◆ SpookStack

Philby had beard from his cradle. | of the Establishment be betrayed that | peeling of an onion; cven the most There seem to be four distinct stages in the Esteblishment’s attitude to Kim Philby. The first stage accounts for his recruitment: A decent, difident boy, son of old Si John; Westrinsier and Cambridge; goodish reporis; plenty of guts and knows how to get on with intellectuals without being tarred with thet brush. Oats. Open the door and let him in. The sccond stage, post 1944, secs Rimi is noi only a good operator — ft to teach those rash Americans ens- dom — but, when he wants to be, pre- sentable. He rides hard, likes his drink and uso bit of @ bastard with the girls; but he knows when to accep! the bit. Ganshls of nisin osry high We mere SeBPONE OF FISUZ DET magn. we were swise lo choose Kim. And his Left-wing associations? AH got up by MI-5. ‘The third stage follows the defec- tins of Burgess and Maclean, and is by far the most interesting, covering both the Mock Trial and Macmillan’: official clearance of Philby in the House of Commons : Kim has been monstrously rnis- used. He has been playing « dammed difficult game flushing out Russians preted by a lot of outsiders, meluding those Lower class buffoons in Feve. He may have been 2 bit naughty bul no more. We meust get him back on the rails, Azide, the voice pleaded: Kirn, persuade us you're not one of them. or how else are we to ifferpret that scandalous Mock Trial? A good interrogator never specifies the charges, never reveals the extent of his knowledge, docs not give to his suspect the comfort and secunty of being accompanied by his colleagues, nor the fillip of an examine tion before an appreciative audience. Least of all docs be guarantee to abide by che sporting procedures of the Eng- lish courts, By stagiog a trial at all, the Establishment reaffirmed certain guar- entecs. They demonstrated that they feared for the image of the Secret Ser- vice and would go to great lengths to avoid publicity. (Our Secret Service has po face, but it does have an image.) their ground; and they assured him, by providing him with a trial before his peers, that be was stil] one of them. One is resuinded irresistibly of the secret noctumal trial af John Profumo conducted by the Conservative Party a few years later. Both Philby and Profumo, significantly, enjoyed Mac- a, a ee | ats — | MAD 6 Pr SOT a COMDOCHCE On The floor of the House of Commons, Esch, | a stary within that. Confession by « ™ of his own sphere, was 90 much a part man of Philby’s expertise is like the it was impassibl for his colleagues to judge him. Each wes incompetently exonerated in public. Each held out, with astonishing gall, egainst what seemed to be a foregone conclusion. Each ultimately knew che grea weak- ness of the Establishonent: “This Club does noi elect Kars, inerejore Profume ts mot a liar; this Club does not elect traitors, therefore Kim is not a traitor.” This Establishment is a self-proving The fourth stage follows the revela- tion that Philby was a Soviet spy. Once again we are simply without know- ledge. From the account given bere, we can only assume that the old 5.LS. instincts reasserted themsclves. No other explanation, on this evidence, is mosethla Te ic the nleacan! esoummenon possible. It is the pl sssumption of the authors of this book that the con- temporary régime of §.LS. is profes- sional, self-critical and efficient. It cam only be said that on the evidence given here these virtues were not apparent in the management of Philby’s cose once S§.LS. knew that be was a Soviet spy. ‘Did they want him to go to Russia? The argument seems to be chat they could not prevent him, Why not? A common swindier could have been arrested and extradited. Why not Philby? He was s criminal: an acces- sory before che fact of murder; he had misappropmated Government funds. If the British Government had wanted Kim Philby back in England, I am per- suaded that S.LS. could have got him. The task of §.1.5. it to. do by underhand means what cannot be schicved' by overt mocans. So what happened? Did they, in a sporting way, allow Kim to run for it? Did the Service want him beck and Macmillan forbid it? By now Philby had confessed. He was crack- ing up. His old defences were alip- ping, be was by turns crue] aad scnti- mental Both dream and reality were closing in on him: Russia, for so long an illusion, was threatening to become a reality; the citadel, roused at Last, was apparently preparing to strike the avenger. Philby wavered; but so, dis- gracefully, did the Establishment. It was not a question of justice: a full confession from Philby would have been one of the most valuable Lncelli- gence prizes on the market. It would have demanded prolonged ‘debriefing’ and might have taken a year or more. But they wavered, and once again, as rules of interrogation were thrown aside, A map who has confessed is an altered man; excited, alarmed, proud and off balance; still very far from tel- ing the truth, There will be a cover een Seen story, a sory within a siory, perhapi gifted interrogator may never reach the heart, Bur one rule rings out like « instant lose him from your sight; bear on him, stack him before be regroup. No one doubted — the Mock Trial bad demonstrated - that Philby could think on his feet. Yet what hep- pened? What voice did the Establish toent use? T will leave ¢ loaded pistol in the library... 