◆ SpookStack

How long had thez been passin, |Britain’s secrets td Soviet Russia ? PPETROV declares they were signed up by Soviet in- telligence services while still “at Cambridge, 1T¢ is irpe that both were then ardent Com- munists, But so were thousands of other jiberal-mindeq young men who turned. to “Com- ‘munism in the dark days of {ne mid-thirties siripiy be: cause they considered it the best way of fishting Faseism, When Hitler was defeated, most Of them forgot all about Communism, Why should Russian agents have selected just these two from a! the other university Cotamurists who have since beeome. irre- proachable ‘citizens — and patriots? And what use could they have been before tev haq even decided what their carer would be? &O IJ think Donald Mac. jean was approached much later, when he was First Secretary to the British Embassy at Washington, around 1846, when he was in a position ta provide valuable information and was suffi- ciently opposed to British and merican policy to believe that he was helping the cause of world peace by doing so. How was it that he ieas.not suspected earlier Poo” NE of the most disturbing aspects of this dreadful affair 18 that Donald Maclean was allowed such a long run. In his drunken moments he was by no mesns careful, eitger in speech or action, and often declared that he was a Sofiet agent. Did none of his frignds or colleagues at leust sugpect that he was betraying hig teust? Lf they did, why wt did they not report hifn to their superiors? If the dic report him, why was no action luken.? How thorough were the investigations ? A SENIOR official of MLLS é told me just before the News Chronicle serialised my book* last year that his service had been warning the Foreion Office about Maclean “far some time” before his fight. Nia did not say what the Warnitig was about It could simply have been of Maclean’s' behaviour, which was entirely unsuitible for a senior Forefgn Service official, But if the suspicion was by then of something far praver, how was it. that he was able to evade ALI5’s net.? He was conspicugusly tall and easy to keep whder observation if! for example, he wag meeting hig Russian contact in a pub qr a bar to. hand over Fordien Olfice documents, Even when the game wa: up and he had flown, b diy Melinda, his American-born wife, and her mother, Mus, Dunbar, told me that the Mmvestigatoers whe hurried Gown to-"Beaconshaw, his hotse at Tatsheld, when he Was repdried missing, did not, trouble to examine the mass . Of papers-he-left behind, Vet by the it must have been apparent that he was a. spy. ' ’ How much did Melinda know ? TPuERE is now a suggestion that Melinda, who follawed Donald into exile with Wher three children 27 months later, * *The Missing Macleans, phib- Ushed by Cassell and Ca., Lid. at 12s. td. net, knew all the time that her hug- baha was a Sdviet agent, antl was Indeed a Communist het f that is true, and without definite hard evidence I can- not believe that it is, then she Was a superb actress, F knew Melinda well, Although. it Is evident that sometime between Dona'd’s disappearance and her fligtt from Geneva sha had heen told what he was doing—and for inexplicable reasons of her own had accepted the posi- tion and agreed to go. ta him —~i any still sure she was the simple, rather frivolous sirl with no political interests, whatever she appeared. It was not only to me that she gave this impression, but to many others of her friends—- jacluding girl friends who miicht have had a mbre efitical approach. What was Burgess's role? MPHE White Pauper speciiic- ally mentions Donald Maclean as “the principal suspect” in a leakage of infor- mation 10. the Russians. It states that Burgess's behaviour was unsatisfactory, but there is nd suggestion that He Was in any way implicated in passing information, It is alsa stressed. that there is no evidence of any abnormal or suspicions con- tact between the two men so that were one suspected the other would. aittomatically come under suspician, Were they in fact the team they have all along been sup- posed os they fled together ? r Were they acting separately as Soviet agents, and only Wrought together by he yecessity of getting them bth ut of Englang at the sdme me? it is an imporjant point, ;