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~—eebo Of AT inn, Communism theg offered the GaQ-_ Husgess he was without vanity. I nish War I saw ss. who had now in Bristol. During the 5 much less of Bu hined the BB terrible thing ij happened—he had become & Fascist! Still sneer- ing at the bourgeois intellectual, he sow vaunted the intensely modern ‘realism of the Navi leaders: his cdmiration for economi¢ Tuthiess- ness and the short cut to power lad swung him to the opposite extreme. He claimed to have attended a Nuremberg Rally. Maclean, however. a strong SUp- parter of the Spanish Republic, -eemed suddeniy to have acquired 4 backbone. morally and physically. His appearance greatly improved, his fat disappeared, and he had become a personage, In 1935 he ‘ad passed into the Foreign Office, an from 1938 he was at the Embassy in Paris. I remember some arguments vith him. I had felt_a great sym- -atuy for the Spanish Anarchists, vith whom he was extremely evyere, as with all the other non- Co:amunist factions,and I detected + his reproaches the familiar yiggish tone of the Marxtst, the jsonance of the "Father Found. ' the same time he could switch | a magisterial defence of Cham- ‘eclain's foreign policy and seemed ble to hold whe two self-righteous oornts of view simultaneously. Tus evenings in Paris were “sually spent. in the Left-Bank “afés with a littie group of hard- -orking painters and sculptors. during the daytime he. tov, vorked very hard. and it was now ‘hat he began to build up_ his -eputation in the Foreign Office, and we must remember that it crew very high indeed. Donald had many admirable ‘cattish qualities. He was respon- iwie and painstaking. logical and esolute if argument, judicious sna even-tempered and. should cnagine, an admirable son and frother. He had grown much ‘andsomer, and his tall figure, his crave long face and noble brow, his ‘ark suit, black hat and umbrella ‘ere severe afd distinguished. One elt now that he was a rock. that if ine were in trouble he would help ind not just let one down with a eprimand. White Hope of the Foreign Office REMEMBER. at the beginning of the war, mentioning to one if our most famous diplomatic cpresentatives Donald was a riend of mine d receiving a lance of incred@lity. Satisfied nat this ‘indeedl was so, he plained that - Maclean was ™ uu oi) . white hope. a “puer aureus of the Service nanteeand responsibilities “ell_beyond his years. Unlike whom we think the = simplest between them is that if you had iven Maclean a letter, he would iave posted it. Burgess would probably hate forgotten *it or opened it and then returned to tell ‘you what you should have said. Burgess and # great friend of his would sometimes stay with «@ talented and beautiful woman, ovelist who, in those days. esembled an irreducible bastion of *khe bourgeoisie entirely surrounde y Communists, like the Alcazar 0 oledo. One day Burgess’s friend came to her shaken and yet impressed. Guy nad conhaed © him tnat 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 for 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 quite certain, for it would be in keeping with Burgess's neurotic nowaer-ririve that he should pretend WersGrive TABL Pe Silks to be an under-cover man. Years afterwards the novellst was told that he had spent several days wrestling with his conscience at the time of the Soviet-German pact and had decided to give up the whole business. This may well have been true. Mere we have to decide whether Burgess. visited Germany Bs & secret Communist, a Nazi sym- pathiser or as an observer for our own Intelligence Services, or—at various levels of his opportunism— as all three. On one occasion he took some Boy Scouts over to a ar rally at Cologne. In January, 1939, he left the B.B.C., and in the autumn of 1940 he was doing confidential work for the War Office. At this time he was arrested for being drunk in charge of a car and acquitted because he was working fourteen hours a day and had = fust - been in an air- raid. By January, 1941, he was once more jn the B.B.C., and there he remained for three years in European propa- ganda epart- ments. His posi- tion became one that greatly appealed to him, involvin eventually in + liaison work with distinction = __We now see the outline of the eeeaspersonaliiies of Burgess arg Maclean. On the unstable foundg- tions of their adolescence they we erecting the selves whom th would fike to be, the father figur of their day-dreams, the finished Imagos. With his black hat and umbrella, his briefcase under his ~ Bt Donald Maclean,” the Tyrrell, the Eyre Crowe of the second world" war. the last great Liberal diplo- matist, terror of the unjust and hope of the weak. “If it wasn't for you, Sir Donald,” snarled Ribbentrop, “we might still have won the peace.” Burgess, of course, Is & power behind the scenes: @ brigadier in mufti. Brigadier Brilliant. D.5.0.. F.R.S., the famous historian, with boyish grin and cold biue eves. seconded now “for special duties. With long stride and hunched shoulders, untidy. chain- smoking. he talks—walks and talksr —while the whole devilish simpli- city of his plan unfolds and the men from MLI. this and M.I. that. S.1S. and S.O.E., listen dumb- founded. “My Ged, BSrilliant, T believe you're right—it could be done.” The Brigadier looked at his watch and a chilled blue eye fixed the chief of the Secret Service. “At this moment, sir,” and there was pack-ice in his voice, “my chaps are doing it." rs i Burgess’s War-Tim Life N 1940 Donald Mactean had mar- ried in Parls an American girl as delightful as her name. Melinda Marling, who bore him two, sons. She brought both sweetness and understanding into his life. Guy Burgess, however, as the war went on. led a more troubled existence. A new friend whom he had made was taken prisoner-of-war, and it was noted that he had become much more Insulting and destruc. tive when he drank-—he seemed to hit on the unforgivable thing to say to everyone. His mental sadism, which sometimes led to hts getting knocked out, did not exclude great kindness to those in trouble. Above all, he disliked anyone to get out of his clutches; he was an affectionate bully capable of acts of generosity, like a magnate of the Dark Ages. At the same time he was drink- ing and living extravagantly. He was fond of luxury and display, of suites at Claridges and fast 8 which he drove abominably. He. belonged to the febrile war-time eafé-society of the temporary Ciyl aclean to the secraé ; Servant, | highly. eo et tithdel of the permanent. until he was able | to represent the Foreign Office. whose attain- Be helped. for instance, to remove weres¢lie anti-Russian bias fro were training for sabotage. i)