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Cambridge Five Spy Ring — Part 24
Page 56
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et
ae et
SOE gE EEA i Seat aa, ee
ft owpamyreeset es necut,
At that time Gu , Otll mpwprouel how these ax
vpry good friend, was
‘imerica, working at our Wash- ,
4 gion Embassy.
aclean had recently become
read of the American Depart-
nent 0 @ Fora]
London gn Office in
had only met him a couple
of times. though Guy had
spoken to me about him and
told me about thetr association.
te Indeed, T had not seen Mac-
“an for Years until th
October night, *
I was with my wife and two
friends at the Gargoyle Club in
‘he West End. Maclean was
there--very drunk,
TAUNTS
T would not even have recog-
nired him if I had not been
'ald who he was. But, to my
astonishment, he tottered over
'o our table and addressed me
seme.
en in an extreniely menac-
ing and belligerent voice he
Oe soe Know all about you.
4 ‘oO be one
vou ratted.” of us, put
I thought he was going t
assault me, But at the critical
moment his legs crumpled up
under ‘him and he was
brought to his knees.
There he stayed, his hand
om the edge of the table, hi
i’tge white head on a
eve
ith my chest. And fro
is absurd position he pr
eded to direct a stream of
abuse at me.
He was a tempting target. and
‘J pleaded with my friends to
Tet me hit him. They restrained
Jie. And, after a few more out-
bursts of invective, he rose un-+
steadily to his feet and
stumbled away,
As I left with my party, I
puzzled over his drunken taunts.
The only meaning 1 could
attach to them was that
Maclean believed f had
“ratted ’ from the espionage
organisation to which Guy
Lurgess had belonged.
For before the war Guy once
claimed to me that he was a
Communist agent. Later, I
gathered from him that he had
dropped out.
He had never mentioned Maé-
jean in this connection, But
now it seemed that Maclean,
t¥o, had been a Russian agent. -
And Burgess must have told
him that I was a fellow spy who
“Tatted.” - .
¥eg it
Et was. ludicrous.
_in Washington, had sent him
them to be—still clung closely
together.
I was given one more proof of
the closeness of this bond when
Guy returned from Washington
six months later.
He came to see me at my
country house near London. Sir
Oliver Franks, our Ambassador
back to Gritain, Guy was in
disgrace because of his wild be-
haviour in America. ’
“Tam golng to be suspended
or dismissed from the Forelgn
Office," he told me. But he did
not seem to mind. A friend
from his Eton days had fixed
him up with a newspaper job.
But before he left the diplo
matic service he was deler-
mined to make one last gesture.
He drew from his briefcase a
sheaf of papers. They contained
memorandum that Guy had
men up on American foreign
icy.
It was a brilliantly written,
ough completely unbalanced,
attack on the American Govern-
ment and its “warmongering ”
Jeaders.
THE FLIGHT
When he left for London he !
said he would show his despatch
to Mr. Kenneth Younger, then
second-in-command at the
Foreign Office as Minister of
Btate. .
I wag never to see Guy again.
For within three weeks he had
fled to Moscow.
But a few days alter this last
meeting I spoke to him on the
phone. He told me he had not
yet managed to see Younger.
THE ONLY PERSON TO
WHOM HE HAD SHOWN
HIS DESPATCH WAS
DONALD MACLEAN,
It was then, I am now certain,
that Donald Maclean informed
his confederate that they were
under suspicion as spies, And it
was then that they arranged
their flight across the Iron
Curtain.
For on the day before thelr
Owain many people. But I am
I am right.”
in tern agents — as I belleve
My wife did not understand:
this mysterious statement, She,
I had Gnished, were
When
““yae a slight pause. The
gave me rather s curious
Then he said, in a mat -
thought he was drunk. fact voice: “Of course
- He rambled on, saying *now that Guy dids't
time after time that I, at any —- @/one? ;
For a moment I was dumb
rate, would understand what
he was golng to do,
The following morning, Batur-
‘day, May 26, 1951, my wife
received another phone call
from London, this time from
Jackie Hewit, who shared a fat
with Guy.
‘PHONE CALLS
He was in a state of great
agitation. Guy had not returned
to the flat the previous even-
ing. Hewit was alarmed by his
absence. Did my wife know
where he could have gone? But «
of course she knew nothing.
Late on Sunday evening I
returned home and heard
about the two mysterious phone
calls.
In a flash of intuitlon—and
to my wife's utter bewlider-
ment—I said: "He has gone to
Moscow.” :
Next morning I rang up
riend, who was also a frien
of Guy's and had close contac
with M15, the War Off
counter-espionage organisatio:
I told him that Guy had
vanished.
“IT think M.LS should be in-
formed,” I said. “I think Guy
may have gone over to the
Russians.”
My friend at once made the |
necessary approach to M.L4.
But I was not asked to teli my
story until nine days later.
When I was at last invited to
go along to M.1L5 I was taken
inte the presence of an officer
whom I had known during the ;
war—and who had also known
Burgess well. -
By now I was not so sure that
. my intuition about Guy was
right. It seemed incredible, on
reflection, that a man who had
so many friendly contacts in
our Security services could -
self be a spy.
So I was taken aback by the
disappearance, when I was away nerfhse seriousness with whi
in Oxford. my wife had
strange phone call from Burgess.
e said: “I am about to do
. my
story was received. —
something that will surprise
founded. Then I asked who else
had gone.
“Donald Maclean,” sald the
| from men like these. :
officer. “ They went together.”
Alter I left M.L5 I learned ao
good deal more about the man-
ner of Guy's fight.
He had evidently gone in a
frantic hurry. He had taken
no luggage and had left a-
-large sum In banknotes in his
flat.
But he did find time to
to Gieve's, In Bond Street,
y four Old Etonian ties! | |
I found out, too, that jou
ast hysterical phone call] to
y wife was made from he
Reform Club. ‘Typically, be
did not pay for the 20-minute
trunk call.
Soon after, the world heard
the story of the missing diplo-
mats. It was not the whole
story, The Foreign Office con-
. cealed. as much as it could.
And I have only revealed it
now because I believe that the
public must be Warned about
the dangers still to be faced
For it is certain that Maclean
and Burgess were not the only
Britons in positions of trust wha
were recruited into the Soviet
apy ring. ;
‘I believe that Burgess and
Maclean staged their recent
public reappearance in Mos-
cow as a warning to those
remaining traitors—a wWwarn-
ing that they can be exposed
“if they do not continue in the
service cf Russia.
These traitors must be rooted
out before this long-range black-
mail begins to work.
MY VERDICT
Only then will Britain be
saved from another Burgess
and Maclean scandal
Since their flight I have had
two messages from Burgess. The
first, at Christmas, 1953, was to
the effect that he was well and
sent his love.
In the second, which I re
ceived after his reappearance,
he asked me to write to him at
‘Poste Restante, Central Tel
raph Office, Moscow, U.5.5.
i do not know what kind
eply he expected. This sto
nd my verdict on Guy Bur
will serve for an answer. _
3S 6
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