◆ SpookStack

ALARMING HITE PAPE HE White Paper on MacLEAN and BURGESS is alarmiug. Alarming for its admissions. Alarm- ing for its omissions. Perhaps. the most disturbing facet of all is that Maciman and Burcess fled to France —unhampered—only a few hours after the then Foreign Secretary, Mr. HERBERT Mornisox, had authorised ithe security authorities tp question MacLean. é White Paper says that may have been warneg. Jt would be stretching coin- tidence too far to suggest that he was not. And the person who warned him must Have been in a high place. Yet, says the White Paper, although searching in- guiries were made, “insuffi- clent evidence was obtain-, able te form a defin te conclusion or to Warr rosecution.” Is there . uilty man still in 4 positign f authority ? Suspicion. ORE. than two y@ars hefore the spies escaped the Forelgn Office Te warned that information had leaked to Russia. It was not until only a few weeks before they fled that MACLEAN was marked down ag the principal suspect. No doubt. the inquirles were delicate, but surely they should have been speeded up-~even if this meant that some toes had. to. be rampled on, ‘and why, when Mactean had: applied for Saturday leave on the very day-—Friday, May 25, 1951—the Foreign Secretary decided he should b@ interrogated, was 8 allowed to leave the counfry without being questioged about .his destination ? , The White Paper says that there was not sufficient evidence to justify his arrest. Bubowhy was there not a watch set upon all ports as from that vital Friday morning, so that he could have been asked the simple questions: “Where are you going, and why?” Sensation HE old attitude which damned “Press stories about the disappearance of MACLEAN and BURGESS as sensational is still apparent in the “White Paper. in & reference to Mrs. Mac- LEAN it says that she gave “two good reasons”. for wishing to move her family to Switzerland, We quote : Firstly that she wishai to void the personal enrpar- gssment to which shefhad een subjected by the ress, ..” re a eA A RR ‘Suppression Well, eee oe, pee Ca taal eta, ee But she was a vital link in | the tase, The Press realised his, though the authoripies id not treat her as sich : ince they raised no objtc- ion to her going abroad, | Her reasons were “good reasons.” Tt almost looks as if Mactzaw and Bourcess had come fr i ang IGESS ag COMe Irom a charmed cirele, As Students ‘they were both known Gommunists, but the Foreign Office didn’t know that, when they employed. them. They did net bother to ask, ND, after’ Mactran had been “guilty of serious isconduct” in Cairo gn ay 1956, he was promoted te be head of the American Department!’ Who was pushing him ? Early in 1950 the Foreign Office was told that Burcrss | had been “guilty of indis- creet talk about seeret matters.” But he was not! asked to resign until more ‘than a year later. Who was | protecting him ? Considerations of secrecy still apply in this case, says the White Paner, “and must he | the basie criterion for judg- ing what should or should not be published.” the White Paper has certainly not reveale all the secrets. The Rustians qyknow ail about Macuban and Burcess. 86 who is berjefit- ~ * ing from tne secrecy now a