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Cambridge Five Spy Ring — Part 8
Page 26
26 / 101
‘The one reach
ay of Eton and
. two years later.
“Iactean In 1913,
sambusge by
Trinity, the ot
oO ©
Guy Burgess, though he preferred __What_was common to both Bur
tne Zompany of the apie to eer and Maciean at this time was
Artistic. nlxo moved on the edge of their instability: both were athe
the same world, He was of a very and ambitious young men of hist
erent que, tall - medium intelligence and good conn,
who were somehow parod
‘i ol
in height, with blue eyes. an In- ies
quisitive nose. sensua) mouth, curly what they set ‘out to be, Nobody
ov Gresham's pool and Trinity ite seriously;
‘ They hair and alert fox-terrier expres- could take them qu
n ree er, reader, aster. Jussi ee
members of the Jeftewing circle | “ralker, who swam like an otter and engaged to piay, Tallegrand and
. hat appre no evid- | Grank, not like a feckless under- the younger Pitt, Burgess, ie
ce of that oppressive parental |
authority which drives young men
w revolt. 1
Pre-War Cambridge
Marxists
J? Nas more than ten years since’
the end of the first world war,
and @ new generation was growing
up which found no outlet in home
politics for the adventurous or
aitruistic impulses of the adole-
scent. Marxism satisfied both the
rebelliousness of youth and its
craving for dogm:
‘The Cambriage
stituted @ new
a.
Communists sub-
ather or super-ego
new justice 8
authority, They felt they hed
exposed the weaknesses of Liberal-
rom glong with their elders’ ignor-
ce of economic affairs. Te this
reneration Communism made an
ntellectual appeal. standing for
ove, liberty and social justice and
lot ‘@ new approach to life and
‘rt Yet it was connected with »
political party, and this party is
ot inclined to relinquish Its hoid.
rhe Comintern,” ‘says Arthur
"<Soestler, “carried on @ white-siave
fic whose victims were young
ally, was & great reader ‘of fiction;
his favourite authors were) Mrs.
ell and Balzac and, later bn.
Mr. E. M. Forster. " Lenin had said
somewhere that he had learnt more
about France from Balzac’s novels
tMan 1rom au niswiy-Dooks pul
together. Accordingly Balzac gw"
the greatest writer of all vrkes
(Koestler.
Donald was seldom heard to talk
politics. Guy hever seemed to stop.
le was the type of bumptious
Marxist who saw himself as Saint-
Just, who enjoyed making the flesh
of his bourgeois listeners creep by
G
raduate, as Donald was apt to do,
But like ‘some. Rabelaisian bottle:
swiper whose thirst was unque
fe.
¥ Contrasts in Their
Characters a
i heed physical type to which
Donald Maclean, despite his
Puppy fat, belonged was that of
the elongated, schizophrenic, sad-
countenanced Don Quixote—
introverted and diffident, an
idealist and a dreamer given to his picture of the justice w
sudden outbursts of’ aggression; ‘ history would | mete out then.
rubby, rate -
Perens Oy ae dtaced, Guous, Hie loved to moralise aver his
friends and satirise their smug
golden-pated Sancho Panza, ¢lass- unconscious behaviour, so
extrovert. exhibitionist, manic,
reckless of the reckoning in store.
cynical and argumentative, avidly But when bedtime came, very late,
curious, yet sometimes vague and it was the moment to put the
and incompetent. With all his analyses away. the word “Prepos-
toughness. moreover, Guy Burgess terous” dying on his lips, he would
wanted intensel, liked and
imply a dispensation under which
was indeed likeable, a good conver- ,
this one house at least. this family,
salioalist and an enthusiastic ‘these guests, might be spared the
builder-up of his friends. Beneath worst consequences, thanks to the
the“ terrib! of his Marxist protection of their brilliant
nalyses one divined the affection. . hunger-marching friend wh
te moral cowardice of the publi sition Wougl be se commandibs
a extreme
ealists, ficvin hoolboy. the happsf workers’ Utopia.
calists, Birting ew POL Ne - ube™e?
Tae feelings of . .
ch young men | ‘HIS IS WHE FIRST instalmen| f Mri
are described in , a
numerous novels 1 Connolly's personal and intimate study of Guy \
and poems. or in
syed tracts as || Burgess and Donald Maclean, the ttvo members |
rT. Stephen 5 . ;
Spender’s Pro: ' of the Foreign Office staff who vanished towards |
ward fro A apt
rirealisn | the end of May last year, It will be read with
They involved ! : . . 1
betraval ot , Particular interest by those concerned with the ,
vanes ne 1 peculiar problems arising in an age of ideological ,
jose of Marxism | conflict which is often projected on the plane of 1
ripe at were | private personality. A second. and concluding !
these two young | A 7 4
these two youn article will appear next week.
Maclean wes L..—-—-- -\---~----------~--
sandy - haired, ms weneenees =.
ll. with great latent physical | An old Etonian, an “ Apos was the fime when AD pia
ngth, but fat and’ rather who had taken a First in History mattered. BYR le and the
lube. Meeting “him, one was at Cambridge, and was tempted to purges bie. WES Or" Communist
Snscious of both amiability and become a don, he yet seemed an especial DIMA Hee O There were
weakness. He did not seem adventurer with a first-class mind. contro communists, and the
political animal but resembled who would always be in the know, very feW OTT OH represent the
ne clever helpless youth in a a framer of | becmeady cand a left-wing was not disouteg.
‘Tuxley novel, an ogtsize Cherubino
ntent on amoroug experience but
oo Shy and clums: succeed. The
yadow of an august atmosphere
vty heavy on him, and he sought
efuge on the more impetuous and
‘unlike all other political parties,
future editor, at least, of “The
Times.” Though “he ‘enjoy
bout of Iuxury, he was indilferent
to appearances and even hostile
to his own, Urilike Donald. he
mancipated fringes of Bloomstuxy—concenled his sexual diffidence by
nd Chelsea. Such @ young man
fn. be set right by the devotion of
@) intelligent, older woman, and it
hs a misfortune that Donald was
o|st not quite able to inspire such
attachment; charming, clever
i_affectionate, he was still too
(Aformed. _
over-confidence.
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