cafe-societyto ofthe the temporary Civil penetrating mind, sou~ ___ .-;nt future editor, at least, of ". The revolutionary or a qictator. In that Maclean was Servant, Maclean to the secret and quiet industry turne e sea e. Times." Though he enj<? ed a explained rm nen '' e ch1atnst's reoorts became I T ;!ii his favourite authors were Mrs. Gaskell and Balzac and, later on, Mr. E.·M. Forster." Lenin had said somewhere that he had learnt more about France from Balzac's novels Lhan trom au mswry-ooolrn put together. Accordingly Balzac was the greatest writer of all times." <Koestler.) Donald was i;eldom heard to talk po11t1cs,Guy never seemed to stop. He was the type of bumptious Marxist who saw himself as SaintJust, who enjoyed making the flesh of his bourgeois listeners creep by his picture of the justice which history would mete out to them. Grubby, intemperate and promiscuous. he loved to moralise over his friends and satirise their smug class - unconscious behaviour, so reckless of the reckoning in store. But when bedtime came, very late, and it was the moment to put the analyses away, the word "Preposterous " dying on his lips, he would imply a dispensation under which this one house at least, this family, these guests, might be spared the worst consequences. thanks to the protection of their brilliant hunger-marching friend whose position would bl' so rommanding in the happy workers' Utopia. It was the time when Aoyssinia mattered, before the Russian purges had taken place and the especial bitterness of Communist controversy had arisen. There were very few ex-Commumsts, and the party's claim to represent the extreme left-wing was not disputed. Unlike all other political parties. pattern in Burgess's rel,i,ti"rtsahins. In romantic friendship he liked to dommate, but ms mtellectua1 admiration was usually kept for those who were older than himself. l'here were also cromes with whom he preferred to drink and argue. In June, 1944, he had been transferred to the News Department of the Foreign Office, in 1946 to the office of the Minister of State. Mr. Hector McNeil, in 1947 to B branch \Foreign Office), and in 1948 to the Far-Eastern Department of the Foreign Office. In 1944, the year that Guy Burgess went from the B.B.C. to the r·ore1gn Ulbce uona.ld Maclean was posted to Washington as actmg First Secretary. <Jn m.:s return in 1948 he gave a dinner-part~ to his friends. It was a delightful evening. he had become a good host, his cl'\arm was based not on •vanity but on sincerity, and he would discuss foreign affairs as a student, not an expert. He enjoyed the magazine that I then edited, which was a blue rag to Burgess, a weak injection of culture into a society alreadv dead On his return from Washington he was appointed Coup.sellor in <Ja.i.ro. ·• 1n DonaJa Ma.c1ea.11.l see a courage and a love of justice; I see a soul that could not be deflected from the straight course; and I see in it that deep affection for his friends which he always manifested." The wor<i!': of Rtanlev Baldwin about the father seemed to be coming true of the son. A Counsellor at tl;l.irty-five,he seemect in a fair way to equal his parent's distinction. r -- ---- --------------- I ~.1½,~i f !~ e\lli B I T I �re is one about which I have brooded 1or a year and would like to unburden myself. Something of what I have put down may cause pain; but that I must risk, because where people are concerned the truth can never be ascertained without painful things being zald, and because I feel that what I put down may lead to somebody remembering the fact or phrase which will suddenly bring it all into focus. If I did not believe (by Instinct rather than reason) that the two people about whom I am going to write may well have been victims of some unforeseen calamity, the puzzle would not exist and I should have nothing to say. I have had access to no secrets. I have not talked to m of the people I should like to, offer no solution. only a few suggestions, a meditation on human complexity which leads to murky bypaths but which, I hope, will show that no one has any right to jump to unfavourable conclusions about people of whom they know nothing. A Matter of Choice or Necessity HE disappearance, towards the end of May last year, of Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean is a mystery which cannot be solved while so many factors remain unknown, and therefore any explanation can be based only on a balance of probabilities. Such solutions fall into two categories, according as they presuppose the disappearance to be a matter of choice or of necessity. A voluntary flight might be polltical, as that of Hess to Scotland, or of a private and psychological nature, as when two boys run away from school. The compelled exit, the forced move, implies escape under duress, the threat being either of private blackmail or of public exposure; or again it might be the result of an imperious recall by a Power which regarded one or both of the two diplomats as in danger or as having become too dangerous. There remains a possibility that they were sent abroad on a secret mission, and another that they were lured abroad and then kidnapped. There are stmply not enough facts to exclude any of these explanations, nor can we even presume that the behaviour of both Maclean and Burgess is covered by the same explanation. The most striking fact-the suddenness of their disappearance-suggests a panic, but even this suddenness could have been counterfeited. The spontaneous thoroughness of the search would seem to indicate that .the Foreign Office first accepted the theory of kidnapping, and so would tend to exclude the notion of a secret mission (unless self-imposed), while a high French police official has maintained that it would have been impossible for the two visitors to France to elude the dra~-net spread Ior them without the ' protection " of a political organisation. There are, however, countries where it might be possible for two able-bodied men to obtain work and still escape notice, but they are not so easily reached from the station atRennes, in Brittany, whence they vanished on May 26, 1951. One must also consider the possibility that they are dead. As one o1 the many who knew both. and as one of the few who spoke with Maclean on his last dav in England, I should like to approach the subject from a different standpoint. Let us put aside the facts of which we know so little and consider the personalitie5 involved. In so far as one individual can ever understand another, we ma:y find that we have grounds to eliminate some of these explanations and so narrow down the value of X, as we shall name the factor responsible for their joint disappearance. T Looking Back to Childhood WO facts distinguish Burgess T and Maclean from the so-called "atomic" spies-first. they are not known to have committed any crime, second, they are members of the governing cla.'is, of the high bureaucracy, the "they" who rule the " we " to whom refugees like Fuchs and Pontecorvo and humble figures like Nunn May belong. If traitors thev be, then they are traitors to themselves. But. as m all cases where people seem to act against their own political interests, we must go back to childhood. Politics begin in the nursery; no one is born patriotic or unpatriotic, right-wing or left-win~, and it is the child whose cravmg for love is unsatisfied, whose desire for power is thwarted, or whose innate sense of justice is warped, that eventually may try to become a revolutionary or a dictator. In England w~ attach spiritual values alone to ch iIdh ood and adolescence, dismissing political actions of a subversive nature as youthful escapades. But in fact such behaviour in the young is often revealing because it expresses the true meaning of. the elationship with the father in its most critical phase. Guy Burgess lost his father at an arly age, and his mother (to horn he is devoted) remarried· Maclean is the child of distinguished Liberal parents; his father. who wa.'i then President f the Board of Education, died hen he was nineteen. Burgess wai; oorn in 1911, Maclean in 1913. The one reached Cambridge by way of Eton anri Trinity, the other, two years later, by Gresham's School and Trinity Hall. They knew each other At. Cambridge and were both members of the left-wing circle there. But there 1s no evidence of that oppressive parental authority which drives young men to revolt. ocument isc osed irO. f: o'nce{f. I /i\'iW1l IOfk Document divulgue en ~1'1ttln>1,Mare'adfitltI~~~lf. his favourite authors were Mrs. the bourgeoisie entirely surrounded Gaskell and Balzac and, later on, by Communists, like the Alcazar of · l ad id Toledo. "M r. E • M. F ors t er. " Lemn 1 sa One day Burgess's friend came to somewhere that he had learnt more her shaken and yet impressed. about France from Balzac's novels Guy had confided 00 him tnat ne th an tram au rustury-oooi-i; put was not just a member but a secret together. Accordingly Balzac was agent of the Communist Party, and the greatest writer of an times.·• he had then invited him to join in <Koestler.> this work. The friend had refused 0tnc~.ldGwuyo.sr{5eevledrom eehmeaerddtotosttalopk. with ~oncern: and for her part th,e 5 PO 1 ~ novelist felt that Burgess s He was the type of bumptious Fascism was suddenly explained: Pre-War Cambridge Marxist who saw himself as Saint- as a secret _agent_ he must ~ve Just. who enjoyed making the flesh been_told to mvest1gate the British Marxists of his bourgeois listeners creep by Fascists and hoped,_to pa.'iSas one. his picture of the justice which Even so, it was impossible to feel IT riias m~re lr~n Jent years since gJ:~iy, ~~~~~~~~ie o~~iopr~h~~ iuite certa!n, for it W/>Uldbe in e en o et. rs world "'.ar, cuous, he loved to morali'se over hi·s eeplngd .with Burgess s neurotic an d a new genera 10n was growmg power- rive that he should pretend up which found no outlet in home friends and satirise their smug to be an under-cover man. politics for the adventurous or class - unconscious behaviour, so Years afterwards the novel!st altruistic impulses of the adole- reckless of the reckoning in store. was told th?,t he had spent several scent. Marxism satisfied both the But when bedtime came, very late, days wrestlmg with his conscience rebelliousness of youth and its and it was the moment to put the at the time of the Soviet-German craving for dogma. analyses away, the word .. Prepos- pact and had decided to give up The Camb1idge Communists sub- terous " dying on his lips, he would the whole business. This may well stituted a new father or super-ego im_ply a dispem;ation under which haw• been true this one house at least. this family. • • for the_ otl~ one, and accepted a 'liese '"tests. mi·gllt be spared the Here we _h;we to decide whether new Jus ice and a stricter O b' Burgess v1s1ted Germany as a authority. They felt they had worst consequences. thanks brilliant, to the secret. Communist • a Nazi. symprotection of their f~o:rin~h~i'f~ar;e1~<;~~d~;.s:i;.,i~~;i: hunger-marching friend whose g;~hli~le?lig!