◆ SpookStack

,HE MUST _JBE FRAN R. MORRISON should speak as fully and frankly as he can when he makes his expected state- ment on the two missing diplomats today, To say that the country is per- turbed is to put it mildly. atever the explanation for ‘his sensational episode may turn out to be. it has come as a mighty shock to the British people. It is another biow to their confidence In the established scheme of things. To have the disappearance of two ofMcials actually announced by the Foreign OMice ts the sort of thing one would expect at the Sherlock Holmes exhibition. Taat it should have hap- pened in real life Is almost unbelievable. The staid, decorous Foreign Office must be shaken to the re. They obviously take the most serious view of the ident, otherwise th ely w4uld not have given it wige publicity. nl ow? two of their men had com- mitted some minor indis~ ‘cretion the Department's instinct would have been to cover up. The only possible qmference \s that the very gravity of this inciderft has forced the Foreign Office into the open. For the moment, however, yet 2 assume, that St is an scapade. . We must then onder how men capable of uch a thing were ever en- rusted with high and con- fidential duties. Ma. MACLEAN, jatterly head of ‘Yet it now appears that the American Department, was a high-ranking diplo~ mat; and Mr. Buacess was good enough to be Becond Secretary %. cera in Bey . Embassy oth were, in different ways, temperamentally unstable. Certainly they have shown hemselves to be, at the very east, irresponsible. Is this he stuf of which th¢ ‘oreign Service should be made? Why 2, 'O have gone of withoyt notice or leave was bi enough, but to remain away ,after both must know (if they are alive) that the police forces of Europe want to interview them Is beyond Teasonable explanation. is so fantastic that one naturally seeks some sinjster reason for their absepce. The circumstances of their departure do not allay sps- Picion. ‘ There was the hired car, left jn a garage for a fortnight, There was the scramble on board ship. There was the it at? : A this is enough to rhise me very anxious qus- tions. For example, h these men access to vita! secrets, and could they have taken such information with them ? ‘The official line is to discount this idea. We recall, how- ever, that when Prortssor Pontecorvo disappeared | it was said that he could have had no data of any value. We do not necessarily draw a comparison between his case and that of the missing dip- lomats. We only remark that It has since appeared that Ponrscorvo possessed secrets known only to a handful of atomic scientists. landing {n France, so hur- Tie doubts and queries which ried that suitcases were left behind, and the mystery of the telegrams. Why should these experienced ; travellers, \inguists, and mast4rs of foreign proce§ure an excursion vassel and then go ta Paris a are, at this moment, being voiced up and down the eguniry must be squarely ftdced by Mr. Morrison tor and, if possibie, answe Britain's security sinte tha war is non ood, and we only hope It - oO ie -™t to be further. blotted,