◆ SpookStack

‘ENday Wat Burgess in Londan zn hie final warning that “the game's up.” Philby had risked a phone call from Washington to alent him? . There was an apparent discrepancy "! between Mr. Heath's statement that Philby had dived for the iast years “outside British legal jurisdiction” and Philby's recent visits to England ; Speculation was ended, though ©” paid home leave arranged with ' friends’ bewilderment not at ail dis- YS paper. This is perhaps explained pelled, when Mr, Edward Heath by the fact that M.I.5—who have announced to the Commons last week Presumably been resppnsible for ‘on July ft that (choosing his words ¢Quities into the Philby case—have cautiously) the security services were 3t no time been in touch with The “now awafe, partly as a result of an Observer. . admission by Mr. Philby himself, that | Mr. Heath was careful to say only he worked for the Soviet authorities, that “ Philby worked for the Soviet before 1946 and that in 1951 he in, authorities before 1946." There was fact warned Maclean through Burgess , nO mention of any evidence of it dur- that the security services were about’ ing his journalistic period in Beirut, to take action against him,” ¢ evidence was no more than this, ‘Mr. Heath conceded that this also and if Philby knew that this was all - meant that Philby was now known it was, would it have been enough— | to have been che Third Man. Mrs, 4,case “ partly supported by his own Philby had received letters from her @dmission "—to make a charge of trea husband purporting to come from $M Stick in a courtroom after 17 behind the Iron Curtain, 5 y . years or more? ld it have been The statement deft many “gaps proweh 1 Persuade him to. jump be- unfilled. Philby had already, 12 years pip the tron Curtain, leaving family before Gt his own story is 10 be “ie PRaby went entirely without Bones ecard MAMOE Upped Off coercion, ax a fugitive from Western clean—but inadvertenti justice, would the Russians readily een now saying that Whe tine offer hospitality? It is nog the normal, off happened in the same circum- Practice of the Soviet Union to allow stances but that it was, in fact, done foreigners acting as their agents who in purpose as one past of present Bet caught to seek refuge in Russia. inist sympathiser to another? Burecss and Maclean, were notable r i ff 2 exceptions, t ike those two, mas musgesting that OB toe NS had the latest oficial informa: tion, Phitby (or so it would appear) had litle of exclusive value to offer. Much has been made of his oppor- tunities for spying on the nearby Shemlan Academy, where members of the British Foreign Service did their ic studies. In fact, he never went — . Confession’ We have been assured’ that Philby’ “confession” was not made know]: ingly to the British, though this de not role out the possibility, and no more than that, that he was unknow- ingly, questioned by the British security services, Coerced or not, how was Philby's disappearance so efficient? One - Means of transport could have been the 7,2654on Russian motor ship Dolmatovo, which, as it happens, arrived in Beirut from Port Said on * the morning of the day Philby dis- appeared. It left for the Black Sea port of Odessa, four days’ sailing away, at 8.4§ p.m—that is, nearly three hours after Philby was last seen. It neither took on nor discharged cargo, nor loaded oil bunkers, The ship was berthed about a mile from his flat. Oc did Philby for some reason travel through Cairo after all, pos- ably with false papers? One of his early letters, his wife says, made a specific, derisive reference to a report in a Beirut newspaper which con- nected his disappearance with “the Burgess and Maclean business." This newspaper, while available in Cairo and one or two other Middle East centres, was certainly not available behind the Iron Curtain and it was not the sort of thing that anyone would bother to transmit to him there, Or, on the other hand, was this a way of drawing another red herring actoss the trail? . a) io ae i ee SE Ee : Ey tae ie Ae |