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hal Burgess excuses won't do By CHAPMAN PINCHER LiKE many other Socia- list politicians, Mr. , m Driberg overestimates the gullibility of the itish public, ‘hus is clear from his new ‘book, “Guy Burgess — a i Portrait with Background,” ! tn which he tries to excuse the behaviour of the | renegade diplomat, whom he | Met recently in Moscow. ) ‘The book ‘abound: with tm- ' echable, ,cxplanati Here three : [Be quotes Burzess gs insist. i ing that neither He dro his + fellow diplomat Donald“Mlaclean { Was ever e Soviet~rernt "=, Yet Burgess adin:t; thet i Maclean was terrified when He fund out M.1.5 suspected hi | Maclean fled to exile in panic, deserting his wife w | NS expecting @ baby. DAILY E° ROWE. EUR These | WHY SCARED? Tt Maclean had not heen gif Ing information bo the Russia —as the security authority now know he had—why was Iso scared of being questioned ? *) Burgess’s account of vhe flight stretches credulity too far. We are told :-— It was by chance that Burge:s had two tickeis to France when he went to Maclean's home on the night they disappeared. Tt was by chance that he had hired a cat wiich was available to take them to the boat. It was by chance that the two diplomats hac enough foreign currency to get them to Prague. 3 Ee Seems Bate te accept *) Burgess's story that tne Russians kept both men in con- siderable luxury for six months Without making any use of them —unless it was for services already rendered. - . . ‘Mr. Driberg hopes his Fleet- street colleagues will feel some shame for what they have written about Burgess and Maclean. In my opinion there has been nothing in post-war journalism so shameful as this white washing of two men who are tyuitors by almost everybody's standards except Mr. Dribergs. “Guy Burgess—a Portrait qth Background,” Weidenffld ahd Nicolson, 12s. 6d.