◆ SpookStack

Sa Se ET Sgt ‘ Fash GENEVA and son-in-law Jay Sheers, who aut had fown down from. Paris. souree concerning sornething that happened in Geneva lo i Englishwoman and her thr children, particularly aa th woman was Mrs. Maclean. One imagines that the Foreig Office and the security officers pursuing the inquiry would have appreciated a far longer period af secrecy, but as the news had broken this was no, Jonger possible, and a statement giving an accurate and surprisingly full summary of the then known facts was issued from. Whitehall. A Foreign Office spokesman ihade some extremely interesting comments. He said that it was “entirely a matier for specula- lion whether Mrs. Maclean had * left to join her. husband.” Tie emphasised that she was an “entirely free agent” and was under no obligation to report her movements. While fhe disappearance of any Hritish national “was a matter for concern,” the British authorities were, in this case, still anxious to acquire “any addi- tional information” about the Burgess-Maclean case, and it was therefore “natural that two security officers”"-~—whose names were not given—should have been at once to Switzerlan Finally, there was “no eviden That night she decided to te-e- | the disappearance was net yolur phone to her other daughter, Mrs, Catherine Terrell, in New York, to break ihe sad news. to hee before she had the shock of yeading it in the newspapere-— which, however, had not yet got wind of the sensational new development in the Maclean case. And it wag through this per- tary. ‘Word from Melinda ? The first piece of hard informa- tion was obtained during that day —Wednesday—when Mrs. Dunbar factly natural telephone message received a telegram sent to her, that the news of Melinda's dis- ° abpearance reached the Press iWe world. For spending the day with Mrs. Terrell when her mother’s tele- phone all came through was a woman iriend whose husband was a journalist, working on a small New. York. newspaper and also as a tipster for one of the big news agencies. That night he telephoned the ‘story to his newspaper and agency. By Wednesday morning knew {hat Melinda Maclean and her three children had vanished. he immediate result in London wis a fiood of inguiries at the Fegeign Office by journalists sedking confirmation—or denial-—~ peng ess an, * * ee Pe, leet - cs the world , of "his story from an American suinple, 2 a “er in Melinda’s name. man branch office at Territet, an outlying suburb of Nontreux, where Melinda Had told her mother she was going to spend the week-end. Written in a foreign handwrit- ing, it said: “Terribly sorrs delay in con- tacling you—unforeseen circuin- stances have arisen am. staying here longer please advise school- boys returning about a week's time—all extremely well—pink rose i marvellous form-—fove fromm all--Melinda.” : The investigators appeay te have missed a most valuable,and chance of getling some a a. line on the people behind Melinda's disappearance. an She had told her mother she was going to Territet. Mr§. Dun- bar passed on this jigforma- tion at least 24 hours befqre the telegram. was handed in ‘at the very place Melinda had indi- gated; widespread investigations ‘were being made by the Swiss police and high-ranking British officers: and yet no one seems to haye thought. of keeping watch in. Territet. There was nothing at all to garantee that Melinda would in act go to Territet, and -it is un- likely that she did so. Pps Pattern as before | But already there was.a cegain sinuilarity in pattern between this and the earlier disapypar- ance of Burgess and Macikan, and it would surely have Been well worth while keeping ‘one man in this small suburb where any stranger would be quickly reniarked ? The post offtce clerk--who could not at first be found for he had shut up shop and gene off to work on his farm-—at once remembered the dispatch of the telegram, for at that season of the year the trafic at Territet] was insignificant. | It had been handed in by a heavily made-up foreign woman who ‘haa. presumably uninten- tionally, drawn attention to her-! self and the telegram by the fact} that. it was. written in such. bad, English that. even a Swiss clerk, had to ask for certain small alterations to be made. | tt ig unlikely that even if the it had beer”* messenger—-and sh . 55 in Melinda's name. Uae ees ger—and she was cer tainly nothing more—had been. found, she would have led. the, police to her superiors. { But, with a little foresigi#, it, fs. possible that valuable infodma-" tion might have been ‘obtagied.- and it was badly missed. [World copyright] a