10s afl got up by the Press .. - Lat sleeping dogs lie... The nation’s presage is already sufficiently ee | Tr. wns bh tb Garnagea ... 9 é Cart aVsCTU arene? George Blake scandal ... by exposing Philby, we're playing the Russians’ geome. So the scandal never hap- pened. No Minister resigned. Every- one and no-one was to blame. - Tf we con onto oust af the acre of at We CSD Cy gutss St Ct Scope Philby’s betrayal, let us at least assess the damage he caused. From the mid-forties, when S.LS. first wok up arms in earnest against Communism, clean through the cold- ett pears of the Cold War, operations were forfeit, officers compromised, agents shot, imprisoned or ‘turned” to formation. A major atomic spy (Maclean) was protected and a vast quantity of intelligence about Russia withheld from us. This was Philby’s work and it is not an academic lon. A Secret Service, in designating its Intel- ligence targets, declares its own ignor- ance and thereby points to the areas in which it is most casily deceived. A bed onc: it ig an appalling liability. place of an all-eccing cyc, it becomes a credulous ear and a misleading voice, innocently deceiving in own cusiom- ety in every sphere of the national economic. This was the condition in which $.LS. functioned, at a charit- able estimate for ten years. Woent of all, because it bad taken kave of reality, it continued t belicve in ite own impregnabiliry, But what of the rest of Whitehall? What of the customers? Had they also taken leave of realiry? What of our vigilant Secretaries of State, our Foreign Office, Treasury, Joint Intc]- Armed Services and all of those who were themselves, cach in his separate world, the recipients of these urumped- up wares? God knows what the Secret Service spent in those years: the Serlin tonne! alone must have cost as couch as an catra branch of the London Underground. Throw in the Secret Vote and a few hidden subsidics and put it at £200 million over ten years. Did the Treasury draw a profit and lots eee st of abe Teed. BTS AAA Ue OLE Bun let un be fair in this respect at beast: mo Secret Sryice can be more + clear-beaded than i Governmen: Everything rests upon a clearcut state- ment of requirements by those who formuisie the nation’s policy. if the Secret Service is properly used, it is a fighting arm, an extension of Govern- ment policy. But in umes of dismay : haliane ee, ee oot sealer =F i a that §.L5. m it: worst years, far from bemng « putrescent arm upon a healthy body, was infected by a general sick- pers which grew out of the sloth and disorientation of after-war. It is argu- ahle cher Fie, Philhe seirefol wei ac Ut AD sy, Spo, Teil and murderous as he was, was the spy and catalyst whom the Establishment deserved. Philby is « crearure of the post-war depression, of the swift enuffing out of the Socialist flame, of the thouesnd-vear sleen of Eder end a Ss a Sh Macmillan. hus, oo doubt, the life and loves of Kim Philby have demonstrated Establishment ss shown to have behaved with grotesque ineptitude; it has produced most of the moods and attitudes that Kim Philby secretly sneered at. And of course be has proved to us what a superior chap he is. Betier than all of us, of all of them, whichever way you caret to take it. +» A Marzian novel; a nove] without humanity; a novel mch in scenes of social decay. They will call him a van- guard man; they will give him medals, publish bis arid, post-affice prose, extol his ideological virme. On cither side glasses to Kim, wherever be is, che Felix Krull of the intelligence war. “He crossad his hands om his lap and smuled, as a man may who hes wor salpation for himself and his beloved.” Thus ended Kipling’s boy. T have po such affection for Philby and no admiration. We shall never, I hope, create a pociety thet is proof found a big name for cheating. Philby is the price we pay for being moder- ately free; for being able to read this book; and there is a side to Philby's bead which knows it, and will know it Gil be dies. Stupid, creduious, smug and torpid a: the Establishment may have been, i erred on the side of trust. How will be spend the rest of his days? Drinking? Reading the cricket scores in the London pewspapers? Waiting for the English boloceust? Now he is exclusive. In ten years’ time be may be mopping British tourists in the Moscow streets. Imagine that deaky-cye and whisky-voice, that besi- tent, soft-footed charm: “Britain is Bente ee bene * he all one ran, anew, GS will Soy. “That's why I had to do it"@ © br Le Cased Production: Lat. 1986