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KIM PHILBY continued FB! files, says Philby, have their uses: to silence critics CIA pressed for o full-scale confer ence with SIS. which was duly held in London in April 1953. Rather to my surprise, the British siood firm, and flatly refused to jetuson Bandera The bes! thal could be agreed, with un- concealed it] temper on the American side. was that the situation would be re-examined al the end of the 195! Patachule-dropping season, by which time. il *as hoped, more facts would be available Within a month. the Briush bad dropped three sia-man pares. the aircrafi taking off from Cyprus One party was dropped mid- was between Lwaw and Tarnopol. amother near the headwaters of the Pruth. not far from Kolommva, and a third Just inside the borders of Polarkd. mear the source of the San In order to avoid the dangers of overlapping and guphcation. the British and Am- ericans exchanged precise information abou the wming and geographical ca- ordinates of their operatrons | do not know whal happened io the parties concerned But I] can make an in- formed guess Some eigh’ vears later. i read of the mysterous murder of Bandera in Munich in the American zone of Germany | may be that despite the brave stand of ibe British in his de- fense. CLA had the last word THE FRI Was in #077) shape when 1 reached Washingion. |i had caught a Tartar in the small person of Judith Coplon, # brilhant young woman em- Ploved in the Department of Justice, agains! whom they were trying to bring hame espoonage charges When the evidence agains! her. obtained largely ty illegal lelephone-tapping. had hardened sufficiently to justify her arresi. Honver sancuoned the neces: wary action and Copion was pulled in She was caught passing documents ta a caniacl, and the case against her seemed open and shut. But in their haste the FBI had neglected to take our a warrani for ber arrest, which was therefore in itself illegal The WMegatity of the arrest was duly Jambasted in court, but worse was 10 follow Coplon though Caughi ted- handed. was resolved to fight to the end She went over rm the counter. attack anc began harrying the FBI withesses She ed them in such kno that they admitted to 1aPping ner only her telephone bus telephones in the headquarters of the Unied Nations The cour proceedings began ic dam- age the public image of the FBI so severely that Hoover Inconlinenth, @ropped the charges It wat charac- tersic of him thal he reacted to the fiasco by Sonding # scapegoat Howard Fletcher, the principal FAY witness af the trial. was fired Bul Copion went free Vi was the trumph of a brave woman The failure of the FR) in the Copion case was bs no means urigue. Oreven unusual I cannow speak of ihe record of the FBI in checking crime in the nvied States. Wilh that side of Hs activities I had nothing to do. Bui To hed a great deal to do with os COunter-espionage work, and is record in that eld was more conspicuous for failure than for success Hoover did 76 nor caich Maclean or Burgess: he did hol catch Fucht. and he would not have caught the resi if the British had not caught Fuchs and worked on his tangled emotions he did not catch Lonsdale: he did not caich Abel for years, and then only: because be was delivered up to him on @ platter. be did noi even cach brilhantly me. If ever there was a bubble reputs- ton. it is Hoover's. But Hoover is a great politician His blanket methods and ruthless authoritarianism are the wrong weap- ons for the subtle world of intelligence Bul they have other uses. They enable Hoover to collect and file away a vast amount of information about the per- sa emmet sonal lives of millons of his fellow. countrymen. This bas long been com- mon knowledge, and it has brought Hoover rich dividends from the purse of the Amencan taxpayer. There are few people in the world without skeleions in their cupboards which they would prefer to remain decentiy forgotten. The overt record shows thai a distressing number of American congressmen have pasts thal deo nor bear minute actuliny. And what about the covert record heid by Hoover’ MACLEAR'S