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Thesé are not steps a man tages hghtly and itis clear that fo} many months before. tt: figs! decision Donald Maclvsy }iged in such a terrifying agony! dG indecision and guilt that bi! héalth was affected, He was of the Wi-starred sentrations whe grew to maturity eiween the two world wars, and whose unpressionable years wert fived beneath the” appalling shadow of Fascism. ? Waiched ? In his latter years at Cam- pridge, in company with many hundreds of other Liberat-minded young intellectuals, he became a! Communist, because Communisin wax syngnymous with ant Fascia; to defeat Mitler be rallied to Stalin, I suggest the Russian* Intell} gence Service kept a close wali on the careers of many of the fdgmer university Communists. nthe middle fonties the Savigt Uhion was concerned above wt wBh atanic information, but what might be termed a by- product of cur possession of the atomic bomb, out atomic poticy, was a high priority. And that made members of the diptam service valuable to the Russians and likely to be approached if there was just a bint that they were approachable, : Was Donald Maclean 80 ap.’ proached? I do not think any- one knows. It seems impossible from the appointments he beld before his tight that the Butho- rites had any suspicions of bir, But there are two inescapable facts, : ‘The Orst ta that he did dis. appear and official opinian is that he is behind the Iran Curtain, Mr. Selwyn Lloyd, Minister of State for Fowfign Aftaics, said tn reply to a gestion on January? 24, 1954, thai f' if anyone were to presume thafl Maclean and Bur~ sexe are behind the Iron Curtain, would probably be right” he xecond is the £21 nald sent io Melinda through Mia Dunbar. Donald left Ms at Tatafteld on May 25, §3¢ & Up ae ever and leavirte: debte behind him: the money was went by Swiss banks on Aifgust Iman Interval of 67 days, te Which should be deducted th time it took Donald to get {rpm Tatsheld to wherever he wnt, and also the time it took fot the arrangements to be made to send a meskenger to Swilzer+ jand te dispatch the money. Neither need be jong. but together. they probably cut the aciuat time in which, in some quile inconceivable conditions, Donald might have earned thet sum if addition to whatever it cost him te five, te around 60 davs, Was that possible? Ix it feasible? Obviously not ‘There remain two possibilities: firstly, that he was paid ta ad+ vanee for services {0 be ‘ rendered: secondly, that be was , being aid tor past services. Which Js the more likely 7 e combination of these two facfs—that Donald deserted | to Rulsia and that ina remarkably shdfl time was in a pasition not ont to send Melinds 3 large sum bt maney, but also to obtain per mission and assistance from his few masiers to do so~points in fone direction, and one only: that Bonalg wes approached by Russian agents and did work for them. probabiy long before be fled, Exploited Donate pitifully vi able, {Tle must have appeared a5 jdeal man te be approached by the ruthless ageats of 6 country ready to tuke advanisge of any human wenkress or any smis- placed identinm. - iow mauciy do the British authe- rilies really know of the dis: Bryearance of these two men % fathis statement to the House of Cénmons on June 3. 195i, sebenieen days afler Burgess and Jean disappeared, Mr. Herbert igon said < “The security aspects of the el OR arises . AOR ease are under investigation and it jg not in the pubbe interest to disclose them.” That waa three years ago, and with prectically ne variation it has Geen the line taken by Foreign Offce apokesmen ever wince, Bui with Melinda we enter the realm of pure emotion in which reason plays little part, When she drove off from Geneva with her three small ghildren on that sultry Septem- ber afternoon exactly ® Year age she was, knowingly and of her own free will, going inte exile, Persuaded She was going to join # buss pand who had deserted her, with whom she bad bern nearly cone tinususly unhappy in, their thirteen genre of married life, and she was doing tis although she had decided to divorce him and try to remake her shattered life, Abd she was goisg in the full joowledae of the grievous hurt her. acon would eause her mother, ber family and her isiends. Why did she go? Obviously Melinda was son~ tacted by agents speaking in Donaid’s. name tor several menths before she eventually went They were probably men and women of her own class and eiiter of her or Donald's nation ality And lever, Donald was ney were supremely They. prodably leld her “fighting for peace Shetging io build = new and “better, world." They certainly played om Ker maternal instincts and gave her @ glowing pitture ‘of the splendid future the child- ren would have in the Soviet Union. Donald's excellent pasition, his fine house. comfortable ving gongitions. would be stressed. None of this would have taken Jaa woman who ad kept her- seit. well-intormed on worl affairs: but Melinda had bees supremely disinterested. Yet beneath all this there must nave been somy kind of affection for Donald he whole thing 35 meaningiess, [impossible une believable wifhout Wat, For Malinda was faot logical; she was guided bb her emotions — ang this final decision mugt have t . t been taken in ‘emotion nd} agony. She must have lived in/ the bottomless pit of helt in fhe: weeks, possibly months, beipre she Snaily Sed to join hee ma. She must have Koown the sor- row and worry her going would cause her mother: the pitifss. thin litte letter she was allowed to send showed that. But against the lingering ashes} ot ner love for Donald. against the sparkling Mirage of life to! which she was being drawn, sone of this mattered. He had cailed her back ts him-—~and so she went. ‘She was, in a way, justifying her-) welt {o the world—and ( hersely.; She was no longer ‘deserted. not Jonger unwanied: that was 5/ salve ta cher-hurt pride * amd 2! pratification ef her love and ber desire. Where are they tow, Donald. Melinda and the three children 7 T believe from reliable inforra-[ tion I have obtained, not fram! British sources, that Donald i ‘one of the chiete of the Sofict Government's Paycbological 6 fare Department, He is living a sort of satellite city somes 60 miles from Moscow which ©. Bull’ solely fo house the m: variqus foreigners working the Russian Government if ths particular Aeld. { Guarded It te & gross between a tom ound and a prison: the innate ave excellent living conditia Sarge, comfortable hour: gardens, shops, clubs, school but ne freedom of movemen® There are guards all around ostensibly to protect the great radia transmitters. but also te sec that ne ene leaves without per- mission. On the rare occasions any of the foreigners have tp se to Moscow or sisewhere in Russia armed guards accompany them, it is there, in Gis town. Ww ne name, nat Melinda and children joined Donald, She w Almost certainty told that yf sh did not hike the life therp she would d¢ free to leave, takige Scr children with ber. Will the aviet Keep that promise? Ht Bens highly. unlikely. THE END [World copyright] i 1