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te hark, I repeat, was singularly i}t-timed., weeks Aeans of the piled dead in the streets of Budapest, was demon- stratin ing class may have worse enemies tha Britain. I feel these preliminary re- marks approaching this work by Mr. Driber: it at its true political value. Its subject ig an unreliable ahd discredited diplomat who hts done his country il] service. itk author is one who does not mm to denigrate a section of his owh countrymen to a forefn tyrant. Nevertheless, It has a Th tribution to make to the histdry and atmosphere of our oWn times, That is why i¢ was serialised in this newspaper. The opinions expressed, by Burgess and Driberg alike, are an essential part of the book, That is why they appeared in our columns. The Daily Mail asks nobody to accept these opimons, It certainly does not do so itself. For only a few later, Kruschev, by that perhaps the work- n the Tory Party of to be necessary in &0 that we may assess way, let us admire the skill with which the author seeks to elevate . and ennoble the base characters with whom he is dealing. He tries to make them nodrinal and typical of young Britain. Their story, he says, ‘illustrates “the plight of a whole generation caught in the confusions and contradictions of mid- ntury Britain.” , It does nothing of the sort. If a whole generation had re- sponded in the same way as this precious pair there would have bfen no mid-century Britain. Oniv an enslaved and dis- solute nation. When Mr. Driberg quotes Bur- Bess as saying that Maclean was as rigid, austere, and uncom- promising as John Knox" the reader can only give & great horse laugh. “ The Cairo break- down" (Of Maclean) “was the sort of thing that could have happened to anyone who had been overworking,” says Driberg. . It was not, It could not have. happened to John Knox. Nor to anyone with, an ounce of self- ‘ control and seli-respect. ' Floating HAT was anyway but one of those people who are always floating in and out af ill-defined work--senetimes a Mttle on the shady side ? He avas . various times 8 go-between, contact man, a “Haison offi- chr,” “a political adviser "' be- ses being employed on news- Papers and at the. BBO. J I t ! I I I 1 1 j i I | i I 4 Having thus far cleared the - Burgess ' ‘BUCKETS OF WHITEWASH FOR REDS..’ He was a sort of political odd- joo man with @ toe in the door- ‘way of great events. Eventually he chtained a poet in the Foreign Office—and falled to keep it. - Breach . E was untrustwortHy, At one point, jin his career he as carrying letters from the Frerch Prime Minister, Daladler, to fhe British Prime Minister, Cham- berlain. This method was em- ployed to ensure’ secrecy. Yet he regularly took’ thess letters to a man in a London flat, where photostatic copies were taken before they resumed their journey. He “ suppressed “ ane because he did not agree with its contents. We are left to assume that Burgess was in contact with the Secret Service in the matter, though this is not stated. What- eyer it was, the author records these episodes with no word, of disapproval; rather, in factas though they were an achigve- ment. But most people will Bee in such @ breach of high tris something despicable and ~ honourable. aa