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ae - o 4 * er “ “iecue-ight of these concerns, something more - " should be reviewed about the two diplomats. For’. example, how did men like MacLean and Burgess - «ibring suspicion on themselves before they left * . Britain so precipitously? Shortly before they fled they were actually Instructed not to see or talk to each other after business hours. ©. 2 Both were known to their: friends as “anti: - American.”| In MacLaren’s case the. complex sems to have stemmed from frustration, He fel eg that British diplomacy was tied to what he con-, , sidered fumbling, inept American vellectual strategy * Fe elt the “public welfare ‘Is actually’ being’ con: Sore femmes f ling shi roi ans, & feeling men any ol ro “Purges “was “ants. American in a precious man-.: ner. ‘His old friends included the writers Chris- ‘topher Isherwood, W, H. Auden’ and, Stephen * Spender, All of them at one thme were detached 4 from the world and attached to only thelr own | thoughts and pursults of the moment. , They ’ thought only in terms of themselves and suffered the leck of, understanding the world supposedly “* had for them. “ “Auden, who lives in the southern Ttalian island ; of Ischia, went to school with MacLean and was. « an intimate friend of Burgess. He has said flatly 3 - about Burgess; “While he was at the Embassy in" Washington, he was STILL proCommunlst” The word “still” in Auden's remark derives «, , from pre-war days when apparently all of the ‘ litde coterie dabbled in Communist theory and .:; interests because they belleved it to be daring ° re and not out of any conviction. . “Burgess,” 2 conservative former schoolmate * ‘of his told me gtoomily, “lapped up the attention the Commies used to pour on him, He'd preen : like a cat” S MacLean brooded so much about the Inéquitles * ‘of present-day British diplomacy because of * American leadership that he blew off steam in * ' ywany curfons ways. In Catro he wrecked the = , Apartment of an American Embassy girl. That, ‘of course, got him right out of Egypt, When he / .Tegovered from @ nervous condition that followed, *: PR he took. charge of the Forelgn Office’s American ) desk, In that capacity he had an opportunity to keep abreast of developments on the political side of .* . the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Formerly he handled in Washington political questions associated with atomic energy matters. discussed ~ by the U. S., Britain and Canada. * . aS The reluctance of the British government to discuss the background of the men led -to some fantastic situations at the outset of the search.» The British police refused to provide the French” with basic facts about the diplomats although ~ = they asked the’ French to spare nothing in the , ;search, Only at American insistence” did. the ©: \ French continue, ‘Too much fs belng omitted in London on public ~ 5 review of the facts in the case, There's too great an inclination to camouflage the background and > information obtalned so far because It's supposed to be “not In the public welfare” fo talk about the 4 disappearances for the record. , . Nevertheless, the case Is belng “alscussed quite : 3 frankly In the semi-prlyscy’of offices In govern. 3 ment’ buildings and day the House. at ‘Commons: sidered, then. all the facts should be aie a .