◆ SpookStack

= “a . . eee wae. of me Ye: ed , st al ee 7 . too $7 -—_ |; edd te me sag pak Ls ake aS a ES hn tl Sh aa : - . Boer ane Ao ee RL oe oT eee ee ating, he & y by a aig ATI ee, Py - mee eo ee ee ae ee ee Lie ole a nee eo 7 To ge ee RITES PERG ‘ . t i #4. 4 i wet: : “ ‘ . : wee ae ow jee roe | _oe aeceens tice fee ces meee ee ee te Me ee . 7 7 - wert ‘- vA ¥ 4 i: “ae Y we . oe 4 tee Be ee ere = et f ~ > ' 4 Fl, Bow be LP wae ten eticnaiiatinhiadd bet a i. _ Bees -- Rago w-roaee- tetr te! aa awe Weegee toms : mee oe ra ee mae pice ~ a i booteerecs oof ot a Hove cht! £ - 1 t + _@ ? , a ; ye are - - - + (Lreut.Cotonet Corneaux] a Kile How easily satisfied some people can be, particularly when we recall that, accord- ing to a further reply by the right hon. Genticman that day, there had been since the Fuchs case a certain tightening up of the system. % wonder what it amounted to. Heaven knows what it was like - Early in 1950, apparently alarmed by the Fuchs trial, Pontecorvo himself went to some of the security authorities and told them that he had Communist rela- tions in Ttaly and had recently seeo them. when he had been over there. At about the same time we received a repon from Sweden saying definitely. «hat ‘both Pontecorvo and his wife. were. Com- munists. Pontecorvo continued to carry out his highly secret work, and in July of that year he blithely set forth with all his family for a motor tour of Haly. He did not come back on the day that he was due to return. Instead, he wrote a letter to the atomic station at Harwell, where he was employed, telling those in autho- nity there that he could not come back on time because bis car had broken down. The reply given by the right bon. Member for Vauxhall in the House of Commons on 6th November, in answer fo a Question, was -) 7. TO. “Dr. Pontecorvo's feave expired on Bist Avpust. On this date be had @ritten 2 pote to Harwell, received on 4th September! saying thai be had trouble with Bis carn. In reply to a further Question, the righ hon, Gentleman said of Dr. Pontecorvo,' “,.. the reasons for this man over-staying eave seemed quite normal He had a’ Molor-car breakdown, and was asked to visit some people in Switzerland, and it was, naturally, only about a week afierwards that those at Harwell became worried about him.” J lOrricta Report, 6th November, 1950; Vol. 480, ¢ S678} ar “Normal” and “natural” Ye gods!. All I can say is that if our security autho- fities consider that sort of behaviour in the case of a man of Pontecorvo's ante- etedents and background oormal . and ae none of them is fil to hold his J am sorry to have inBicted this -old history on the House at such Jength, but ~~ tome oo ‘being sent from our Foreign Office WSIS Former Foreign Officd? T NOVEMBER '195$ Officials —Diseppetrancy tial “enemy” became Russia tnstead’ “of Germany after the war. our security authorities had carried out even the most cursory investigations into their back. grounds, all three would have been found utterly unfit for their jobs. It seems barely credible to me that, after aff that, the same thing should have happened ig’ . - the case of Maclean; but in fact it did, “Maclean was of about the same age as the three and was at Cambridge with Nonn May. He was then recognised as : : a Communist. ‘He went into the Foreign Service immediately: afterwards, But although we are told in the White Paper that in January, 1949, knowledge came, - to those concerned that information was to eo Russians and Ty ar “highy secret but widespread inquiries were begun,” | Gites ck ony those widespread inquiries were: aot: spread widely enough even then to include’ Maclean's background just 6 : joined the Foreign Service. _~ A year and a half later, in the inquiries were not even spread. as. widely as that, when, in fact, the suspects had been narrowed down to two or three: of whom, of course, he was one. They PAL ck eee 80 Gl eho ‘ were not even spread widely enough to. . include his background immediately be- , sfea-. B. belore he April, 1950, fore he joined the Foreign Service when, . the suspects had been narrowed down to. one—he himself—because paragraph 4 of the White Paper states that the infor-’ mation was obtained only after Maclean . Therefore, it amounts to this—that all this time the security services have been. neglecting what should be the chief chan-’ nel of their inquiries, se, as has been said, these spies are now recruited very: frequently for ideological reasons rather, than for what I might call the old- fashioned reasons, These facts are not in doubt. They are stated in the wretched’ White Paper, but the White Paper also, Giscloses that in mary other ways our, security services did not prove up to the: job. Paragraph 26, which has been en- arged upon in the debate today, states. thal no watch was set on Maclean, except jo London, @5 it would have it leads me to the point that I want to | 100. make—that these three top-grade Russian dangerous and would have been likely agents, al] atomic scientists, men varying to have alerted him, because he lived 1 very widely in every way, in character and =a quiet country area. Surely our security” upbringing and so on, had one thing in_ service is not going to confess that its common. It is that if, when the poten- trade craft has fallen to that level?. ae : : Uo w . ; ; rt a Lee ae ~~ a Sn Sr NN ORT : pee i at 5 Te ent 7, } 7 ' i ‘ Se mee ARUN a