◆ SpookStack

SVUAALISN conn oT cratic socialists should re- .antine the question of who should own what, But never under the unrealistic con- cept which Eastman seems to accept: that all property, whether in land, “Tesources, stocks, bonds, tools or consumer's goods, hae the same moral Warrant and the same impor- tance to freedom. It is, moreover, unrealistic non- sense to assume that such imperfect liberty as was given under nine teenth-century capitalism was modi- fied or destroyed by socialism or, that freedom was impaired or altered, jt Was the victim of inescapable de- velopments of our economic and technological progress under the socialistic liberalism. To the deere .. -profit system and of our organization into absolute nationalist states. Fried- rich Hayek’s freedom and Eastman’s would almost certainly have fallen before an American fascism except fox New Deal meceures_in.the Great Depression, measures largely in- spired by socialism. Equally is it true that the main defense of Western Europe against Communism has heen democratic socialism both directly end through its profound influence on conservative parties. That. sort. of Socialism has not achieved all its own goals. It has problems to face. But it has to its eredit successes in the conquest of poverty and the fulfilment of demo- cracy. If that sort of socialism is to fail, democracy will fail. For it is wholly impossible to create again anywhere in the world the social and economic conditions in which Jefler- sonian democracy was imperfectly established. Ours is a world which must plan for increasing measures of collective ownership and control in order to use its science and technol. ogy effectively, especially since its natural, resources are heing exhaust- : ed. Tt isfof the utmost importance for democratic socialism to proclaim its conviction that free men in fellow: ship can plan effectively, that such planning does not require a totali- tarian state, that--at least under 16 present conditione—it will fare b. under a mixed economy, giving scope to many of the varied incentives’ which make men work. But always nder dominant devotion to-the prin- ciple that the social and individual good of man fs no by-product of the search for indiyidual profit, but must be consciously sought in a fellow. ship of workers with hand and brain. One oF the best of the cold war's true-tife mysteries is the Case of the Missing Diplomate. It began in 1951 when Donald Duart MacLean, head of the American Department of the —~ British Foreign Office, left his manor near London one evening, was last” seen next morning in France, and then disappeared. With him dis: appeared Guy de Moncy Burgess, a, Dritish official why had sccved. in’ various diplomatic and secret posts, including the British Embassy in Washington. The mystery continued when, two years later, MacLean’s American-born wife Melinda and her three young children also dis- appeared. Tt is to Geoffrey Hoare’s credit that he has not yielded to the temptation to turn his report on ihe case into a thriller; nor has he presented con- jectures and rumors as facts. A re- sponsible and able foreign corre- spondent in the hest. British tradi- tion, he has dug up a great deal of information on the backgrounds and personalities of Mr. and Mrs. Mac- Lean, whom he had apparently <= aknown well fur several years before the disappearance. As for the dis- appearance itself, he has collected and presented all the known details” and quite a few new ones which he discovered by hard legwork and in- telligent research. He has succeeded in presenting a comprehensive, blow- by-blow account of the case as far ‘as the MacLean couple is concerned. (Unfortunately, he rather ignores MacLean’s fellow-traveler, Burgess; the psychologically and factually The Runaway Diplomats Reviewed by Norbert Muhlen Foreign correspondent; author, “The Return of Germany” lucid pamphlet by Cyril Connolly, a personal acquaintance of Burgess, would have supplied him with ma- terial to fill the gap.) Wisely, Mr. Hoare refrains from presenting any final theories Thus, he avoids the unhappy experience of the London Sunday Pictorial, which on January 9 of this year Tan a front-page story headlined: “BUR: GESS,_ MAC LEAN, ALLIS. Known,” TE so happened that on that very day, for the first time in three and a half years, Burgess’s mother in London received a mysterious message from lier son which thoroughly discredited the newspaper story. Yet, while Mr. Hoare’s report is reliable as well as fascinating in all its facts, 1 wonder if he hasn't sup- plied the raw material for a greater, more important story which he did not cover, That would be the world- wide ramifications of the MacLean case and its connection—in canse and effect, personalities and tech- niques--with several other, similar cases of disappearance that have oc- curred in recent years. First, is there only a- parallel, or rather a connection, with the Field case? Tt is a fact, which Mrs. Her- mann Field now fortunately can con- firm, that she tried to send a message to Mrs. Macl.ean in 1953, while the latter still lived in the West, warning her against approaches by Commu- nist agents: On no account should she be persuaded by them to search for or go to her husband. Second, there is-a striking paral- lel—-and possibly @ connection~—with The New Leader