~c~n g~~rcr:: (~~ o~r ance of economic affairs. To this PO.'lition would bP so commanding various levels of his opportuni~-;;; . ~ he generation Communism mane an l·n the happy workei·s' utop 1·a. as all three. on one occasion intellectual appeal. standmg for It was the tlme when APyssinta took some Boy Scouts over to a love, liberty and ~ocial justice and mattered, before the Russian rally at Cologne. for a new apprd'ach to llfe ,.and purges had taken place and the In January, 1939, he left the art. Yet it was connected with a especial bitterness of Communist B.B.C., an~ m the autumn of 1940 political party, and this P,arty is controversy had arisen. There were he was domg confidential work for not inclined to relinquish its hold. very few ex-Communists. and the the War Office._At this t~e he was " The Comintern," says Arthur party's claim to represent the arrested for bemg drunk m charge Koestler, "carried on a white-slave extreme left-wing was not disouted. of a car and acquitted because he traffic whose victims were young Unlike all other political parties, was working fourteen hours a day idealists flirtinl! and 'had just with violence.~ I - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - I be~n in an airThe feelings o! FIRST raid such young men HIS IS THE instalment of Mr. By January, are described in 1941, he . was numerous novels Connolly' s personal and intimate study of Guy and poems. or in one~ more m the such tracts as Burgess and Donald Maclean, the two members B.B.C., and there M r. S t e p h e n . . . he remained for Spender's "Forof the Foreign Office staff who vanished towards three years in R for l'here were also cronies with wt1om he preferred to drink and argue. In June, 1944, he had been transferred to the News Department of the Foreign Office, in 1946 to the office of the Minister of State. Mr. Hector McNeil, in 1947 to B branch (Foreign Office), and in 1948 to the Far-Eastern Department of the Foreign Office. In 1944, the year that Guy Burgess went from the B.B.C. to the J:<ore1gnu1hce uonald Maclean was posted to Washington as actmg First Secretary. on m» return in 1948 he gave a dinner-parh to his friends. It was a delightful evening, he had become a good host, his charm was based not on •vanity -1but on sincerity, and he would discuss foreign affairs as a student, not an expert. He enjoyed the magazine that I then edited, which wa.5 a blue rag to Burgess, a weak inJection of culture into a society alrradv dean • f was h'mg to n On 1us return rom he was appointed Counsellor in uain.>. " in DonaJa .Ma.cieai1 J. see a • I see a courage and a love of justice; soul th that st could not be de91cted from e raight course; an see in it thatwhich deep heaffection his friends always for manifested." The words of Rtanln Baldwin about the father seemed to be c.oming true of the son. A counsellor at to.irty-five, ne seemeo in a fair way to equal his parent's distinction. A Breakdown in T Cairo N 1950 word began to reach us I that all was not so well. It was said that Donald, whu.se mgn Liberal principles had received full scope in enlightened Washington, had been so disheartened by the poverty and corruption of the 0 Middle East that he had had some r:r;1ral1~~~ the end of May last year. It will be read with :~~~~ean!e~ kind of breakdown. It seems that he adopted a theory that sufficient J~eybetr~~~~lv~1 particular interest by those concerned with the gi;itgec!1~/g~~ alcohol could release in one a the writers' own l' bl . • • l • l t hat greatly second personality which, though country, and the I pecu zar pro ems arzszng in an age o z eo ogzca appealed to him, it might simulate the destructive 0 element, worked only good by help~ of conflict which is often projected on the plane of h \~ ing people to acknowledge the truth th th le al. private personality A second and concludina liaison work Wi themselves and reveal their W h a t w ere • o highly s e c r et about latent affinities. Donald entered these two young article will appear next tveek. organisations, men like? Donald until he was able into the spirit of tl\e investigation Maclean w as L _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _J to represent the and took as hi.« alter ego t.t1ename s a n d y - haired, Foreign Office. of " Gordon " from an export gin tall, with great latent physical Communism then offered the con- He helped, for Instance, to remove with a tusky wild boar on the label. When night iell his new self took strength, but fat and rather solation of a religion. the anti-Russian bias from Poles flabby. Meeting him, one was During the Spanish War I saw whom we were training for poosess1on. He stampedea one 01 two parties, but got into more conscious of both amiability and much less of Burgess, who had now sabotage. weakness. He did not seem joined the B.B.C. in Bristol. A We now see the outline o! the serioui, trouble when. in t.hP coma political animal but resembled terrible thing had happened-he ideal personalities of Burgess and pany of a friend, he broke into the the clever helpless youth in a had become a Fascist! Still sneer- Maclean. On the unstable founda- first apartment to hand in a block Huxley novel, an outsize Cherubino ing at the bourgeois intellectual, he tions of their adolescence they were of flats and sharpened his tusks on intent on amorous experience but now vaunted the intensely modern erecting the selves whom they the furniture. Then on a boating trip on the too shy and clumsy to succeed. The realism of the Naii leaders: his would like to be, the father fi~ures shadow of an august atmosphere admiration for economic ruthless- of their day-dreams, the fimshed Nile, with some twenty people in lay heavy on him, and he sought ness and the short cut to power Imagos. With his black hat and the party, he seized a rifle from an refuge on the more impetuous and had swung him to the opposite umbrella, his brief-case under his ottic1oussentry and began to 1mperu emancipated fringes of Bloomsbury extreme. He claimed to have arm-0.H.M.S.-Donald is "Sir the safety of those nearest him by and Chelsea. Such a young man attended a Nuremberg Rally Donald Maclean," the Tyrrell, the swinging it wildly. A Secretary at ran be set right by the devotion of Maclean. however, a strong sup- Eyre Crowe of the second world the Embassy intervened, and in the an intelligent, older woman, and it porter of the Spanish Republic, war, the last great Liberal diplo- scuffle received a broken leg. The was a misfortune that Donald was seemed suddenly to have acquired matist, terror of the unjust and two men returned home on sick just not quite able to inspire such a backbone, morallv and physically. hope of the weak. "If 1t wasn't leave, while Mrs. Maclean who wRs an attachment; charming, clever His appearance greatly improved, for you, Sir Donald," snarled an the boating trip, went to Spain and affectionate, he was still too his fat disappeared, and he had Ribbentrop, "we might still have for a rest with her two sons. unformed. becpme a personage. In 1935 he won the peace." What was the nature of Donald's Guy Burgess, though he preferred had passed into the Foreign Burgess. of course, is a rower outburst? It was not just overthe company of the able to the Office. and from 1938 he was at behind the scenes : a brigadier in work, but over-strain; the effort of artistic, also moved on the edge o! the Embassy in Paris. mufti, Brigadier Brilliant. D.S.O .. being " Sir Donald." the wholP the same world. He was of a very I remember some arguments F.R.S., the famous historian, with paraphernalia of " O.H.M.S.,'' had different physique, tall - medtum with him. I had felt- a great sym- boyish grin and cold blue eyes, been too much for him and he had in height, with blue eyes, an in- pathy for the Spanish Anarchists, s e con d e d now for special reverted to his adolescence, or to quisitive nose, sensual mouth, curly with whom he was extremely duties. With long stride and his ideal of Paris days, the free and hair and alert fox-terrier expres- severe. as with all the other non- hunched shoulders, untidy, chain- solitary young sculptor working all sion. He was immensely energetic, Communist factions, and I detected smoking, he talks--walks and talks night in his attic. The return of a great talker, reader, boaster, in his reproaches the familiar -while the whole devilish simpli- the repressed is familiar to psychowalker, who swam like an otter and priggish tone of the Marxist, the city of his plan unfolds and the analysts, and there was also now a dri:i,nk, not like a feckless under- resonance of the " Father Found.'' men from M.I. this and M.I. that. brief return to his early sexual graduate, as Donald was apt to do, At the same time he could switch S.I.S. and. S.O.E., listen dumb- ambivalence. " Gordon " had given but like some Rabelaisian bottle- to a magisterial defence of Cham- founded. " My God, Brilliant, I " Sir Donald " the sack. The swiper whose thirst was unquench- berlain's foreign policy and seemed believe you're right-it could be enraged junior partner would no able. able to hold the two self-righteous done." The Brigadier looked at his longer put up with him. points of view simultaneously. watch and a chilled blue eye fixed His evenings in Paris were the chief of the Secret ·service. Contrasts in Their usually spent in the Left-Bank "At this moment, sir," and there Six Months' Leave for cafes with a little group of hard- was pack-ice in his voice, " my Characters Maclean working painters and sculptors. chaps are doing it." During the daytime he. too, THE physical type to which worked very hard, and it was now ACK in London he had six Burgess's War-Time Donald Maclean, despite his that he began to build up his months' leave to get well and to make up his mind about the future. puppy fat, belonged was that of reputation in the Foreign Office, Life and we must remember that it He was still drinking and was now the elongated, schizophrenic, sad- grew very