◆ SpookStack

Following is full tent of an editorial from “The Times” of london, Sept. 24, 1955, commenting on the White Paper issued by the eae Government on the spying activities of ‘Donald, Maclean. ond Guy 8 No doubt the spokesmen themselves were put up with the proper information which is usual on foreign ai Even so, it is. hard té square the suggestion a year ago th 6 Whit Poper. on Maclewn and Burgess. That is typicat of its primnéss and di fensiveness. There are not but a ‘dozen it that cal . ‘for comment, and the White Poper throws little new Mahe upon them. years after the two men fled the Cnty, ‘the White Pater might have’ been expected to give many details “hitherto unknown. It, does, Indeed, mention that Burgess had, just * before his flight, been specificall ly asked to resign from _ the Foreign Office because of ‘reckless’ and careless cond admission that Pet “of the story. An even ‘stronge -- tween the White Paj “watched on suspicion passing information’ and Lord : ing’s statement to" the [House 3] as, “provided G evens that repay was, Lords on October 28, ties satisfactorily up to the date of his disappeara The White Paper defends what it coyly calls the “retices oF Ministerial replies” on the grounds ‘that it is not dearal at any ‘moment to let the other side know how much h been discovered or’ guess at the means used to discover + While posted inthe United States. It also discloses that on May* _25, 1951, the very diy of the two men’s disappearance, the ‘Foreign Secretary ‘at that time (Mr. Morrison) agreed * Maclean should be questioned by the security authorities be of | ‘suspicions that he hi Breviously ‘passed Foreign . An excellent principle, but how does it apply in this'cs The Foreign Office needed no elaborate means to “disco that it had asked Burgess to resign or that it was’ cl "watching Maclean; and the Russfans already knew—oth they v would not have helped the two men to escape. The ecourtable reason these facts were not made known tintil now. For,the rest, the Paper does little more ‘than confirm a good Bart of the information already known through the Press, arid especially through the disclosures by \ Mr. Petrov (Vladimir Petrov, Soviet esplonage agent who ~" stead of becoming bored with the aft, the public scent @ mystery. and wondered uneasily how much was idden, ; The "White Paper does little to ‘remove doubts about ¢ ‘security authorities’ handling of the matter, It says that, on defected] in, Austratia: "There ts very little doubt that, but fort’ e knowledge that M was going to make his ~ eviile ice public, the Foreign Office and the security authori- “ties v ould not have decided to publish a White Paper “at all even yow. 7 has beets ‘almost “invariably the same. A Press report has been followed by a ‘reluctant and often tendentious admission in * the House or at the Foreign Office. Official statements were made which | are now seen to have deen misleading. - >that he became awar -.London (where suspicjons fastened“on M. 1, they took a calculated of thelr watch and made tracks’ abroad. Events.showed escape. But {t is more they dectded gravely suspecting him, they decided not. to keep atch More extraordinary still, on the very day that was given to question him, he was: allowed to ‘ was watched) on leave to Kent (where ‘was not watched). And, according to the White Papery: 263 i SNEWS & WORD heront, ©