◆ SpookStack

E NIGHT |MACLE DRANK A! BOTTLE OF MY WHISKY Frop@RALPH IZZARD : Nicosia, Tuesday. JS Donald Maclean a guiding hand in Russia's inter- vention in Middle East affairs ? As an unsuspecting ibiend of Maclean when he was at the British Embassy iro, I should say this maly well be so. | | L arrived in Cairo in January '1p50, armed with a letter from j Washington friends introduc- ing me to “the young, charm. ing and intelligent head of Chancery at the British Embassy.” As head of Chancery, Maclean knew all the secrets of the British Mission in Egypt. He would also have examined at leisure copies of all “top secre” documents passing between tHe Foreign Office and our ambassq- dors in the Middle East. He of jously studied them closely, A whole bottle I remember that he arrived un- efpectedly at my Cairo flat one night, settled into a chair, and proceeded to give a masterly analysis of the entire Middle East position. going on into the early hours of the morning. « He betrayed no secrets, He gave me what Journalists call a “background briefing.” As such, it was first-class. And while he talked he drank almost an entire bottle of whisky. After I had poured two drinks each for us from a full bottle, he suggested I leave:the bottle at his elbow, “to save you leaving your chair” It was the last timt TI saw him.| His spectacular breakdown oc-! curred two weeks later. Only once during that last lo} fc Inversation did he appear at gil ppt out. [That was when I asked_hi afout_the strength of the Bay - tin Communist’ Party. Startled fe seemed briefiy startled, Hut | Tegovered rapidly and muttere| “Ho comment.” I Rave often wondered whetht: he then suspected I knew more} about his background than, of course, T did. The’ Russians odvionsiy have their own advisers on Middle East affairs, But a man like Maclean, who erbly ‘assess British or ‘an reaction to any possible Kremlin move, must be invaiuable to them, . Russia may not wish danger- ously to defeat British and Ameri- ‘ean poticy in the Middie East, and thus risk an all-out war. But she may wish to expand her influence in that area till it matches that of the Western Powers. thus achieving another territor:al stalemate. |. And this, if I judge his chayac- vter feorrectly, is exactly at .Donpid Maciean would like to fee. ritain denie Maclean letter A. FOREIGN OFFICE statement 4X. yesterday denied an American newspaper report that a letter had been found in the British Embassy library in Cairo addressed to Don- ald Maclean, written in May 1930, and containing coded messages, “No letter addressed to Donald Maclean has heen found.” said ‘the Foreign Office. “A lelier was ound. Gated Jure 7 1951, writ- ten from an address in the U.S. to a third person, clearly not Macican.” "The New York Heraid-Tribune saig yesterday that the alleged {et- ter] suggested that Donald M| leah was receiving secret Am cay documents from a contact in thq U.S. Embassy in Cairo.