high indeed. undergoing treatment from a couptenanced Don Q u i x o t eN 1940 Donald Maclean had mar- woman psycho-analyst. Hli: appearDonald had many admirable introverted and diffident, an Scottish qualities. He was responried in Paris an American girl ance was frightening : he had lost idealist and a dreamer given to sible and painstaking, logical and as delightful as her name. Melinda his serenity, his hands would Marling, who bore him two sons. tremble. his face was usually a resolute in argument, judicious sudden outbursts of aggression; She brought both sweetness and livid yellow and he looked as if he whereas Guy Burgess, despite and even-tempered and, I should understanding into his life. Guy had spent the night sitting up in an admirable son and his intelligence. was a round-faced. imagine, brother. He had grown much Burgess, however, as the war went a tunnel. Thou~h he remained g o I den - pated Sancho Panza, handsomer, and his tall figure, his on, led a more troubled existence. detached and amiable as ever, it extrovert. exhibitionist. manic, grave long face and noble brow, his A new friend whom he had made was clear that he was miserable cynical and argumentative, avidly dark suit, black hat and umbrella was taken prisoner-of-war, and it and in a very bad way. ,In concurious, yet sometimes vague were severe and distinguished. One was noted that he had become versation a kmd of shutter would and incompetent. With all his felt now that he was a rock, that if much more insulting and destruc- fall as if he had returned to toughness, moreover, Guy Burgess one were in trouble he would help tive when he drank-he seemed to some basic and incommunicable wanted intensely to be liked and and not just let one down with a hit on the unforgivable thing to anxiety. say to everyone. His mental Some of his friends urged him to was indeed likeable, a good conver- reprimand. sadism, which sometimes led to his resi~n. pointing out that since he sationalist and an enthusiastic getting knocked out, did not ct· 11k d th l"f d di d ith builder-up of his friends. Beneath exclude great kindness to those in the is polic:y e e heI ecould an sagree w the " terribilita " of his Marxist White Hope of the not go back trouble. Above all. J:ie disliked without t all happening again. analyses one divined the affection1 anyone to get out of.his clutrhes; Others assured him that he would ate moral cowardice of the public Foreign Office he was an affectionate ~ully soon be well enough to return to schoolboy. capable of acts of g~neros1ty, like a . wqrk, whic~ would prove the best An old Etontan, "an " Apostle " at the beginning magnate of the ~ark Ages. thmg for _himself and his family. who had taken a First in History I REMEMBER, of the war, mentioning to one At the same time he was drink- The F0re1gn Office had to wei~h at Cambridge, and was tem,pted to He his years of hard work against become a don, he yet seemed an of our most famous diplomatic ing and living extravagantly. adventurer with a first-class mind, representatives that Donald was a w~ fond of lUJ<Uryand display, of the outburst, which they put down who would always be in the know, friend of mine and receiving a sm~es at Clandges and fast cars to .the strain of long hours and he drove abominably. He form~l ~ncial nuties in Cairo and a framer of secret policies. a glance of incredulity. Satisfied which belonged to the febrile war-time Washington. His reputation for a flhancial wizard already. ancl a that this indeed was so, he cafe-society of the temporary Civil penetrating mind, sound judgment future editor, at least, of " The that Maclean was S_ervant. Maclean to the secret and quiet industry turned the scale. Times." Though he enjoyed a explained The psychiatrist's reports became bout of luxury, he was indifferent a white hope, a " puer aureus " citadel of the permanent. The position of Russia as an ally more encouraging, and by the to appearances and even hostile of the Service whose attainto his own. Unlike Donald. he ments and responsibilities were had made things easier for Com- autumn the decision was taken. On concealed his sexual diffidence by munists, who at first were able to November 6, after a particularly well beyond his years. Unlike serve their own and their adopted heavy night, Donald went back to over-confidence. Burgess he was without vanity. I country without a conflict. the Foreign Office as head of the What was common to both Burgess and Maclean at this time was think the simplest distinction Waverers returned to their allegi- American Division (a position leits their instability; both were able between them is that if you had ance and those who had never onerous than it sounds and which and ambitious young men of high given Maclean a letter, he would wavered were suddenly respected. involved no social duties), and he intelligence and good connections have posted it. ·Burgess would Burgess now had a friend, a foreign bought a house near Westerham who were somehow parodies of probably have forgotten it or diplomat. whom he considered the for his wife and children, to which what they set out to be. Nobody opened it and then returned tn tell most interesting man he had ever he hoped to return almost every met and with whom he carried on evening, avoiding the temptations could take them quite seriously; you what you should have said. Burgess and a great friend or his a verbal crusade in favour of Com- of the city. they were two characters in a late T Russian novel. Laurel and Hardv would sometimes stay with a munism. each taking a different [ O be cont 000175 engaged to play Talleyrand and talented and beautiful woman. a line with the potential convert, one the younger Pitt. Burgess. incident- novelist who, in those days, rough. one smooth. World copyriqht: re ii.---~--' in ally, was a great reader of fiction; resembled an irreducible bastion of We may distinguish a certain whole or part orbidden. frt f ·a !~ s~fg~s~ ~~!~\~~fly B I �Documeht divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur l'occes a !'information /, " 1----,.-~,~--~l_~T~H~E~iS;U;N~~D~A~Y~;T~.I;]l;E~S~,=S=E=~P::T::. ~-El~B~E~R;::2~8~.;1~9;5;2;;;;;;;;;~=~;;;;;~=-----~~1\ ... THE Last week Mr. Connolly deJJicted the early lives of Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean. In 1935 Maclean pas~cd into the Foreign Office, where his reputation soon mounted. Burgess went from the B.B.C. to the Foreign Office in 1944, and was in the Far-Eastern Department in 1948. In 1944 Maelean was posted to Washington as acting First Secretary, and on his return four years later was appointed Counsellor in Cairo. But in Cairo came a breakdown. On November 6, 1950, after six months' leave, he went back to the :Foreign Office as head of the American Division. NE day towards the end of 1950 Donald Maclean invited me to luncheon at his club and talked at length His about the war in Korea. argument was that what mattered most in the world was people. The Koreans were people, but in the stage which the war had reached both sides had entirely forgotten this, and were exploiting them for their own prestige. It was essential to stop the war at all costs and get them established as people again. This was not the orthodox Communist view, according to which only the North Koreans were ' people " and the South Koreans (as Burgess maintained) had really started the war. Maclean went on to suggest that all colonial possessions in the Far East were morally untenable, and when I pleaded that we should be allowed to keep Hongkong and Malaya for their dollarearning capacities he said that that was precisely the reason why we should give them up, as only then could we prove ourselves in earnest and lay the basis of future good ; relations. 0 Back at the Foreign Office E talked for a little about how he felt at being back at work and " Sir Donald " again, and he told me how fond he was of his colleagues, how secure and womb-like the Foreign Office seemed, and how well he had been treated. I mentioned that I had at one time been intended for the Diplomatic Service and that I had always regarded it since with some of the wistfulness which he felt for literature. We left rather late and he merged on the steps into a little pin-striped shoal of hurrymg officials, who welcomed him affectionately. One evening at the end of that winter a friend came round for a drink. He said that he was in a difficulty : he had been up very late with Donald the night before, and Donald had said to him, " What would you do if I told you I was a Communist agent?" "I don't know." "Well, wouldn't you report me?" " I don't know. Who to? " "Well, I am. Go on, report me." His friend had woken up with a confused feeling that something unpleasant lay before him. It was an absurd situation, for it was impossible to be sure that Donald was serious. My friend knew him so well that he could not believe it was true. The whole incident seemed preposterous in the light of day. W Burgess Recalled Washington from August, 1950, Guy Burgess had INbeen posted to ihe Washington Embassy as Secona Secretary; he had last visited Washington Jn 1942. By the early spring of 1951 things were not going so well for him. The telegrams which he drafted were often rejected as being biased, there seemed nothing for him to do, he was not popular with his colleagues, he was drinking heavily again, and on one day, February 28, he was stopped three times for speeding, which led to an official complaint. Then he gave a 11ft to a young man and let him take the wheel. There was an accident, and it turned out that the young man had no driving licence. Burgess pleaded diplomatic immunity. At about the same time an English visitor to the Embassy reported MISSING by Cyril 7 DIPLOMATS-II Connolly disappearance have been put forward that it is best to deal with a few of them like chess-openings. Let us first take one based on the theory of a voluntary escape. 