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Cambridge Five Spy Ring — Part 5

54 pages · May 23, 2026 · Broad topic: Intelligence Operations · Topic: Cambridge Five Spy Ring · 53 pages OCR'd
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r i MELIND, EAN,’ She Hadfthe Baby. to do in West ington, simply be~ cause it was felt there was Mitle he could do. By the time he teft,| according to @ close friend, his! state of mind verged on the sui- cidal. “He was drinking far too; much, his habits and personal ap- pearance " became progressively slovenly. He would frequently) into the offices of other Em. basy officials to pour out his} wogs—his hatred of America, his) fedfing of frustration in his career. In&niddle Kfe, he had reached the tank of acting second secretary) and already was aver his head,! He was a close student of thel writings of Lenin end Stalin, andi his knowledye of the Communist, dislectic reportediy had con- tributed to some of the West's more . effective ‘diplomatic © ex.! changes with the Kremlin. Yet, by the time he got back from Washington, the Foreign Office apparently bed hed enough of: He was put on Aeave,’ “land his departure from the aarvice! Iwas constdeteenaminent“ ; ‘These were. the men who ‘took the poat for St. Malo. ‘They. had! known each other casually’ for, Years, and in London, last month, they renewed the acquaintance. ship. There were some who had), been wondering, this spring.’ whether McLean's recovery from{: his mental Biness was as complete; as if} was supposed to be.’ He! seemed low in spirit, On April 2. he made & scene in-e Soho night club when he became tnvoived| ° in an argument with a newspe-|. permen. The management asked bim to leave." ere Many Happy Returns ae But there was no hint, certainty, of what was to came.” He had bought # beautiful, old 12-room) house at Hatsfield, near London, He and his wife were living there] quielly; she, was expecting her! third child. 'The twe ttle keys! had the measies, May 25 was his birthday.’ He left the house as usual, but never. showed up” at the office. Assuming that Burgess and Mc-| Lean have gone, or are trying to! igo, behind the fron curtain, those who know the twa men remaia! baffied by the personality contra idictions involved in the case. Burgess, for instance, is considered’ much the more likely of the twa! to heve been somehow involved inj &n attempt to ald Russia, He was! disgusted with his itfe—he had no! family ues-to bind himi~and ne! might have had some sympatl for what he thought” was “the Kremlin's ‘cause, His polities were) lefiish MeLean, on the other hand, never gave the slightest indication, st pro-Communist tendencies. « But Burgess, i is felt, wasp) type of man ghey incapable of organizy id carrying through idhat has been ‘aeeomplished here,} “He had," says a friend, “cone) siderable ‘aiffeulty in getting from Point A ts Point Bin the normal, course of things. McLean,” tb 1s] true, had the imagination “and! daring (6 effect the escape, His! friends, however, find it impos-| sible to believe that he haa been the leader in such @ plot. There is general agreement that! if McLean and Burgess really hae; gone over to the Communists, their aim is somehow t try to prod: peace, rather than to help Russia. jagsinst the West. As ‘a British) idiptomat here sums it pr ‘IAt iworst, this thing is certainly more Hess than Hiss.” Last week, in 8 London hospital, ‘Mrs. McLean gave birth to? an, sleight-pound daughter. She ‘too Wil be called Melinda. The hope’ arose that—-if Donald McLean still’ fa roaming the free world some- where—the news would bring him to his senses, and pac! fo ~ne-} Washington Star. Page C-l jun it 96h
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