◆ SpookStack

ee eee Pee ne ae Sona Se ae rear eee Senet an aot te tlge eh A pag ERC panied Pte 2" HeLa yer teil he eR EFA” AG Ale i ie re Mh Ft . . ot dee AI ARIE OD 9 EEO : that he will * PC eee he Seams de — At once ‘ens et lg, (acre rate sa A ld i wie ian, ~ ore on wee Tes, ra $37 Former 4. Office FT NOVEMBER 1955 = Official. Deerpcarance 1538 1ad all the papers and 1 came to the con- lusion that J had neither the possibility { stopping, sor the right to Stop, Mrs. faclean. Mr. Crossman: I entirely agree sbout Mrs. Maclean. I do not see why she should not have joined her husband, but d was talking about a search of the house not being made because se was expeci- ang 2 baby. gee oe om Bae Tae 3 My suspicions are nearly all based on this paragraph. it is not a question of the ports. 3t is a question of whether we could not have kept Maclean from going by telling him frankly that he was under suspicion. J assume that he had already been tipped off by not having the secret apers. IT now ask why we might not fixe tried saying to him, * Maclean, you are under investigation. and if you move that proves your guilt.” [think he would have stayed i in that case. At feast, # would have been a risk worth taking, whereas, this way, it was certain what would happen. ‘You tip him off. you do not keep a watch on him, you allow him a long week-end. After that it is certain skedaddle,” whereas, by my i method, we might possibly have bluffed him into staying, ¥ would remind the Prime Minister, if he has Dr. Fuchs in his mind, that at the critical moment the police bluffed Fuchs into a confession before they actually had the evidence in their hands. J am asking myself, therefore, why that was not done in this case, when we had already with- drawn the papers and had, therefore, warned Maclean of his plight, it stilt puzzles me, - ‘ The Foreign ‘Sccretaiy made it ( clear 40 us that one of our difficulties was that M15, the counter-intelligence organisa- tion, is not responsible for the actions which are daken. It is responsible for advising each Government Department upon the records and the personalities of the people there, but the actions are left to the Department in question. There- fore, we can never know whether the Foreign Office was not sufficiently strongly advised by M.1L5 or whether, despite the advice, something held it back from taking the necessary action. ""*.* That brings me to my own suspicion—— Maclean belonged to ‘the élite of the élite; he was one of the inner group of really gified men, one of the half-dozen nce Cine Me Bale Kee re OF Sats lt th ies dee ff une S, we ‘ ee ee ee a a ree. a Fed EN EB PT. et. we et: ee i aw ee SPT ile lear Mee. pore om ye rey . tame De slats for to omotion; an intimate ob eee friend, a confidant, a man who spent { long evenings with half-a-dozen people { #2, who are now in key positions. I am not toe. blaming anyone. # am only saying that 1 if a man has been desperately misjudged, i if risks are taken for him—and, of course, eed risks were talen for Maclean; if a risk |. | |_ | Gnen is taken and it does not come off, then 1. . certain people are not very anxious to _..- :. pees na have the extent of the Fisk they took on an his behalf exposed. ct ct eh eee ec mt fir ee = We find a striking sentence” ‘at the beginning of the White Papet about | Maclean's conduct: or- a: ae ee eae, - “Macican was guiliy of serious misconduct. wee and suffered a form of breakdown which was Te attributed to overwork and excessive drinking.” ‘ Surely it is clear that the excessive drink- ing was the result and not the cause? Anybody looking at this can see that the man was suffering from terrible psycho- Jogical strain, the strain of being a traitor. = ---- He had those two loyalties which drove - —- - him into drink and drove him into __ treason. [/nerruption.] [Aa Hox, Mewe Bex: “Wise after the eveni."] Very well! J say this to the Prime Minister: it is rumoured that before he weaf ..._. - Maclean hinted to certain cloce friends - a oe Bs that he was under a terrible strain. 4. - have even been told that he gave broad hints as to what the strain was; and I am further told that his friends regarded all this merely as signs of nervous break- down. The trouble is thal we cannot im --:~ | vestigate these rumours. If there bad =~ o a full investigation, we could have ~~.” found out from his Foreign Office cone fidantes exactly what Maclean said in his confidential ta talks ~~ a ‘eats: eeceti EL. mee 2 Sahelian -- The curse of the policy “of the White --- od Paper, -the policy of concealment, has . . hes ‘ « been that those rumours have grown and grown in this country. And pot unreasone ~ ably, for someone has to ¢ explain why, 2. 5 - | when suspicion had narrowed down to... sgt one man, there was this curious hesitas =~ > }. ~ = tion 4o take the risk which was takea -.-- - ike ray with Dr. Fuchs. We are not talking about ports now; we are talking about. ~~~: i} - ve facing Macleas with it and breaking him - i t. down. We are talking about the long — ie - shot which came off with Fuchs. -Why : was it not tried with Maclean? 7°) 0 ~~~ e: ae A do not think that the Secretary, at _ State for Foreigo Affairs will think me unfair when I say that at feast until re: cently, the Foreign Office has been under eo mate ad OT the eS 1 i | [ i mI