1. NON-POLITICAL.The two dis- thought he had said MacArthur, to Mrs. Maclean as " Ronald Then he had confided in a and asked what he had to do Styles." Burgess had engaged the friend that at last he would be appeared on an alcoholic fugue, with it. car by telephone at about two able to settle down to his great to wander about like Ver«;iine and "Senator McCarthy," said Bur- o'clock and then gone round, paid task, the addition of a final volume Rimbaud and to start a'iinew life All the deposit, and undergone a brief to Lady Gwendolen Cecil's bio- together. gess. " Terrible atmosphere. This fits in with Dena.Id's characthese purges." driving test. At 5.30 he had graphy of the Tory Prime Minister, ter. He is said to have disappeared He seemed very well and almost received a long telephone call at Lord Salisbury, which he thought the best biography in English. once from a party for a few days jaunty, obviously pleased to be his flat. On June 7, as ·the hue and cry in Switzerland and been found hvback even if he went around saying After a quiet and -rather began in the Press, three telegrams ing quietly in the next village. he was convinced that America had sober dinner Donald and " Ronald " arrived: one from Guy Burgess Again, he once remarked to a gone mad and was determined on walked in the garden. Donald to his mother in which he said friend that he wishl"d he coulr1 war. then said that they had to he was embarking on a long st.art a new life as a docker in thP During the winter Donald go to see a friend who lived Mediterranean holiday: and two East End, but that ration boo~,; Maclean had made a great effort nearby and that he might have to from Maclea.1. to his mother . and identity cards now made it. He and his wife. To ~Lady Maclean impossible. to fit into his new existence as stay away for the night. Burgess also had a a commuter. Mrs. Maclean was promised that he would return on hP. sent a brief message which reputation for disappearmg. but the morrow and took only his briefexpecting another child, and he signed with a childhood there would be much less reason Donald conscientiously refused to case with him when he left. name. to his wife he wrote: ••Had for him to give up the kind of go to cocktail parties in order not to to leave unexpectedly, terribly existence to which he was addicted. miss his evening train to Kent. By sorry. Am quite well now. Don't Neither could have lasting attracMidnight Arrival at May, however, he seemed to be worry darling. I love you. Please tion for the other, for the fo~CP. more about London of an evening, don't ~top loving me. Donald." All which united them would also dnVI" Southampton and it would be interesting if we three sound plausible but somehow them apart, and the wanderers could discover if there was any rfHE pair got into the hired car unreal, unless they were meant to would certainly have been hel!-rd of sudden increase in these outings and drove to Southampton just be delivered at least a week before. again, for where they were m comafter the return of Guy Burgess. in time to reach the cross-Channel Having acquired a little more pany incidents would be bound t_o On one occasion in April, after vessel Falaise, which left at mid- hackground, let us examine some arise; and the element of antisome feint attacks. he knocked night on a special week-end cruise nf the theories with which we social aggression in such a flight down one of his greatest friends to Saint Malo and back by the began. It will be noticed even now would have caused them to leave for taking the side of Whittaker Channel Islands. retul'ning early on how very few facts we have. We some kind of statement. Chambers in the Hiss case. Monday morning. " What about suspect that Burg~ss and Ma~lean Chambers, according to Donald. the car? " yelled a port garage were CommunistJi. at Cambridge, was a doubleA Twitch upon the we do not know faced exhibitioneven if they ist too revolting Thread ever met after to be defended THIS IS THE CONCLUDING instalment of Mr. Cambridge. Both 2. (a) THEORIES WHICH IMPLY A by anyone. w e r e neurotic FORCED MOVE. " A twitch upon the Donald's drink- I Connolly' s personal and intimate study of Guy p e rs on alities thread." The argument is that ing followed an I "with schizoand Maclean were both established Burgess and Donald Maclean, the two members phrenic charac- Burgess Communist agents, Maclean (or routine. The teristics. In both) charming and was growing indiscreet and of the Foreign Office Staff who vanished on May recent posts both amiable self was unreliable, and that they were so had behaved gradually Ief t 26, 1951. Their crucial last day in Englandrecklessly that recalled before one (or both) could behind, and the away others who were more they had to be give hand which secret and more important; that Maclean's birthday-is closely examined. I sent home, both patted his friend L ______________ _J ct'rank too much they were immediately imprisoned on the back and then became or liquidated and may have got PO became a flail. A change would attendant. Burgess cried: " Back violent and abusive, both might farther than an uncertain address come into his voice like the on Monday." • be described as abnormal, both in Paris. If they had refused to go, roll of drums for the cabaret. allegedly made confessions (many they would have been exposed to He had booked the two-berth It took the form of an outat Victoria on the Wednesday years apart) of being Communist the British and brought disgrace burst of indignation, often directed cabin on their families. Even so, it is against himself, in which the in his own name, and on that day agents, and both were notorious doubtful if experienced diplomats among their colleagues for their aged 38 and 40 would sign embittered idealist would aban- had invited a young American, whom he introduced to various anti-British arguments and were don all compromise and castigate withtheir own death-warrants against authoritarianism all forms of humbug and pretence. people as " Miller " and whom he bitter out a murmur and depart without had met on the Queen Mary, and imperialism. Both had risen As the last train left for Sevenoaks fast under wartime conditions and a farewell. from faraway Charing Cross he when returning from Washington, (b) They both (or Maclean alon'c!) to accompany him. But Burgess had yet maintained an underwould wave a large hand, in some had given fnfonnation to the let him down at the last moment. graduate-like informality in their bar, to his companions. " Well, anyRussians at some time, perhaps Burgess seems to have had the idea appearance and habits and in the how, you're all right. And you am on one occasion only, and this was all right." The elected smiled hap- of a long holiday m France ih his general bed-sitting room casualness preying on Donald's conscience. thao was unconnected mind, but of their way of life. Both had two pily, but doubt was spreading like a If the information was given m frown on Caligula. "Wait-I'm not with the week-end jaunt. For thi'l enemies, adolescence and alcohol, Washington, it might have been Friday evening he had an impor- and when they vanished each was valuable, and the leak would sure. Perhaps you aren't all right. tant engagement which he thought by his friends to have led have taken a long time to trace. After all, you said this and this. never dinner cancelled. the other astray. In fact, you're very wrong. You Burgess might have had wind in At Saint Malo, where the boat won't do at all. (Bit!). And as for Washington of this investigation you-you're the worst of the lot, arrived at 10 a.m., the two stayed and even got himself sent home Association that was through but I suppose I must forgive you." on board, breakfasting and drinkhis erratic behaviour in ing beer till the others had left. (Bash.) order to warn Maclean on his Kept Secret Then at eleven they, too, went return. Burgess might perhaps ashore, leaving behind Burgess·i; at one time have been a kind Unexpected Visit from two suitcases. At the station, which HEY had everything in common, of private commissar to Maclean. the Paris express had just left in fact, except each other; they After his carefree luncheon. then, Maclean ( they would have had plenty of were like two similar triangles sud- on that last Friday, Maclean was time to catch it) they took a taxi denly superimposed. When Donald somehow tipped off that exposure AFTER a dinner-party on May 15 to Rennes, the junction some fift.y was imminent. At 5.30 he telesix of us came back to my miles away. They did not speak met this liberator of irresponsibili- phones to his contact Burgess who house: it was divided into two, and on the way. They gave no tip to ties, when Don Quixote found his says "Leave it all to me." Donald occasionally spent the the driver on the fare of 4,500 Sancho Panza, there was bound to night in the other flat. Past mid- francs and they arrived at Rennes be a combustion. The l\faking of a Then how was their association night there was a battering on the station in time to catoh the express again. They were not kept secret? I think myself that door and I let him in, sober-drunk, on the train, which they must have renewed the CamMyth the first time I had seen him in noticed Paris, via Le Mans, bridge friendship in the summer of this legendary condition. He began reached HIS theory bristles with difficulbetween five and six. From that to wander round the room, blinking 1950, during Maclean's convaleties, but it does at least explain at the guests as he divided the moment they have vanished. scence, and that Burgess was part the sudden departure. And yet, like sheep from the goats, and then of what Maclean called his " ash- all who knew him, I am convinced went out to lie down to sleep in the Preparations for a that Donald was not an active can life," of which he was ashamed hall, stretched out on the stone and trying to cure himself. Hence Communist. He had a morbid infloor under his overcoat like some Journey the secrecy. Were they Communist clination to suicide, and he would figure from a shelter sketch-book. HEN Burgess had booked the agents? Surely the first duty of a say that only his love for his chilThe departing guests had to make tickets on the Wednesday he secret agent is to escape detection, dren kept him from it. This love their way over him, and I noticed views and was the one emotion which he felt that, although in apparent coma, said the other name for the cabin express conventional ambivalence, and he would he would raise his long stiff leg like would probably be Miller; and on rise in his career. The more Com- without a drawbridge when one of the Thursday night he seemed to be in munism they talked the less likely not have taken any drastic step goats was trying to pass. I put him an agitated state " looking for the they were to be agents. And Bur- unless he had been convinced that it was for the best as far as their to bed in his absent friend's flat friend who was going with him." gess talked a great deal. happiness was concerned. • and gave him an