◆ SpookStack

~ee his own countrymen to a foregn tyrant. Nevertheless, it has @ cqn- tribution to make to the his! and atmosphere of our own hark, I repeat, was singularly i}-timed, = For only a few ecks later, Kruschev, by eans of the piled dead in the streets of Budapest, was demon- rating that perhaps the work- . furating that perhaps the Work: times, "hat is, why It was Oe nie than the Tory Party of Setialised in this newspaper. The opinions expressed, by Burgess and Driberg alike, are an essential part of the book. That is why they appeared in our columns, The Daily Mail asks nobody to accept these opincons. It certainly does not do so itself. Britain. I feel these preliminary re- marks to necessary | in gpproaching this work by Mr. riberg s0 that we may assess it at its true political value. Tis subject is an unreliable abd discredited diplomat who h}s done his country it] service. Ith author is one who does not mm to denigrate a section of way, let_us admire the skill with which the characters with whor he is dealing. He tries to make them normal ‘and typical of young Britain. ‘Their ‘story, he says, ‘illustrates “the plight of a whole generation caught in ‘the confusions and contradictions of mid- ntury Britain.” It does nothing of the sort. Tj a whole generation had re- sponded in the same way as this ecious pair there would have en no mid-century Britain, Oniy an enslaved and dis solute nation, When Mr. Driberg quotes Bur- ess as saying that Maclean was as rigid, austere, and uncom- promising as John Knox" the reader can only give ® great horse laugh. ‘The Cairo break- down” (of Maclean) “was the sort of thing that could have happened r It was not, It could not have. happened to John Knox. Nor _ to anyone with an ounce of self control and self-respect. ' Floating : 4 HAT was Burgess anyway but one of those people who are always floating in and out af ill-defined work-—s-netimes @ little on the shady side ? He avas various times a, gocbetween, contact man, @ “Jlaison off- r,” “a political adviser "' be- shes being employed on news- pppers at the B.B.C. eee er ee Having thus far cleared the ~ to anyone who had been overworking,” says Driberg. . tha ceamonie “he base ‘BUCKETS OF WHITEWASH FOR REDS..’ He was a sort of political odd- job man with a toe in the door- away of great events, Eventually he obtained a poct in the Foreign Office—and failed to keep it. Breach . E was untrustwortlly. At one point, jin his career he was carrying levters from the Frergch Prime Minister, Daladler, to tae British Prime Minister, Cham- berlain. This method was em- ployed to ensure secrecy. Yet he regularly took’ these letters to a man in a London flat, where photostatic copies were taken before they resumed their Journey. He “ suppressed ” one because he did not agree with its contents. We are left to assume that Burgess was in contact with the Secret Service in the matter, though this is not stated. What- ever it was, the author records these episodes with no word, of disapproval ; rather, in factfas though they were an achiqve- ment. But most people will fee in such @ breach of high taist something despicable and ~ honourable.