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; _ Mrs Bassett, Burgess i2, Maclean's absence did net beecme kncwn tc the authcrities until the merning of Nenlay, Hay 28, The Fereign Office is regularly cpen for normal business on Saturday mernings, but officers can, from time to time, obtain leave to take a week-end off, In accerdance with this practice Maclean arplied fcr an — obtaincd leave te be atsent on the morning cf Saturday, May 26, “His absence therefore causeino ‘remark until the following. — Momay morning when he failed tc appear at the Forolen Office, Burgess was on leave and under no obligation te repert his novenents, 13. Immediately the flight was known all possible acticn was _ taken in the United Kinredom, ani the French and ether continental! security authorities were asked to trace the whereabouts of the fugitives and if pcssible te intercept them, 411 British G@cnsulates in Western Europe were alerted and special effcrts were made to discever whether the fugitives had crossed the French frontiers on May 26 or 27. 48 a resuit cf these and cther enquiries it was established? that Maclean and Burress tcgether ieft Tatsfield by car fcr Scuthamptcn in the late evening cf Friday, Mey 25, arrived at Southampton at midnirht, caught the 8,8, Falaise fcr St. Ilo and disembarked at that pert at 11.45 the following merning, leaving suitcases ani scme cf their clothing on beard, They were net seen on the train from St. Halo to Paris amd it has been reperted that twe mea, believed te be . Maclean aml Burgess, took a taxi to Rennes and there got the 1,18 p.m, train tc Paris. Nething more was seen of then, 14, Since the disappearnnce varicus ecmmunications have been received frcm them by members cf their familics. Cn Jane 7, 1951 tcerams cstensibly frem Moclean wore recciveld by his Mother weaciean, and his wife Mrs. Melinda Maclean, who were both _ at thNe time in the United Kinrdcm. The telerram to Lady Maclean -®as a short rerscnal messare, sirned by a nick-nime known only within the immediate family circle, It merely strted thet all was well, That acdlressod to lars, inelean was similsr, expressing repret for the unexpected departure amd was signed "Denald'!, Both teleprams were despatched in Peris on the evenine cf June 46, Their receipt was at once reperteds tc the security authcritics but 1¢ was impossible tc: identify the persen or Persons Who ho handed them in, The criginal telegraph fcrms shewed, hcwever, that the messages had been written ina hard which was claarly not Macleanis, The charceter of the hand-writinr, ani some mis-spelling, suggested that beth telegrams had been written by a fcreigner, : -~ a 15... On June 7, 1951, a telegram wis received in Lonion by ; Mather, It contained a shert and ~ “affécthgnaite perscnal mossage, together with a statenent thet the sender wis embarking on a long Mediterranean holiday and ‘was ostensibly from Burzess himself. The telerram had been hamied in at a Fest Office in Rome earlier on the day crf its receipt, as with the telegrams from Paris to Maclean's family, there was no possibility of identifying the person who had handed it in, The handwriting had the appearance of being foreign and was certainly nct that cf burgess, 16, According to information given te the Foreifn Office in - eonfidence by Mrs? bar, Maclean's Nether-ir-law, who was then living with her dauah¥er at Tatsfield, she received cn aucust 3, 1951, twc registerod letters posted in St. Galien, Svitzerland, on Aurust 1, One contained a draft cn the Swiss Bank Ccorprr-aticn Lonion fer the sum cf £1,000 payable tc Mrs. Dunbar; the other fa draft