Alka-Seltzer He seems to have spent much of Friday with Miller, fetching him Perhaps Burgess and Maclean breakfast in the morning. Recklessness or Green Park Hotel in the are at last integrated. But, as On May 25, the day when from the and lunching with him. Maclean said, what matters most Burgess and Maclean left England, morning Deception? is people, and that is what At two o'clock he rings up from I arranged to greet some friends in his for the hired car, visits makes his case essentially tragic. Schmidt's before lunching down the club OULD this have been reckless- Guy Burgess garage with Miller, parks the always enjoyed the street at the Etoile. We met in ness or a subtle double bluff? being himself, and for a while near his New Bond Street flat, the road. Donald was with them, car Both are just possible. Maclean, he lived his own dream, a realislooking rather creased and yellow, and goes shopping, buying a wh~te however, in the fifteen years in tic example of the " new type casual but diffident. We all stood mackintosh (he had no mackm- whi.::h I had come across him, of diplomat " who is always deon the pavement. I said to him, tosh) a fibre suitcase and a good remained always devoted to the manded in wartime. But Donald "You're Cyril Connolly, aren't you? many nylon shirts which did not nonconformist but essentially non- Maclean, were it not for his lack -I'm Sir Donald Maclean"; this fit him. political little group of writers and of balance and emotional security, At 5.25 he left Miller at his reference to our conversation at his painters whom he had known in, had the qualities of a great public club was intended to efface our last hotel saying "See you at 7.30." London and Paris. They were his servant. Yet with all his admirameeting. He Sifmed calm and He then went back to his flat, home. tion for people, he betrayed those genial, and went off gaily to con- received the telephone call, and did Burgess ever appear at who loved him, humiliated those tinue the luncheon with his packed into two suitcases an~ a allNor calcul1J,ting. "9-uy would help who trusted him, and discredited friends, who were to rejoin me for brief-case four smts, his shuts, anybody in distress. He would make those who thought like him .... But blue jeans. socks, h~ndkerc~1efs, coffee. a split-second decision and carry once again we are condemning 1 At luncheon. they told me when and his gaudy col ect10n of tiesit out no matter what the conse- them unheard. they came back, he had been mel- an extensive wardrobe for two quences. He would certainly not do Meanwhile a myth is slowly low and confidential; he had nights at sea. At seven he had a anything to injure his country." transfiguring them. At first they talked about himself, about how last drink at his club. Later that Like most people who feel they were seen in Montmartre and evening the American rang up the much better he felt, how he didn't been starved of love, Burgess Montparnasse, in Brussels and have to visit his psycho-analyst so flat to know why he had not been have and Maclean desired to raise the Bayonne, on the high pass to fetched. often, and how he was determined emotional temperature around Andorra, in a bar in Cannes and, Maclean's day was apparently to take a hold on himself lest he 1to something higher than with brimming glasses • got into any trouble which might quite inactive. Burgess is the agen_t, them Maclean the patient, and there is in the world outside, and found •1 restaurant of Prague. 000176 bring disgrace upon his children. This year they L--..,... .... ~n That day was his birthday. The nothing to show that Donald in- drink a consolation. If we believe luncheon was his treat, and the tended going anywhere until he that emotional_ maladjust~ent _was heard of playing chess in the r I -------------, T T W C �or11meat d;..ctc:se~r:tll.: Aeee Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a /'information Last week Mr. Connolly depicted the early lives of Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean. In 1935 Maclean passed into the Foreign Office, where his reputation soon mounted. Burgess went from the B.B.C. to the Foreign Office in 1944, and was in the Far-Eastern Department in 1948. by Cyril Connolly disappearance have been put forward that it is best to deal with a few of them like chess-openings. Let us first take one based on the theory of a voluntary escape. Then he had confided in a thought he had said MacArthur, to Mrs. Maclean as "Ronald 1. NON-POLITICAL. The two disand asked what he had to do Styles." Burgess had engaged the friend that at last he would be appeared on an alcoholic fugue. with it. car by telephone at about two able to settle down to his great to wander about like Verlq,ine and '' Senator McCarthy," said Bur- o'clock and then gone round, paid task, the addition of a final volume Rirnbaud and to start a "new life gess. "Terrible atmosphere. All the deposit, and undergone a brief to Lady Gwendolen Cecil's bio- together. graphy of the Tory Prime Minister, This fits in with Denald's characthese purges." driving test. At 5.30 he had Lord Salisbury, which he thought ter. He is said to have disappeared He seemed very well and almost received a long telephone call at the best biography in English. once from a party for a few days jaunty, obviously pleased to be his. flat. On June 7, as •the hue and cry in Switzerland and been found livback even if he went around saying After a quiet and rather began in the Press, three telegrams In 1944 Maclean was in the next village. he was convinced that America had sober dinner Donald and " Ronald " arrived : one from Guy Burgess ing quietly he once remarked to a posted to W ashin_gton as act• gone mad and was determined on walked in the 12'arden. Donald to his mother in which he said Again, that he wished he coulcl ing First Secretary, and on war. then said that they had to he was embarking on a long friend st.art a new life as a docker in thP his return four years later During the winter Donald go to see a friend who lived Mediterranean holiday·; and two East End, but that ration boo~1. was appointed Counsellor in Maclean had made a great effort nearby and that he might have to from Maclea.1, to his mother . and identity cards now made 1t. to fit into his new existence as stay away for the night. He and his wiie. To ~Lady Maclean impossible. Cairo. But in Cairo came Burgess also had a a commuter. Mrs. Maclean was promised that he would return on hP. sent a brief message which reputation for disappearing. but a breakdown. On Novc1uber expecting another child, and the morrow and took only his brief- he signed with a childhood there would be much less reason 6, 1950, after six months' Donald conscientiously refused to case with him when he left. name. to his wife he wrote : ••Had for him to give up the kind 01' leave, he went back to the go to cocktail parties in order not to to leave unexpectedly, terribly existence to which he was addicted. :Foreign Office as head of iss his evening train to Kent. By sorry. Am quite well now. Don't Neither could have lasting attracMidnight Arrival at May, however, he seemed to. be the American Division. worry darling. I love you. Please tion for the other, for the fo~ce more about London of an evenmg, don't ~top loving me. Donald." All which united them would also dnvr Southampton and it would be interesting if we three sound plausible but somehow them apart, and the wanderers NE day towards the end of could discover if there was any HE pair got into the hired car unreal, unless they were meant to would certainly have been he~rd of 1950 Donald Maclean sudden increase in these outings and drove to Southampton just be delivered at least a week before. again, for where they were m comafter the return of Guy Burgess. in time to reach the cross-Channel invited me to luncheon Having acquired a little more pany incidents would be bound t.o . On one occasion in April, after vessel Falaise, which left at mid- hackground, let us examine some arise; and the element of anti- , at his club and talked at length about the war in Korea. His some feint attacks. he knocked night on a special week-end cruise nf the theories with which we social aggression in such a flight down one of his greatest friends to Saint Malo and back by the began. It will be noticed even now would have caused them to leave argument was that what for taking the side of Whittaker Channel Islands, returning early on how very few facts we have. We some kind of statement. mattered most in the world Chambers in the Hiss case. Monday morning. "What about suspect that Burgess and Ma~lean was people. The Koreans were Chambers, according to Donald, the car? " yelled a port garage were Communists. at Cambridge, was a doubleA Twitch upon the people, but in the stage which we do not know faced exhibitioneven if they the war had reached both sides Thread ist too revolting ever met after had entirely forgotten this, and to be defended THIS IS THE CONCLUDING instalment of Mr. Cambridge. Both were exploiting them for their 2. (a) THEORIES WHICH IMPLY A by anyone. w e r e neurotic FORCED MOVE. " A twitch upon the own prestige. It was essential Donald's drinkConnolly' s personal and intimate study of Guy p e r s o n alities thread." The argument is that ing followed an to stop the war at all costs and with schizoBurgess and Maclean were both established Burgess and Donald Maclean, the two members phrenic charac- Communist agents, Maclean get them established as people (or routine. T h e t e r i s t i c s. In again. both) was growing indiscreet and charming and of the Foreign Office Staff who vanished on May recent posts both This was not the orthodox Com- amiable self was and that they were had behaved so unreliable, munist view, according to which gradually recalled before one (or both) could 1 e ft 26, 1951. Their crucial last day in Englandrecklessly that only the North Koreans were behind, and the away others who were more they had to be give "people" and the South Koreans secret and more important; that hand which Maclean's birthday-is closely examined. s~nt home, both (as Burgess maintained) had really patted his friend L ______________ _J drank too much they were immediately imprisoned started the war. Maclean went on on and may have got no the back and then became or liquidated to suggest that all colonial posses- became a flail. A change would than an uncertain address attendant. Burgess cried: "Back violent and abusive, both might farther sions in the