◆ SpookStack

influence of powerful people. But most of their pro- tectors were. utterly un-. ainted by communism, were actuated by nothing {.more sinister than a de-) .sire to help two likeable. men who seemed to them to’ have the makings of good public servants ‘if they overcame, certain weaknesse: EWere not Com not Communists, . Thereby os showed are ives Sciotsg ¢ British Fo: ign ote ta peyehiatr & nic for lblem childs id adolt But. the; ' were threatened. This was de- | plorable. But it made it still | more difficult for the security: organizations to look at the ; dossiers of Burgesa and Mac- }- lean and say, elther In private of in the British government's f recently _ published |“ wh ite paper": ae “Yes, ‘both of them” were Communists, and therefore so-and-so and so-and-so, who helped them, must. be Com- : munists, too.” The White Paper Not Entirely Honest ‘In fact, the White Paper on. the Burgess and Maclean cas | Recalls the definition of a ne! ft pumber of holes tied tof. with words, 49 /lat! s-Memeigs a considerable ad, vance in frankness, for it tell no les. True, it is not com: pletely honest, for it says thal ‘Maclean “may have bee! warned” that “he was under Anvestigation, It Is quite cer- tain that he was so warned. But it. drops the pretense that the British government | did not know: Burgess: and. Maclean’ to be Soviet agents." ‘Otherwise, however, it’ is empty to the point of impa-; dence and far past that, °°, ° Yet there are many essential things it could not say, for official language is geared to > small a part of reality... An| ‘before one ¢ondemns "White Paper for what it cl not to say, one may consid OCT 2 'y” Burgess and Maclean’ |Jamong the most rent: Soviet agents, it isi trangest feature of their’ ny that they rose to the m-! <« preme height of their tmpore : tance when they among them the papera eon-, cerning atomle energy which’! he prepared for the combined : committee when he was head _ of the American department. Burgess, too, did what be} could, although he. was not so 7 “ favorably situated, * being™ of tar lower rank. than Maclean! But Burgess was more mo~{ bile and he hopped about Lon" don and Washington as busily. | ase bird picking up worms, + and he was clever enough, not?| to waste his time. “** 0: But their lot was to do ay i al harm. over ant ond | \ The “weefulness of Burgess} id Maclean to the Soviet} on increased when they| ‘recorded facts, which are 20 222 NEW YORK 4OURNAL AMERICAN LL 204 W5e