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0-19 (7-8-55) oo Qettatn’s Defectors ~~. ‘The British Foreign Office has at last acknowl- sdged that the diplomats who disappeared myste- ously more than four years ago. Donald MacLean ad Guy -Burgess,. were Communist spies. it is anly probable that they provided Soviet intelli- sence with photographic copies of the many secret yeuments to which they had access. In the case ¢ MacLean, at any rate, these documents would save been of the greatest importance, seeing that om 1944 to 1948 he was the chief administrative ‘heer at the British Embassy here in Washingion id that for some months before his flight he was a charge of the American desk at Whitehall. It is also promised that a whitepaper, contal that the British have belatedly discovered about he treacherous connections and activities of the sossrs, MacLean and Burgess will be issued later jus week. It seems clear, however, that these vamaging and somewhat disgraceful admissions by he Foreign Office were not spontaneous, but were steed by the disclosures given in Australia by sadimir Petrov, a defecting agent of the Soviet ‘IVD. Petroy testified that he had obtained the ‘stails of the MacLean-Burgess story from a Com- ade Kislytsin, one of his subordinates in the MVD sparatus in Australia, It was Kislytsin, according » Petrov, who arranged the flight of MacLean and Surgess afler the pair had reported to Moscow vat they were under investigation by the British ceurity Service, An abstract of Petrov's testimony . published in the current issue of the U.S. News «il World Report. Since MacLean and Burgess were already under aspicion at the time of their flight in May, 1951, \ is difficult to understand how they could have “ft England so easily and how they could have iaced their traces so effectively after arriving at . Malo in France by steamer from Portsmouth. ‘hitehall has explained, somewhat Iamely, that sieve Was as yet no evidence against them strong nough to have justified their arrest and that there «5 60 Jaw that prevented them from leaving the ountry—as ostensibly they did—for a weekend The evidence, however, scems to age in Paris. ndieate that, notwithstanding the suspicions they iad at last aroused, the pair were not being kept~ - ader very close surveillance. lt also indicates fiat the flight was not discovered until it was too ¢ to obtain the help of the French in heading off ue fugitives: What is even more remarkable is ne disappearance, also without Lrace, of MacLean's fe and their three children from Switzerland, a i\Ue over two years later. —— BurgessWith their intimate knowledge of British and American psychology and personalities, as well as of diplomatic secrets, haye been advising the Communists on questions of policy toward the West and that they have been responsible for the new soft-soaping line adopted by the Soviet leaders. ‘This, however, is still a matter of pure conjecture; for the present the moral of the Petrov disclosures lo Mr. Tolson Ee LGA ¢ gy Me. Boardman Pa. . Me Nichols = : Mr. Belmont far . Mr. Harbo’ Mr. Mohr Mr. Parsons Mr. Rosen Mr. Tamm Mr. Sizoo Mr. Winterrowd Tele. Room Mr. Holloman Miss Gandy RANGA whe It is now very widely believed that MacLean and to be tha to be that, though eatried the business of “security” to absurdity in this country, the British have too slowly awakene: to the possibility and the danger of treachery an subversion in their own government. Wash. Post and 7 Times Herald Wash. News Wash. Star N. Y. Herald Tribune N. Y. Mirror Daily Worker ~ The Worker New Leader Date SEP QE TE CrLETED COPY SENT CB. pera demnedel re fOlA