Far East were morally come into his voice like the on Monday." • be described as abnormal, both in Paris. If they had refused to go, untenable, and when I pleaded that roll of drums for the cabaret. allegedly made confessions (many they would have been exposed to He had booked the two-berth we should be allowed to keep Hong- It took the form of an outthe British and brought disgrace kong and Malaya for their dollar- burst of indignation, often directed cabin at Victoria on the Wednesday years apart) of being Communist on their families. Even so, it is in his own name, and on that day agents, and both were notorious earning capacities he said that that against himself, in which the if experienced diplomats among their colleagues for their doubtful was precisely the reason why we embittered idealist would aban- had invited a young American, aged 38 and 40 would ~ign whom he introduced to various anti-British arguments and were their should give them up, as only then don all compromise and castigate own death-warrants withas " Miller " and whom he bitter against authoritarianism could we prove ourselves in earnest all forrn:s of humbug and pretence. people out a murmur and depart without had met on the Queen Mary, and imperialism. Both had risen and lay the basis of future good As the last train left for Sevenoaks returning from Washington, fast under wartime conditions and a farewell. relations. from faraway Charing Cross he when (b) They both (or Maclean alon~J to accompany him. But Burgess an underwould wave a large hand, in some let him down at the last moment. had yet maintained given fnformation to the graduate-like informality in their had bar, to his companions. "Well, anyRussians at some time, perhaps Back at the Foreign Burgess seems to have had the idea appearance and habits and in the how, you're all right. And you am of a long holiday m France ih his on one occasion only, and this was general bed-sitting room casualness preying on Donald's conscience. all right." The elected smiled hap- mind, but thao was unconnected Office of their way of life. Both had two If the information was given in pily, but doubt was spreading like a with the week-end jaunt. For this not Friday evening he had an impor- enemies. adolescence and alcohol, Washington, it might have been• E talked for a little about how frown on Caligula. "Wait-I'm and when they vanished each was valuable, and the leak would he felt at being back at work sure. Perhaps you aren't all right. tant dinner engagement which he thought by his friends to have led have taken a long time to trace. and " Sir Donald " again, and he After all, you said this and this. never cancelled. the other astray. Burgess might have had wind in told me how fond he was of his col- In fact, you're very wrong. You At Saint Malo, where the boat Washington of this investigation leagues, how secure and womb-like won't do at all. (Bi//). And as for arrived at 10 a.m., the two stayed and even got himself sent home the worst of the lot, the Foreign Office seemed, and how you-you're Association that was through his erratic behaviour in well he had been treated. I men- but I suppose I must forgive you." on board, breakfasting and drinking beer till the others had left. (Bash.) order to warn Maclean on his tioned that I had at one time been Kept Secret Then at eleven they, too, went return. Burgess might perhaps intended for the Diplomatic Serashore, leaving behind Burgess'1. at one time have been a kind vice and that I had always Visit from two suitcases. At the station, which HEY had everything in common, of private commissar to Maclean. regarded it since with some of the Unexpected the Paris express had just left in fact, except each other; they After his carefree luncheon. then, wistfulness which he felt for literaMaclean (they would have had plenty of were like two similar triangles sud- on that last Friday, Maclean was ture. We left rather late and he time to catch it) they took a taxi merged on the steps into a little FTER a dinner-party on May 15 to Rennes, the junction some fift.y denly superimposed. When Donald somehow tipped off that exposure was imminent. At 5.30 he telepin-striped shoal of hurrying six of us came back to my miles away. They did not speak met this liberator of irresponsibiliofficials, who welcomed hm1 ties, when Don Quixote found his phones to his contact Burgess who on the way. They gave no tip to house : it was divided into two, and says "Leave it all to me." affectionately. Donald occasionally spent the the driver on the fare of 4,500 Sancho Panza, there was bound to One evening at the end of that francs and they arrived at Rennes be a combustion. night in the other flat. Past midwinter a friend came round for a station in time to oatcih the The Making of a Then how was their association drink. He said that he was in a night there was a battering on the express again. They were not kept secret? I think myself that difficulty: he had been up very late door and I let him in, sober-drunk, noticed on the train, which they must have renewed the CamMyth with Donald the night before, and the first time I had seen him in reached Paris, via Le Mans, Donald had said to him, " What this legendary condition. He began between five and six. From that bridge friendship in the summer of HIS theory bristles with difficul1950, during Maclean's convalewould you do if I told you I was to wander round the room, blinking moment they have vanished. ties, but it does at least explain at the guests as he divided the a Communist agent?" scence, and that Burgess was part the sudden departure. And yet, like sheep from the goats, and then of what Maclean called his " ash- all who knew him, I am convinced "I don't know." went out to lie down to sleep in the Preparations for a can life," of which he was ashamed that Donald was not an active "Well, wouldn't you report me?" hall, stretched out on the stone and trying to cure himself. Hence Communist. He had a morbid in"I don't know. Who to?" floor under his overcoat like some Journey clination to suicide, and he would the secrecy. Were they Communist "Well, I am. Go on, report me." figure from a shelter sketch-book. HEN Burgess had booked the agents? Surely the first duty of a say that only his love for his chilHis friend had woken up with The departing guests had to make tickets on the Wednesday he secret agent is to escape detection, dren kept him from it. This love a confused feeling that something their way over him, and I noticed said the other name for the cabin express conventional views and was the one emotion which he felt unpleasant lay before him. It was that, although in apparent coma, would probably be Miller; and on rise in his career. The more Com- without ambivalence, and he would an absurd situation, for it was he would raise his long stiff leg like Thursday night he seemed to be in munism they talked the less likely not have taken any drastic step impossible to be sure that Donald a drnwbridge when one of the an agitated state " looking for the they were to be agents. And Bur- unless he had been convinced that it was for the best as far as their was serious. My friend knew him goats was trying to pass. I put him friend who was going with him." gess talked a great deal. happiness was concerned. • so well that he could not believe it to bed in his absent friend's flat He seems to have spent much of and gave him an Alka-Seltzer was true. The whole incident Perhaps Burgess and Maclean Friday with Miller. fetching him breakfast in the morning. seemed preposterous in the light of Recklessness or are at last integrated. But, as from the Green Park Hotel in the On May 25, the day when day. Maclean said, what matters most and lunching with him. Burgess and Maclean left England, morning Deception? is people, and that is what At two o'clock he rings up from I arranged to greet some friends in makes his case essentially tragic. club for the hired car, visits Burgess Recalled from Schmidt's before lunching down his OULD this have been reckless- Guy Burgess always enjoyed garage with Miller, parks the the street at the Etoile. We met in the ness or a subtle double bluff? being himself, and for a while car near his New Bond Street flat, Washington the road. Donald was with them, and he lived his own dream, a realisgoes shopping, buying a wh~te Both are just possible. Maclean, looking rather creased and yellow, N August, 1950, Guy Burgess had casual but diffident. We all stood mackintosh (he had no mackm- however, in the fifteen years in tic example of the " new type which I had come across him, of diplomat" who is always debeen posted to the Washington on the pavement. I said to him, tosh) a fibre su1tcase and a good Embassy as Second Secretary; he "You're Cyril Connolly, aren't you? many nylon shirts which did not remained always devoted to the manded in wartime. But Donald nonconformist but essentially non- Maclean, were it not for his lack had last visited Washington in -I'm Sir Donald Maclean"; this fit him. political little group of writers and of balance and emotional security, 1942. By the early spring of 1951 reference to our conversation at his At 5.25 he left Miller at his painters whom he had known in, had the qualities of a great public things were not going so well for club was intended to efface our last hotel saying "See you at 7.30." London and Paris. They were his servant. Yet with all his admirahim. The telegrams which he meeting. He then went back to his flat, He s~med calm and tion for people, he betrayed those drafted were often rejected as genial, and went off gaily to con- received the telephone call, and home. Nor did Burgess ever appear at who loved him, humiliated those being biased, there seemed tinue packed into two suitcases an9a the luncheon with his nothing for him to do, he was friends, who were to rejoin me for brief-case four suits, his sh!l'ts, all calcul~ting. "Guy would help who trusted him, and discredited anybody in distress. He would make those who thought like him .... But not popular with his colleagu~s, coffee. blue jeans, socks, handkercI:iefs, a split-second decision and carry once again we are condemning he was drinking heavily agam, and his gaudy collection of tiesAt luncheon, they told me when and on one day, February 28, he they came back, he had been mel- an extensive wardrobe for two it out no matter what the conse- them unheard. quences. He would certainly not do Meanwhile a myth is slowly was stopped three times for speed- low