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This, you can have no doutt, i the ‘real world which pi ced what may be called rgcss-Maclean situation. 1 do not think that Mr. Dri- berg has told quite the entire story—not, at least, so far as Maclean is concerned—but the | fact -is irrevelant to all except lose who are shouting about ying to “get the dirt” veryone. What he brilliantly does to present. Guy Burg against that background of Eng- Jt is a remarkable, even Not at all. Thi und-hy- tremendous, achievement. T: Oh ac hate 7 rqund account of what-—as Gty mendous I’mean~speaking Ms Blrpess soes it—really happen one newspaperman to another— jslail there. There for the firtt in that in this brief story Mr. time, Driberg succeeds not only in evoking the significant flavour of the "thirties and ‘forties and: early “fifties, but also in pro; off-the-cuff opinion—that in a ducing some “news points natural and about what really happened at giseust at the way the British the first time depicted for all to view and ponder upon. a THINK myself — and ~ this is just one man’s policies of the British Govern- Mir priberg leang over back. ment were making the German- wards in the other direction. Sovict Pact inevitable. . I don’t, for instance, agree He points out, with a studied with—although I think he makes casualness which underlines the. 4 very good and hard-to-argue- ensational character of his with case—his view that homo- paterial, that most of it— the sexuality was an entirely irreve- aterial, that is, on the political Jant factor. lish life which, by a tragi- faikical process that is nearly Shikespearian in its blend of the noble and the absurd, is therefore totally convincing as a picture of a background, even when you have made allowance for the fact that some questions are still unanswered. That is the essential value of what, if we may wheel on a cliché, can truly be called “a document of our times.” ME Driberg has the ability to let the times speak for themselves, I my- self, for instance, do not agree wilh his theses and interpretations, but one of the reasons why this book is going toybe “must reading” for any- ont interested in the politics and--people of our age is that the}uthentic background of the Burgess-Maclean situation is for ‘pattern of the cold war, tation in 1939—has becn phib- “By which I emphatically do Ushed before, in the form of nor mean—as the press tried to official translations of captured suggest at the time—that it was German archives, but whos g decisive factor, The things scarcely noticed at the time of that Burgess saw as he looked publication because it did not at British life from Eton to fit in very well to the overall Bevin to Eden were in them- 1 selves quite enough to produce aE iave insisted—perhaps over the situation which finally sent insisted —on the background him to Moscow. painting which Mr, Driberg think that homosexuality played does, partly because he docs it a bigger—and more relevant— admirably, | partly because he role than Mr. Driberg allows it, himself makes clear that no one But, after all criticism has can begin to understand the been made, what we have here Gnal, rip-roaring | cops - and- is an indispensable contribution robbers climax of the Burgess-, to the history of our times. And Maclean story without studying hatever else you may 1 that background. . ut our times, you cangot But it would be unfair to uhtess you are half-palsied, day Mr. Driberg to give the impres- tat they are interesting, sion—if I have given any such —* impression-—that this is all back- ground, without the “ hot nevg ” about the actual escape of Bhir- gess and Maclean which evety- one is naturally longing to hepr. But I still...