◆ SpookStack

The tip to the British Gov- émment that could fave led to the exposure of his spy ring, he says, came from a Soviet . intelligence agent identified as Konstantin Volkov. Assigned to Case Mr. Philby says he prevented more specific information from reaching London by getting himself assigned to the case “because it nearly put an end to a promising career." By the time he arrived in Istanbul, three weeks after Mr. Volkov first made contact with the British, Inquiries at the Soviet Embassy were greeted with a terse “Volkov's in Moscow.” In a report to his superiors, a Mr. Philby writes, he speculated JL NgRUR me that the Russians could have learned of Mr. Volkov's inten- tions to defect by bugging his room. Or Mr. Volkov might have betrayed himself through nervousness or excessive drink- ing, Mr. Philby added. . ‘Another theory—that the Russians had been tipped off about Volkov’s approach to the British—had no solid evidence to support it,” Mr. Philby writes. “it was noi worth in- cluding in mv report.” Another crisis that jeopard- ized his career came during Mr. Philby’s service in Washington. Shortly after his arrival in 1949, he was informed that a Brit-~ ish-American investigation ‘of Soviet intelligence activity had yielded “‘a strong suggestion” that, information had_ leaked: front the British Em . ing 1944 and 1945, the years| MYf"Waclean had bebn tere: Mr. Philby writes that his initial anxiety “was tempered by relief” after he found that either the British nor the Fed- ral Bureau of Investigation suspected that a high diplomat was involvec. “Instead,” he adds, “the in- vestigation had conecentrated on nondiplomatic employes at the embassy, and particularly on those Jocally recruited, the sweepers, cleaners, bottle wash- ers and the rest. A charlady with a Latvian grandmother, for instance, would rate a 15- page report crowded with in- significant detail of herself, her family and friends, her private life and holiday habits. It was testimony to the enormous re- ources of the F.B.I. and to the pitiful extent to wihch those resources were squandered, It Daal was enough to convince me that urgent action would not be necessary, but that the case, wonld requite minyte wateh-: ing.” Oe i : e, x { 4 (} + ) ae SMe AT eta os ea! a aE mle yp te an “However, during later t- ings-with-Soviet sbateets-Out. side Washington he was told that “it was essential to rescue Maclean before the net closed on him.” Mr. Maclean was at the time head of the American Department of the Foreign Of- fice in London. Mr. Philby tells how he as- signed Mr. Burgess, who was also working at the British Em- bassy and living with the Phil-| bys, to warn Mr. Maclean in London. Mr. Burgess was to get himself arrested three times in one day for drunken driving in Virginia, forcing Sir Oliver Franks, the British Ambassa- dor, to send him looked a ise ‘it might, have looked a bit ad Mr. Burgessreritned voluntarjly just before. Mr. Mac- Idan disappeared eas | Confident that Mr. Maciean would soon be safe, Mr. Philby forestalled any possibility that he would be suspected by’ giv- ing the investigation “a nudge in the right direction.” To that end, he writes, “I wrote a mem- orandum to Head Office sug- gesting that we might be wast- ing our time in exhaustive in- vestigations of the embassy menials.” . But after reaching Lon- don, Mr. Burgess epparently panicked and joined Mr. Mac- ean in his flight to the Soviet Union, on May 25, 1951. Describing how he learned about their escape from a col- league at the embassy “at a horribly early hour’ the next moming, Mr. Philby writes: “He looked grey, ‘Kim,’ he said in @ half-whisper, ‘the bird has flown,’ I registered dawn- ing horror (I hope). ‘What bird? [Not Maclean? ‘Yes,’ he an- swered, ‘but there’s worse than that, Guy Burgess has gone 3; with him.’ At that, my conster- ‘| nation was no pretense.” In the wake of the Burgess- Maclean case, which caused a major outery in Parliament, Mr. Philby was recalled from Wash- ington and was asked to resign. The Government denied at. the time that he had been involved iin the case and, according to the memoirs, five years later he resumed his role as ‘ double agent whjle working for The Observer, _ a nn a ae ; net “a . : : , * i