and confidential; he had nights at sea. At seven he had a transfiguring them. A first they ing, which led to an official com- talked about himself, about how last drink at his club. Later that anything to injure his country." and Like most people who feel they were seen in Montmartre plaint. Then he gave a llft to a much better he felt, how he didn·t evening the American rang up the in Brussels and young man and let him take the have to visit his psycho-analyst so flat to know why he had not been have been starved of love, Burgess Montparnasse, and Maclean desired to raise the Bayonne, on the high pass to wheel. There was an accident, and it often, and how he was determined fetched. emotional temperature around Andorra, in a bar in Cannes and, turned out that the young man to take a hold on himself lest he Maclean's day was apparently had no driving licence. Burgess got into any trouble which might quite inactive. Burgess is the agen.t, them to something higher than with brimming glasses, in a gardenpleaded diplomatic immunity. At bring disgrace upon his children. Maclean the patient, and there is in the world outside, and found •1 restaurant of Prague. drink a consolation. If we believe This year they have been about the same time an English That day was his birthday. The nothing to show that Donald in- that emotional maladjustment was heard of playing chess in the visitor to the Embassy reported luncheon was his treat. and the tended going anywhere until he him for anti-British talk. He was week after he was getting some was driven off from his house by the key to their personalities, i! is Lubianka prison and running an recalled from Washington as compassionate leave, for his wife Burgess. His birthday luncheon hard to see how they could possess import-export business in Prague; " generally unsuitable" and arrived would be going to hospital for the lasted from 12.30 until after 2.30 the control to serve a foreign coun- and Guy Burgess as visiting home in the Queen Mary on May 4. baby; he asked if he could come - champagne and oysters at try coolly and ruthlessly for twenty Browning's villa (" Wbat's becbme A few days later I ran into him down and visit my fnends for some Wheeler's then some more solid years and yet w_ork all the time in of Waring? ") north-east of Venice. in the street. He came up with his part of the time. They had be~n food at Schmidt's; he was at work executive capacities for their own. And so for many years they will be I think that Burgess was a Marx- seen until the mystery is solved, usu·a1 shaggy. snarling-playful very kind to him when he was ill, till 5.30 and he went home by his manner and said he was just back and he was now in effect making usual train. But it may be that ist in his mental processes and an if it ever is, haunting the Old individualist in his World's pleasure-traps about the the telephone call which Burgess anti-Marxist from America. them a favourable'report. Maclean, it may be, season of their disappearance, After spending the afternoon in received at 5.30 was some kind of' personality. " Where were you?" had something on his conscience, bringing with them strawberries S O S from Maclean. his office he went off to Charing "Washington." and hot weather and escapist During May Burgess had had his which, however, was a particularly Cross and caught his usual train "What was it like?" to Sevenoaks. That evening worries, but he had been offered tender one; possibly, above all, he 1eanings: a portent of ,the middle " Absolutely frightful." had a fear about his mental summer's spring. 000177 Burgess arrived at Donald's house an important job on a newspaper "Why?" World copyright : re in at Tatsfield-he had driven down and he was going out to dinner to condition. whole or part frirl'lffl1!1!7r-so many explanations of their clinch this on the day he vanished. I in a hi1 ed car-and was introduced "Because of McCarthy." 0 T ---. f I I W T A T W C I �Document disclosed Uf1,.,d,t.[Jl;J.e /l,,I;~Q./IJ!p,rmation DEPARTMENT OF r EXTERNAL AFFAIRS Act a /'information Document divufgue en veMt~Rd?-1/'~ May 26, 1952. Ottawa . To ______ PRES& OFFIOE[i~t .. ...• • .• FOR INFORMATION , ,.,..,,. ,uH, o ...... • .. ••••••n••n••••••••••••••••• Defenoe 1ia1son .. • .. ••-••••u••••• .. ••••••••-- .. ••••••••••••••••••••••u••••••• ( 2} G. DE T. G./mrea .. •••••••~•, .. •••••••••••••••• ••••.....• ••••••••••• ..•••••••••• ....... . 000178 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a /'information AIR BG . Ext. 18~A /--, OTTAWA FILE D 1, ................. ,,.. No. . 1 _z -t----t-'7<1- Le 1 '2 \ I 0 No ............................. ter ~;----~o""a~ e ......... - -·--- . SECURITY ~!~ l. . ?.~ ~ ..~ ~-~?.• ....... . CLASSIFICATION UNCLASSIFIED FROM: THE OFFICE OF THE HIGH comrrssrONER FOR C.ANDA, LOIT'.JON. TO: 23 THE UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR EXTERNAL AFFAIRS, CANADA MAY l!§s~erence .............................................................. .. . Status of .:sdine, , ..................... Foreign :::iubJect: .................................................................................... uf-l"ice Officials. . . At question time in the House of Commons on ,Jay lJ, tr.ie ecretary of state for F'orci 6 n A..11:'a.i.rs was asked whether i,~r. Guy Burgess nnd :,TI'. :i.)onald r;G.clean had now been s tr-1ck off the Foreign Off ice staff. 2. of State '"'-·............. Joint Under-Secretary gave the followin • reply: "The two offtcers concerned r..ave now been absent without leave for nedrly a year and action is being taken as a routine disciplinary measure 11 for the term.i.na tlon of thclr appoin tncnts. Copies f\eferred To.............. ~.1r. Anthony nutting, for 1?01~eign Affair3, . . ~~ ------ Canada No. of Enclosures House. Post file No............... . 0 000179 �Document divulgue en verr11uc 3 r t , __ ------- �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Aft Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur /'acces a /'information 0 :z:.t4..ll\A ~ ,,.. . ~ 0. Despatch D ~/ 1 2 V 3 4 f- <]3" No................... TO: I CLASSIFICATION Lord Vansittart asked the Government in the House of Lords on February 26 "whether any further information has been received on the position of Messrs. Maclean and Burgess., and whether measures have been devised or are under contemplation to safeguard the Foreign Service from such contaminations." Lord Reading replied for the Government as "Her Majesty's Government have received no further positive evidence about the position of Messrs. Maclean and Burgess since these two men disembarked at st. Malo on May 26 last. Telegrams ostensibly sent by them from Paris and Rome respectively were received by Mr. Maclean's mother and wife and by Mr. Burgess' mother on June 7. Inquiries failed., however., to confirm that they had themselves despatched these messages. Copies Referred . ................. "Investigations are still continuing., but by the use of the word 'contaminations' the noble Lord appears to be prejudging the issue. If the purpose of the second part of his Question is to inquire as to the application of the procedure for barring Communists and Fascists from positions where they may have access to information vital to the security of the state., I can assure him that that procedure applies equally to the Foreign Service as to other Departments. Further, as the noble Lord is no doubt aware, it has recently been announced that special inquiries will be made about persons holding key posts in the GOvernment employ. This procedure also will apply to the holders of key posts in the Foreign Service." No. of Enclosures Post File No............... i,:1112''f THE SECRETARYOF STATE FOR EXTERNALAFFAIRS, CANADA 2. follows:- ................. ~.....-.. ---,---..-so-\ sl,:e .FROM:THE ACTING HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR CANADA.,LONDON. f.4 MAR1952 To .............. . . 0 Acting High commissioner 000181 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'acces a /'information ,. -· m . --·-- , --, .. . .. r' -; s j r I I I I I I --·-•----J ,. ,..l ... -•-----, I' I t �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act FILE COPY ONLY Def enCe Li a i ~6'ffen( ~'re-~na:~,~em~~te'Wb't>kfMflion 0 TOP SECRET 1.f}f/f$ rG I -1 . ...so _ 5o2~0._-, '\ -~t Ottawa, Augusts, ·1951. Dear Colll!l'.l.issioner Nicholson: I amenclosing a copy of a letter from the Deputy High Commissioner for the United Kingdom to myself, concerning the action taken in the United Kingdom to prevent two individuals leaving for the u.s.s~R. You will see that the United Kingdom authorities asked that you should be informed. Yours sincerely, (G. deT. Glazebrook) Commissioner L.H. Nicholson, Commissioner, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, • OTTAWA,Ontario. 000183 - �Document disclosed under the Access to /nformati Document divu/gue en vertu de la Loi sur /'occes O !'in A104 .;' , ~ LONDON, AUG. 21-(REUTERS)-ALAN MACLEAN RESIGNED FROM THE BRITISH FOREIGN OFFICE J:ODf\Y.. BECAUSE 7 ,HE SAID, HIS POSITION THERE WAS AN EMBARRASSMENT TO THE GOVERNMENT SINCE THE MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE OF HIS BROTHER DONALD THIS SPRING. DONALD MACLEAN AND ANOTHER F.OREIGN OFFICE OFFICIAL, GUY BURGESS, DROPPED OUT OF SIGHT IN MAY, AND HAVE SINCE ELUDED AN INTERNATIONAL POLICE HUNT ACROSS EUROPE. SOME REPORTS AT THE TIME SAID THEY WERE HEADING FOR RUSSIA. . A FOREIGN OFFICE: STATEMENT ANNOUNCING ALANS RESIGNATION TODAY STRESSED THAT ALAN IS IN NO WAY CONNECTED WITH HIS BROTHERS DISAPPEARANCE AND IS LEAVING OF HIS OWN CHOICE. MRS. MELINDA MACLEAN, DONALDS WIFE, IS VACATIONING IN FRANCE WITH HER FAMILY • .. X1148A �Page 185 is withheld pursuant to section est retenue en vertu de l'article of the Access to Information Act de la Loi sur l'acces a l'information �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a /'information DEPARTMENT OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS Ottawa, ................................................... . To .................................................................................... .. F~OR INFORMATION Ext. 147-49-P-658- I DOM �A -; 6 !;'.!.~~":ti-~:!~:~r•°itJ'lf !