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ME FOR AL HE FACTS Once again down the ‘TIME FOR ALL T chilly Palladian cor- | ridors of the Foreign | Office there it two ghosts— | not Palmerston, not Edward Grey, not Curzon, but the lithe, youthful, profoundly agitated and profoundly agitating figures of _Donajd Tere must be many fa hapassed official to-day mur- mtring, “Oh! that these two phantoms would rest.” But alas they are not phantoms: MrePetrov (who, let us ruefully concede, must’ be causing his ex-side some embarrassment and worry too) has compelled the Foreign Office to admit, in ube and with every shew i extreme reluctance, a idw cts avout the vanish4¢d plomatists. RE: Valuable Maclean and Burgess| were long-term Soviet} agents, recruited in all pro- bability during their under- graduate days in Cambridge. Maclean, a permanent and j established member of the Foreign Service, rose rapidly through a series of’ respon~ sible and key posts until he was head of the American Department of the Foreign fice. Not only did he have ccess tO any number of con~ dential and secret docu~ ents; he also understood and appreciated to the full the temper and the tech~ nique of government in Britain, and he had great knowledge and experience of Anglo - American co~ operation and of N.A.T.O. © It is difficult to: imagine, from the Soviet point of view, a2 more valuable souree of information. He was unwer suspicion for a sho tinfe—a very short tim: a crucial time-—before DCKALD DUART MacLEAN, et al ESPIONAGE — R (Bufile 100-374183) HE EVENING NEWS ” Speculation | @) Burgess was never a p4r- manent Foreign Offite official; he was 3 temporary wartime recruit; but he did rise to be, for some time, private secretary to the then Minister of State, Mr, Hector McNeil. He was about to be discharged from the service, not for security reasons, and was—there is a vite of irony here-—-about to join the staff of a great London newspaper. All these facts have been widely discussed for years pa Under the compulsion of Mr, Petroy’s disclosures the Foreign Office has begun to open up about: them Tpriles It is now essential thal he opening-up process con nue, and that it be as full nd as candid as possible. Above all some explanati however painful, must be given of the failure to act swiftly and decisively when it was realised that Maclean was a security suspect. One able and very dangerous man got away; so did his Sancho Panza. hy? The Foreign Office must, strive to answer honourably and truthfully, Otherwise a torrent of speculation will continue, certal not to the country’s benefit; and the nen’s tragic, innocent an I-used families and friend: ill endure a renewed bou if cruel, needless publicity. SEPTEMBER 19, 1955 LONDON, ENGLAND Sores - way mr: SAAR VA OCT Ly ole