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ce) ~ MACLEAN'S. HOUSE ~~ WAS TO BE. SEARCHED AS “HE VANISHED fare his, disappearance, that he was under investigation. One explanation may be that he observed that he was no jonger receiving certain types of secret papers. It is also possible that he detected that he was under observation. Or he may have been warned. . Searching Inquiries involving individual interrogations were made into this last possibility. “ 7 *"Insullicient evidence was obtain able to form a definite conclus- fon or to warrant prosecution. Macican’s absence did not be- come known to the authorities until the morning of Monday, May 28. The Foreign Office is regue Jarly open for normal business on |] Satirday mornings but ofigers can from time to time obthin leave to take a week- en He asked for week-end off Im accordance with this prac- tice Maclean appied for and obtained leave to be absent on ye morning of Saturday, May His absence therefore caused no remark until the following Monday morning when he failed to appear at the Foreign Office. * Burgess was on leave and ‘under no obligdtion to report his movements. immediately the flight was kngwn all possible action was takpn in the United Kingdom and the French and other Con- tingntal security ~ authorities werf asked to trace the where- abouts of the fugitives. a All British Consulates jn Western Eupope were alerted and special qforts were made to discover whfther the fugitives had crossed fhe French frontiers on May 26 6r 27. As a result of these and other Inquiries it was established that Maclean and Burgess together Jeft Tatefield by car for South- ampion In the late evening of Friday, May 25, arrived at Southampton — at midnight, caught the S 8 Falaise for 5t. Malo and disembarked at that port at 11.45 the following morn~ ing, leaving suitcases and some of their clothing on board. They were not seen on the train from St. Malo to Paris and {t has been reported that two men, believed to be Maclean and Burgess. took @ taxi to Rennes and there got the 1.18 p.m, train to Paris. Nothing more Was seen. of them. Since the disappearance val jous communications have been received from them by members of their families. ‘Two telegrams sent from Paris to Maclean's mother, Lady Maclean, and his wife, Mrs. Melinda Maclean, had evidently been written by a foreigner ac- cording to the handwriting and spelling. But one was signed with a nickname known only in_ the family circle. Security officers were unable to trace who handed them In. A telegram was also received by. Burgess’s mother, Mrs, Bas- sett, in London. It had been handed jn at Rome and was also in a {greign hand. According ko information given to the Fordgn Office in confi- dence by ‘s. Dunbar, Mac-°.. Jean's mothpr-in-law, who was then uving ‘with her daughter ieee one nan © at Tatafield, she recelved on August 3, 1951, two regiatqred letlers posted in &t. Gi Bwitzerland, on August 1. One contained a draft on. don, for the sum of £1,000, 2 ‘The other, a draft payable to Mrs, Dunbar for the same sum, drawn by the Union Bank of Switzerland on the Midland Bank. 122, London, Both drafts were stated to have been remitted by order of a Mr. Robert Becker, whose address was given as the Hotel Central, Zurich. Exhaustive inguitics in col- Jaboration with the Swiss authoritics have not led to the identification of Mr. Becker, and it is probable that the name given was false. Mrs. Maclean and Lady Mac- teary Jater received letters in Maclean's handwriting, both posted in England. ‘Mrs, Bassett, also got @ letter from Burgess posted in South- East London. Last message was another Jelter from Burgess his mother delivered in Londap on Christmas Day last year[and posted in Poplar. Her car found at garage On September 22, 1953, Mrs.” Maclean, who was living in Geneva, left there by car with her three children. She told her mother, Mfs. Dunbar, that she would re- turn to Geneva on September 13, in time for the two elder children to attend school the next day. By September 14. her mother, alarmed at her failure to, re- turn, reported the matter to Her Majesty's Consul- General} in Geneva and also by telephpne ta London, Security officers were at once dispatched to Geneva where they placed themselves st the disposal of the Swiss police who were already making intensive enquiries. On the afternoon of Septem- ber 16 Mrs. Maclean's Car was found in a garage in Lausanne. - On the same day Mrs, Dunbar got a telegram from her saying she had been delayed. It had been handed in et Territet, near Montreux, by & woman whose description did not fit Mrs. Maclean, Again it was in @ foreign hand. From information — subse- quently received from witnesses © in Switzerland and Austria It seems clear that the arrpnye- ments for Mrs. Maclean’s/ de- °. parture from Geneva ha carefully planned, and thgt she . proceeded by train from fLaus. anne on the evening of Septem. *- pee! wet FEE eS owner eae