/.11 J , 5-ee-v r CM4,- Documentdive,een;ert1e ~ • .., MACLEAIJ ~ -,, ':) DON, JULY 17-CREUTERS)-1\ FOREIGN OFFICE SPOKESMAN CONFIRMED TODAY TH ONALD MACLEAN MISSING BRITISH DIPLOMAT HAS A MEMBER OF THE CO TEE UHICH COt~tROLLED i.JARTIME EXCHANGES iETWEEN THE WESTERN ALLIES ON DEVELOPMENT OF THE ATOM BOMB. BUT HE DREW ATTENTION TO A SlATEMENT BY FOREIGN SECRETARY HERBERT MORRISON IN THE HOUSE OF CO lMONS JUNE 26 THAT t1ACLEAtl HAD NO ACCESS TO CONFIDEtJTIAL TECHNICAL INFORMATION ON THE SUBJECT. MORRISON STATED THAT MACLEAN WAS CONCERNEDWITH HlE POLITICAL ASPECTS OF ATOMIC ENERGY MATTERS BETWEEN JANUARY-1 1947f AND AUGUST, 1948 1 AND WITH DISCUSSIONS ON CO-OPERATION BETWEl::NBRI AIN, THE l)NITl::D STATES AND CANADA. HIS CONNECTION WIIB THESE MATTERS CEASED FI NALLY IN AUGUST, 1948 ... A SPOKESMAN OF Tl)E UNITED STATES STATE DEPARTMENT SAID LAST NIGHT UP.CLEAN HAS A MEMBER OF THE INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC POLICY COHI1ITTEE WHILE ON THE STAFF OF THE BRITISH EMBASSY IN WASHINGTON. HE WAS COMMENTING ON A REPORT IN UNITED NATIONS NEWS AND WORLD, UNOF,FICIAL WEEKLY NEWS MAGAZINE. THE RJ;PORT SAID MACLEAN KNEW "HOW MANY ATOMIC Bot!BS THE WEST HAD, WHAT WERE THE URANIUM RESOURCES,__ANDHOU MANY BOMBS COULD BE i·lADE WITH EX I STitJG RESOURCES AND MATERIALS." MACLEAN, WHO DISAPPEARED WITH.. ANOTHER MEMBER OF THE BRIT I SH FOREIGN SERVICE, GlN BURGESS, MAY 25, BECA lE FIRST SECRETARY AT THE BRITISH EMBASSY IN WASHINGTON IN 1944 • .. X1002A 0001a1 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur l'acces ii /'information .. ORIGIN I MfS~~\ ,,,:FOf.JiA i 2 J/VU,G I-J.,,. r~1 I -3 l fs-o/1\4° . 4 ------·-•- °'\\ti· 6 - -- 8 9 FROM. ·JJI 1 THE GAN.ADI AN lU1'J.BilSSAJX)R TO '11HE UNITED S".PATES S::CRETARYo:: S1.\- : . OR ~.XTERNAL/\FFAIFS, CJ,i'-JAD.\ TO. T 10,--- ----- j ,1': I -~,----· _}__ -- AL June 26, 1951. _.._ ____ .._ .,.._________ - - EN CL. ~::.1 -· Piic ·~f IMPOR1.'tiN11' ,.-: -·---:.= .--·=-- -- - -=== Dep:iri: rva· Circe.:,~ en Tho Sta.,;r; Depa,.-,tment c•re ·t ssu:i.ng i;he !'ollowi.ng statement th?'<>ugh t 1eir pr,0ss offieer ~~n i,eply to cnqu:i..ri1Ss •. h1 ch 11ave been made~ Beg:.ns. MINJSTER UNUR/SEC 0 D FNDR,SEO A/ UNDH/SEC'S. Mr. Don;.1d Mac.',ean wan asslgnea to the British Embassy in Washingt.on by the Un:i.tecl Kingdom Govermnent w:i.th ran~ or r1,.~st secre:itar~1 ill 19'.J4 and was tran:;ferred ~:t•omWashington :t:1 August 1948~ In February .L947, Kr-. T-7acLi~ant.as e,es Lc~ated by hls government to act aa tl e Uni teci King:-.1om Secretary cf the Cc\i1bined _.,olicy Commii;tea concerned with atomi-: energy oolicy natters, composed of of atom:lc (:!nergy among the United atatns, represe:i',.tati "lf'!O: of the- Uni ~;ed States, i;he United ICii.'lgdom anc Ca.nada.. i'Jlr. r.If.cLecn took par-c in the neg<."'Ciat Lons whlch estPbli~hed th;; r•egulations goveri1lng t~he post- mr reJ.i~tion.s i:n th(~ field Uni,;ed Dat --- the Kin{_,dom and -:-:anada. 2. Ir \,l ls diplomatil, capacity snci during the remtinCc.r or his tP.nurc in Wash:tng<•an, Mr. MacLG&"i• s dutiE:'s i11vol ·1ec.l the han-:l1ing those a.:·.omic ::.nergy policy to his e;ov,:,r.1.l:"'Emt;which of' 1ihe Con1bi 'l<:.v. PolJ.cy matters o:£' of concern ca: 1e ur der the purvi<1w Conu:11ttee. In ~ris connect on~ t11,. MacLea.n had opportunit:1 to have r..WC'i?SS·t.o :i.n.f'o11mation shar ..~d by the Unitef States, I. I Canada n.nd the- Unit~d Kingt1om 3.n the Llelc·-: of' 9atents!' 'icc-1ass1f'ica-r;i,m 1-nr..tte1:-s,ard the research ai.d de1,elcpment rt lated ~o prot:u~ement of :.·aw nateri.LJ.s fr'om for-e .gn .~ov.rces. I"". th.is cap~cit,v Mi. Mc.cLea11 ha.6 acces~ ~co information rela.tin1·~ tc ~ .. timates made in 19lJ.8of ·1,:a.nium ere sup,?lY f,:,01,. i'o:r~ign ->0·1rce .. C:."1ai1a·,Je to the thrE,~ [ o 11 ~ t'!'.mento for •,hP. period 19li-8-1J.9~ and the je 'L • t on of scie-1t1f"i.c a1"eas in -.Jh' ch I the thr,~e .;ovcrnments ?~FC ~ _l r;e,,/s,-1 -. deemed t{•ctu,:.cal <'o~ opera ti• ,.,1 cou. c! be ·1ccompl 1.sh.:.d wi 1;h nntuE.l benefit. ~h ...se areas in g, nc c.~ included ~l.:t~h 000188 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur l'acces ii /'information .. 4 - 2 - subjects as health ar1d safety, rosearch t1ith lowpower reactors, excractlon chemistry, stabiliaotopes and radioisotopes. 3. Since 1945 there has been no exchan~e of information w:i.th the United King'lom and Canada concerning fissionable material yroduction precesses~ weapons technoloGJ and developme1t, or stockpiles of fissionable materials and weapon~. 4. The role that Mr. I'1acLeqn had in the activities described above ·uas t,w.t of a diplomat. He is not a scientist anc his duties in ~onnection w1·ch Combined Polic,1 Committee matters p"t"ocedural and British diplomatic was of a secreta1•1al c·1aracter. Some or the information available tc him in J.947-48 was classifiec and would ~hen hc.ve been of jnterest to th€ Soviet Union. Because of great changes that hav.:? talten place in thi'J f'ield in the intervening year1, the information a vailabJ.0 i;o him then would not now be of any appreciabJ.c a.id to the Soviet Union. Ends. ------------------ 000189 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a /'information ,. ORIGIN { 1/ AL I --;-·--~3 --- 4 5 6 ----7 -- 3 9 26 JUN1951 MINISTER DND~/SEC D;DNDR./8BC /I l. - ,, '· . 1 • .. 1· .i 000190 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur /'acces a /'information ... ,. . ( . •< 'l lr ''If ~i, . 1 , r. L ,_ ,( '~ ~1 l· l '" ( " ' i ~ .1 L .J J • "V"', :•01 . g ( { .~ ~ ,i" l, .. ... r j J .t J l .. ,, ,., I , " L. l. ~' . .. ''· !, , ~ c.r i~ ' ) ·u. ...,,- ( '. .1- 1 1 ,Y ' , rr, E- ., '" , r t L I ' l fr \J. ~ I C ':, ( o. CJ ' ... r I ' •-' ,. " ) .,. < 'i ,. ... .ri . ~ ,, • , 1 ... ' ,.- ~ r ll ... ,(' l H J( .-. ., r l ....i ,. < \. r ,. ' . , l"' 1 O.l, . ,\ l' J '·..,,,,. ..• .• '\'. ,r ,... t, '-c. , ,_j ; ... 't • l t.' I ' ; .... ' J .,~.J.., , ·c . • l' .. . 000191 �,---------------------------.-00W1'llenratYCl<ne ..;n:,,,~~ •~ Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur l'acces ii /'information V F ,-, "I 1 46 1000192 I �Document disclosed unde--;:-the Acce;s t;; Information Act Document divulgue en /o~.:f~irs a/'information v,b'J? P}3IVY-COUNCIL OFFICE Ottawa.... ~l1:.f:L8. . .?.~/..?.~ .......... . FOR ACTION To .. l.!r...... Kir..kw.9.94 Original ................ . has been retained Office. SR Mr. Robertson would llke tomorrow's meeti1g. this .1-1.? ..-~," uocil �Pages 194 to/ a 196 are withheld pursuant to section sont retenues en vertu de l'article of the Access to Information Act de la Loi sur l'acces a l'information �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue e_nvertu de lo Loi sur /'occes a /'information ORIGIN F 11 31_, AL __ _ ~-.-~,-~ .-,,___.. ., _!_----1 -1..--8 -----·- ..,!_ ...... --- r , , ' _!,!_.1----1 11 JUN111 • tE:I 1J 1 ... - 000191 1 I �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur /'acces a /'information r (. 1 • ,:, ha v , no . 1.. , :r•- , t : '? t 1e~ lE ft 000198 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur /'acces a /'information l f I ~ • .. ' 000199 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur /'acces /'information a ORXGXN AL , L" I l (. ,I .• r" .. ~IINISTER UNDR/SEO t, D; UNDft./8EC A/UND1t/SEC'S. f ,, r 1 • i ) l , L I ,~ 1 ., l t' ,.. .• , i , J , ~ .• , I.! •?< ) 'I r ) ( i• (:,~ ' .--, ,.., NJ+.~ 1,~ .. • r' l • , ~.-C.,,/VJ p r " l ( l } ·u j ,• I (> r I• l I, . ,_ (~'-'{ r l . , 'v < i ,:- t ,. .... , ):_ " l .,..,_, ,"'"-V Done '7/~/ -1• Professor y/ J/ (, ~ Pontecorvo, (. ., .. ,. l f'0 ""'"- . ma. r"(,J ... . ... . ( ~ Dr. Fuchs and others who 000200 �Document isc ose un er t e ccess to n ormat1on ct Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur /'acces a /'information .. J th:. ...,.... t--:l d ..,.., ,.,urtr 11 t· ln that ell,. i Jr UX 1a ~,..:Jts to- b.Y • a ( 1":_i)J .~ j th~ - .• Ve ,la' th( 1..1 _·;ed i (,, L' te ! C "I"' t1 en ·~re .. ·1. rh' he ~o j_ rr; . 3'3 €" 1() ,, . 0. , O tJ. l eh .rd ay c ·~ < re l < 0.0.,.: .,, ) i:; 1•? ·01 ~-o 'Hf:G. c-t C :..t ' t;l to rh, whc h T' 0 t··u t· ,,! - I ve .. r.e Cd. L f· (' l'l 11. • cl h l 'he 0 . t ~ "'a l:"g t ,.. C I' )"!' f. . r 'V O\' - <) ;o <. rem a. I ar kn t 't'h . ~t s .... c' oi ·O 11 r th fl "i 1r•:; :re 0 t a ',r r h 1 "" l oi • lei h 1 ....~i. '1 ·h O v. at 1:] ,, ·h., f r-y .... .. "' no re,: "'ou t lv m n t .. £ l of n d l •- a ci.ct r a"l s ""{ F, '11 •. ,. ': "I'O . o· tr r.. • '~r.. 1,_,..,J ear idt; ~.l or :.i.ct 1 of on be mlf "M' t... b- e thai. t-lS 'U"' ,) .C '.c·1 (. CS! ~ .;, ~ 0 i.'C W, .... ·l 'l€V 'ocen ":he Ru'--Bi ..; .,.. or o, .e t: -d tc r • ,I f , t r'.f :i 10 t le 0 m· ,o c g ;, ! ~ ur C :r "" t •• ( a "".. ,rl t I,. !J s •l 0 r 0 ..1 1, 0 th rU£ •. h e . ill: CO .. ., t at :t C -...- - ..._,,-.,,,. ·- ........- . '- ...., t ,. 0 ...o .. 000201 �Document disdosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur l'acces a /'information , r 000202 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur /'acces a /'information 3 A\. 000203 I 1 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divufgue en vertu de lo Loi sur /'acces !'information a • ORIGIN AL I I. I ' . f 'I , " v,., t: r • . . ·' ' .,,. C MINISTER -/f'.) UNDR/SEC fl- N D,UNDR;SEC .,11-.f A/UNDR/SEC'S.-A'I y t' •inc. hP H :,_h: ps ic ia.w 0: r) .• f • <h, er • er t c c. natch 'n ·,h< c.~:.... ppoa t'nc I • ~Le n ·.md ... F ( 1. of •': /0 f ,.r 1 l , e '".. I u_ ~ ~ f' . 1c m. ec r,or'. ·o 10~c ', > :.1.cicl ,,. '"' t , ha t.. hr s ro . r"' ed. ' f :.c~ o Q 1 lL.:ih c [ t 1 v, u.s mw:.,, I' ' c n'; oi~ ",h 071 1:, 1! r1, of t '1ec C. C tj. f • \.'~ 1" t . ; ·, c ,, 1 f Pt::' ~ ~·r-1, ~ rd 1a : ~f1 tl ,.._. r t- t.:r cn l t-.ry :r:'.. ; <.t 1· r;h ,.r at t'l l 0. , • sh ·n,·~1a:.,y ~i·. • t f;a,t, •. en'. o ~ to dut c .,. u :..n,~- "OC!'ts, ,i'e 1 :Ji.,..,c i' f·. om i,; 1•- t ·, i it r i ,1· . t 1:,. ' l cf en f; a.tc OJ..:..1e . i, 000204 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource CDMB Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CDMB00030 Title A name given to the resource Complete DEA File, G.F. de M. Burgess and D.D. MacLean, British Foreign Office Officials (Disappearance of) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1951-67 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived LAC RG25/R219 2017-0440-5 Box 11 File 7-5-Burg Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Library and Archives Canada Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Canadian Crown Subject The topic of the resource MacLean/Burgess Description An account of the resource A-2023-02971 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Canada Declassified Type The nature or genre of the resource Access to Information Request Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Language A language of the resource English