◆ SpookStack

* Was rumoured that Burgess - Warrants for their arrest on _ their first By CHAPMAN PINCHER HEN Guy Bur- Ress and Donald Maclean, the Foreign Ollice traitors, staged public appearance in Mos- cow in 1956 1 was -hurriedly summoned lo see a senior official. of M.L5, the counter- espionage — organisa- tion. He told me the security authorities were extremely perturbed because they feared that the two former diplomats were about to name other Foreign Office ™Men who, though they might be innocent, would be branded as Communists and homosexuals. Would 1. the M15 man asked, tit out this danger in the Dally Express and so reduce the credibility of anything Burgess and Maclean might say before they sald it? I agreed to help and asked the official {f he had any hard evidence that elther of them had been successful aples, He told me there was no doubt about Maclean. but. after the most searching inquiries there was no evidence whatever to Incriminate Burgess, SCARE Six years later when It and Maclean might touch down at Prestwick Alrport en route to Communist Cuba, the police appiled for Oficial Secrets charges. Again I was called in by Was to scare the traltors off Begause any arrest and trial Would be most embarrassing, fe confirmed that he still had no evidence that Burgess had been any sort of Russian agent. All he could have been charged with was aiding ’ they are carefully docketed. - Russians would Maclean to escape, and it was doubtful whether this would succeed in court. I disclose these facts now, when Burgess is dead, because of the publication today of a book¥ which presents Burgess,.Macican, and Harold “Kim” Philby—the “Third Man"-—as Three Musketeers of Soviet Intelligence. ‘The authors assume that all three agreed to dedicate thelr lives to Soviet espionage when they were students and laid deliberate Nans tO penetrate the ritish Secret Intelligence Bervice. These assumptions. on which the book Is built, are not credible and are in con- fict with the way the Soviel espionage works. AGENTS No doubt the three youths, who were sold on Commun- ism, were marked down as potential agents by Soviet talent scouts who operate in every university. These talent scouts would be British Communists — pos- sibly even dons — reporting to party HQ. in London which passes on the reports to the Soviet Embassy where <r But at that early stage the be careful to keep out of the picture, leaving the task of super- vision, which may last years, to British Communists. The |: Soviet’ spymaster, who is |, ** Philby.” Deutsch, 30%. | PAGE TWO, COL. THREE| ‘DELETED COPY Sent JA, Lorne - Rte mmasatay atmusee | py Lerrer @|i3\a¥ | 2 ~ “PER FIA REQUEST (indicate page, name of newepaper, city and atate.) bandon, & ag hut oan 2/19/6 Edition: Author: Editor: . Tithe tare Id Resse VA [Pde Philby Erp -R_ or Classification: 6 977 Submitting Office: Len dere Being Investigated CYP bh NOT RECORDED 46 WAR 4 -1968 A