◆ SpookStack

HE MISSING Last week Mr. Connolly depicted the estly lives of Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean. Ia 1935 Maclean passed into the Foreign Office, where his reputation soon mounted, Burgess went from the B.B.C, to the Foreign Office in 1944, and was in the Far-Eastern Department in 1948. In 1944 Maclean wan posted to Warhington as act- ing First Secretary, and on his return four years later was appointed Counsellor in Cairo. But in Cuiro came a breakdown. On Noverober 6, 1950, after six months’ leave, he went back to the Foreign Office head of the American Division. O NE day towards the end of 1950 Donald Maclean invited me to luncheon this club and talked at leagth < buut the war in Korea. His ‘egument was that what aattered most in the world vas people. The Koreans were seople, but in the stage which he war had reached both sides ‘ad entirely forgotten this, and ere exploiting them for their -wn prestige. It was essential » stop the war at all costs and THE SUNDAY }IMES London, 9-24-52 a BS} IONAGE - Ro 2 . LOUDON. EXC ANERICAY FEUDS DIPLOMATS <_them a i established as peerle—yculd you do if I told you 1 was —Il ‘This was not the orthodox Come J don't know.” munist view, according to which only the North Koreans were “ people" and the South Koreans (as Burgess maintained) had really started the war. Maclean went on to suggest that all colonia! posses- sions in the Far East were morally untenable, and when I pleaded that we should be allowed to keep Hong- kong and Malaya for their dollar- earning capacities he said that that was precisely the reason why we should give them up, as only then could we prove ourselves in earnest and lay the basis of future good relattons. Back at the Foreign Office talked for a little about how he feit at being back at work and “Sir Donald” again, and he told me how fond he was of his col- [ leagues, how secure and womb-like the Foreign Office seemed, and how well he had been treated. I men- tioned that I had at one time been intended for the Dipiomstic Ser- vice and that I had always regarded it since with some of the | wisttulness which he felt for litera- ture. We left rather late and he merged on the steps into a little pin-siriped shoal of hurrying officials, who welcomed him affectionately. I One evening at the end of that winter @ [riend came round for a drink. He said that he was in a difficulty: he had been up very late with Donald the night before, and Donald had said to him, “What ! a Communist agent?” DONALD DUART MacLEAN, =T AL au / LICAn ATTACHE ‘| recalled “Well, wouldn't you report. me? “T don’t know. Who to?” “Well, Lam. Go on, report me.” His friend bad woken up with a confused feeling that something unpleasant lay before him. It was an absurd situation, for it was impossible to be sure that Donald was serious, My friend knew him 0 Well that he could not believe it was true. The whole incident seemed preposterous in the light of day. Burgess Recalled from Washington x August, 1950, Guy Burgess had been posted to the Washington Embassy as Second Secretary; he had last visited Washington in 1942, By the early spring of 1951 things were not going 50 well for him. The telegrams which be drafted were often rejected as being biased, there seemed nothing for him to do, he was not popular with his colleagues, he was drinking heavily again, and on one day, February 28. he was stopped three times for 5; ing, which led to an official com- plaint. Then he gave a lift to a young man and let him take the wheel. There was an accident, and it tumed out that the young man had no driving licence, Burgess pleaded diplomatic immunity. At about the same time an English visitor to the Embassy reported him for anti-British talk. He was from Washington as © generally unsuitable ” and arrived. home in the Queen Mary on May 4 ‘A few days later I ran into him in the street. He came up with his usual shaggy, _ snarling-playful manner and said he was just back from America. “Where were you?” “ Washington.” “What was {t like?” ” absolutely frightful” “Why?” “Because of McCarthy.” 1