◆ SpookStack

ALASTAIR FORBES 0 dron Guy, won't you,” was the plaintive re quest from my host a3 I made my way tomy car, after - a party which was the first occa- sion upon which I had come aes ees Ptise his requ. more or léss in disgrace, from Washington, “Don't be. silly,” I replied, with what I thought to be quite commendable wit'for the early hours of the morning, “1 dropped’ him ages ago.” To be honest, it was boredom rather than disapproval that caused me to abandon him that night. | A good ta ordinarily tight, which, like Maclean, he ordinarily was, he became ‘a “ctasher” when’ his public. drinking followed the Muscovite pattern of his not 0 very private thinking. Sorrows and spies mjO the last time I laid eyes upon him he was doi g, an Imitation, not less vassable for being anticipatory, of Kruschev’s garrulous and convivial farewell to Tito. However, since this has -been very much.-Burgeset and Mac. Jean memoria) week and their now officially disclosed activities have successfully competed in the public prints not only with the fascinat: discove: of Telemachus’ bathroom in King Nestor’s palace at Mycense. but even with the more modest hospitality of the living hlgh- well-born im Venice. we must. return to the wanderings of these two lost black sheep and Search for the identity of the shepherds responsible for letting them go. AS we quoted at the time to B finrassed Foreign Office off- clal “When sorrows come, they come not single spies, “But'in battalions.” Tt was the fault of the Foreign Office to appear to have fled away the- Burgess . Maclean affalr under the classification “sorrows” instead of that of “spies.” In what appeared to be a spirit of civilised toleration not previously extended even to. brilliant ambassadors who had had the misfortune to be in- volved in contested divorce suits. - Whitehall cast a protective veil of secrecy over what peared to dismiss as the ex- loifs of young officials whom lollfwood psychiatrists might havel called “ two crazy mixed- up kids,” , Nol thought was given to legitimate public concern about what two crazy mixed-up kids Were doing in the Civil Service dn the first place. ‘Of course, the Foreign Office 4s ruled by the Spreasucy and in that hotbed of eccentricities Burgess and Maclean, might have passed ag almost, stufitly respectable in their orthodoxy. But as Lord John Hope and his chief, Mr. Macmillan, last week reminded us Unis was not the sort of matter to be adjudi- exted upon by permanent officials, however senior. It was a problem for Minis- terial decision and in this case the Minister was Herbert n Perhaps Mr. Macmillan and Lord John Hope bad this in mind when they sought to narrow the blame down to Ministerlal shoulders Certainly the cheekiest trick of the week has been the report that the Soclalisis, and of all Socialists, Mr. Morrison as their spokes- man. propose to demand & full- Seale “investigation into the workings of the national security asic Such_an investigation should start its work by in- yestigating ‘Mr, Morrison's part it a it lo apology (THREE days after the two A agents. knowing them- selves to be “ burat,” as the say- ing In the profession goes. suc- cessfully sought from their foreign masters tite asylum that is so rarely able to be granted to “persons in their’ predica- ment, I speculated in this space about thelr fate in as frank a manner as an indulgent lawyer would allow me, Though, in fact, the article was actionable, I feared no action. I challenged the colleagues and superiors of the two miss- ing diplomats to put their hands on their hearts and say that they had never had frounds for suspecting them of he activities of which they are now officially accused. The challenge was not taken up. But Mr. Morrison™ ques- tioned about my articie:in the Commons, went out of his way to reject tts now proven assump~ Saf) Morrison, of course, realty has been co-operating, over and above the cal of duty, with Britain's durgiing counter-espionage service, which as anzious, no doubt, to persuade Moscow 6 delay that eispsed before the Kremlin began to exploit the two men’s knowledge of Brith and American peychotory might have been thought to rave ought success to this operation. ations, and no apology trom him has ever been forthcoming. Tt was evident, I said then, that our security’ arrangements were in the hands of Watson Tather than Holmes. d that the necessary reforms had been carried out. Is ig some time since anyone was kind enough to take a look at my “dossier” but what 1 have learn: of it im the past, coupled with the odd “visit to Room No. Whatever-itig at the War Office, has not encouraged me to believe that our security officials have much clue as to how the other half ve, Even when. they happen to connect the right curriculum tite with the name on their books, Plausible charm PEW newspapers have given more space to the official revelations copeern- ing Burgess and Macleanj than the Daily Telegraph, anb the fact is greatly to the predit of that” journal's “intdgrity, For to the _ just-published Account of its history, by Lord Burnham, entitled “Peter- borough Court,” there is a miss- ing chapter, The latter might have been en- titled “Peterborough Caught," for on the eve of his discovery that ne was going to have to say y ye not only_to the en, Office but to England, Guy’ ess. working his planston wan the “old boy” and Old Btonian level had landed himself the pro: of a job as an assistant leade: writer on Britain's leading Tory newspaper, It may be sald that so long as a leader-wriler gives satisfaction it doesn’t matter a rap what his_ ‘ opinions may be, What we have to discover [s how long the security services had remained In the same state of extraordinary ‘innocence as the Editor-in-Chief of the Tele- raph or his deputy hirer and rer. For a newspaper not to understand the times il Js living jn js one thing, for a counter- espionage agent to be equally wnperceptive is another. and far more expensive and dangerous & fault Sir Winston Churchill used to make some books “must reading’ for his colleagues and subordinates, rmong them, it is said those of Schwarzctfld and Koestler, Evidently his tion list was too restriet¢d. The generals in ML6 have under SURVEYS THE WOR. OLITICAL SCENE got to grips with such studies as Aron's “Opium of the intel- lectuals.”| nor even browsed suficiently into such eye-openers fs the autobiography of the be- latedly wide-awake Stephen Spender. mney are totally un- qualified for their jobs in this day and age. ‘There are too many Peter Pans knocking around Britain and indeed the rest of Europe who cannot, or will not, grow Up OUb of | adolescence” when politics were Semple and alle fang to something catied anti. 'ascism the easy and natural thing, 7 There are too many senti- mental Liberals, as Maclean's own brother; Asho-simply cannot hai understand what leads some of their fellow men to a kind of “death with happiness” in the Communist party. ‘There are too many pronte, like Mrs, Maclean, who believe that the only people in the world who want peace are those who signed the Stoczholm peace appeal or its organisers. Russians nave been quick to exploit the energies of those whose mental development, was arrested in the Spanish Pivil ar. Maclean and Burges: re- quired spiritual and phypical intoxication as well es Boys’ Own Paper excitement : fthey got Sil three in the service of Russia. They believed and still be- lieve that, as Kruschey said again last week Communisn ts bound, under Russian direction to overcome the rest of the world, And. looking around the vorid last week, who could sav they are wrong ? Paradox unnoticed HE paradox that In the | America of ~ “ monopoly cal sm” the pro- letariat have @ control of their employment and destiny as weil as a contentment and high | standard of living undreamt of in Moscow or Peking passes unnoticed in the world. while America’s European aliies, hav- ing rejected supra-nationalism and irue brothernood—even, it seems in the sphere of counter- espionage co-operation —~ drif' into suicidal selfishness and shortsightedness that must allow them sooner or later, with al! who depend on them, to pass one by one. or even two gat a fime, under Communist dofrina- on. * Maclean may vet be haad of the Foreign Office of a spri in London, and Burgess his ficial nat ood their Koes{ler nor “spokesman, a