◆ SpookStack

more ,than_he shouig; so did @ good many other peoplé in, diplomatic circles, 1 never’ found js stamffrer obtrusive. these particular occa- sions. Like many others who knew him far better than I did, I noticed absolutely noth- ing suspicious about him, Busy had to be removed from the S.LS., but no more stringent measures were taken against him, because the case was “not proved.” This point was made in statements in the Hou8e of Commons. I was able to see for myself that, happily, close collaboration in the intelligence sphere be- tween Americans and the Brit- ish was resumed. In the twilight years that followed 1951, Philby lived, poorly, on odd bits of journal- ism or anything else that came his way. Most of his British friends remained faithful to him and helped_him,as and when they could. He con- tinued to drink and wench as much as he could afford to. The charm remained. MI5 watched him, and he watched them watching him. Clearly his Moscow masters were in touch with him and instructed him to play it quietly. He has since said that, chafing at the inaction after the days of splendor, he longed to finish it and go to Moscow. But his orders were to stay. In 1955 he got another lucky break. These happened so often in his life that we may well suppose there was some ,Communist-inspired manipula- tion behind the scenes. A Labor M.P., Marcus Lipton, stated in the House of Com- mons that he had firm evi- dence that Philby had indeed been the “third man” and he asked then Foreign Secretary Haroid Macmilian; What about it? Macmillan, after consult- ing his Fp. and $.1.S. advisers, replied fhat it was nonsense. Lipton claimed that he had his information from “a secu-_ ity source,” which suggests MIS. The question here would seem to be: Who was fooling whom? The F,0. evidently “thought; Fa ieee s C hardly fone by, So they now gave hii semiofficial h ittg in getting the Middle East cortespondent’s job on The Observer and The Economist. Centered in Beirut, he could travel widely and make useful, to him, Communist contacts all over that part of the world. Shortly after this, Sir Dick White became head of S.1.S. As head of MI5 he had had Brave suspicions of Philby’s joyaity. He decided to make the most of a bad job and gave him some small assign- ments in the hope that he would betray himself through his conduct of these oper- ations. [ became Foreign Office adviser to White later in 1956. I can confirm that Philby never tripped up. In his spare time he seduced and married the American wife of an American: journal- ist who was a close friend. His father, St. John, robust as ever in his 70's, visited Beirut and father and son had some lively parties together. How, ever, the nightclubs finally Proved too much for the old chap, and he died, uttering the memorable words: “I'm bored.” His son was shattered by his death. Vir another traitor enters the Philby story at this point. “George Blake, who had doubt- less been under Philby’s con- trol in the good old days when he was riding high, had done his diabolical work as S.LS. man and double agent in Berlin from 1954 till 1959, and he felt he deserved a rest. So did his grateful but unwitting head office in London and they sent him to M.E.C.A.S. (the Middle East Center for Arab Studies) just outside Beirut. Naturally, his equally grateful but by no means un- witting other head office, in Moscow, had no objection at all to his getting together with his fellow traitor once more. It was not for long. That same year, a contact of Blake’s came clean to our side and incriminated him. He was brought to London, where he confessed his guilt. He was sent to prison for 42 years, a cechtd sentences, 3d Insi i he was ited very well, an finn gated in a gentlemanly way. At last—it was by now 1962 —he slipped up and revealed @ piece of information (con- cerning one of the complex Operations in which they were both involved) that pointed Hdubitably at the truth about ilby. A PRrsomerfriend of Philby's owspap ck) he v Is it t possi aie