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caesar yoy HE Government is confronted yf © two separate issues in debatiag ; je disappearance of, Burgess apd } Maclean, * We hope it will not, in tts embarrassment, allow them to be-‘ come confused. One issue concerns | the staffing of the Foreign Office; the | Other conceras the state of our We have a right to know why meat} of unstable character were allowed ! to hold responsible posts in the | Foreign Office. There sbould be no ‘ sectecy about how their appoi ments were made or why their mis- | demeanours did not lead them into, trouble earlier.s The Foreign Office should not be shy’of admitting that‘ wgiied to deal humanely with Méclean’s breakdown, or unwilling tofconfess why. it accepted -iato its. mist 2 brilliant but erratic outsider! recommended by a junior Labour, Minister. The precise nature of the’: Foreign Office's mistakes should be | fully and openly disclosed, so that » the House may judge whether every-._ thing possible has been done to make | {@ repetition of such mistakes un- likely. ° we . . . :, To detect that these men were , foreign agents was not the task of , the Foreign Office but of our counter- ! espionage service. The inefficiency “of this service, and the apparent * } possibility that it was penetrated by : Sofiet sympathisers or agents, is a* sepprate issue. We have an ma , nter-espios right to ‘demand evidence that sevare, thorough and disinterest: davestigation of M.L5 is being mac — at | dapstic reform when Fuchs virtually yegve himself up, as we argued at tgne."! But Parliament bas no rig! ‘to expect this inquiry to be made ih “public. That would defeat the ends of security: we must be content if a ‘sufficiently high-powered reformatory i commission is appointed. ~ i fe was clear that this service needgd Character Assassination ~ MEANWHILE, the parliamentary , debating of these issues has been | opened with an example of Mc- Cartbyism which shows how little the ' dangers of this political vice have yet been understood. ‘Colonel Marcus | Lipton, M.P., using the privilege that » \ allows Members to say what they like © in the House without risk of a libel action, named Mr. Harold Philbf, fgrmerly First Secretary at the Britis} bassy in Washington, as a maj 10 had, he believed, carried of *“tubious third-man activities.” “Mr, Philby may or may not be guilty of this grave charge. Whether @ is, can be established only by some form of official or judicial in- quiry.” If Colonel Lipton had merely: ;d¢emanded such an inquiry so that be could offer evidence against @ person” unnamed, he would bave performed a valuable public service, The Gov- ernment could hardly have refused to hear his evidence, o } Instead. Colonel’ Lipton went on to use the method of public allega- tion in @ privileged place, where bis” victim has no right of reply. That is the essence of McCarthyism. Its danger is not that the charges ate ecessarily untrue in every case, 4 Ss that it wantonly damages reputatior id spreads fear because the chargés made in a manner which evad ihe safeguards of judicial procedure. ’