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Gmidretto keep, he may have been having @ difficult time, About the spring of 1956 a member of the Foreign Office staff known to the paper, who made it clear that his approach was official, asked the Editor of The Observer if he had a place for Philby. He said the Foreign Office felt it was unfair that, in spite of the full clearance of Philby’s name in 1955, he was finding it impossible to practise his profession of journalism. A cast- iron promise was given that he had no further connection with British intelli- gence and that he would not be involved in Government work of any kind while in The Observer's employ- ment. . The Economist indicated readiness to share Philby’s sorvices as a corres: pondent, having independently satisfied themselves through the Foreign Office of Philby’s bona fides and respect: ability in official eyes, The paper: shared payment of a retainer of £5 a year (which later went up to £1,000) plus expenses and payment for news and articles, sent. In The Observer's case alone, this amounted to an extra £1,000 a year. . Philby and Eleanor won a wide circle of friends and professional contacts in cosmopolitan Beirut, Though his background (and subse- quent clearance) were well known, he was on close terms with the stafls of Western embassies. In discussion of Middle East subjects he showed— so far as I can discover—no tinge of extremism. Mr. Miles Copeland. the former American diplomat, who had fre- quent political discussions with Philby, told me jin March: “If Philby was a Communist he was th best actor in the world and this was| quite unbolievable. He would have] had {0 construct a fantastic inte!- Iectual framework and stick to i