◆ SpookStack

the cardinal principles of espionage. Many of my best*friends: were spies “;——-but spigg, in their, own countries’ / interest. He oe . “y) While he . public’ at large was “stunned by the news, the authorities were clamming up, But portentous : questions remained, Could this highly respected member of MIG really have been a Communist agent at the same time? If so, for how long? What ‘ 2 about security? How did he get away.- with it in 1951, when the C.LA. and - he F.B.I, as well as his own service were hot on his trail? Finally, what inspired a cultivated member’ of the - British upper classes'to do this bru- tally disruptive thing? It all made James Bond look like a milksop and his exploits like small beer. » 2° As with a)! of us, Kim's parents and" upbringing provide some clues. ". His father, St. John Philby, a scholar 12 Of a top British school, Westminster, “. and of Cambridge University, as Kin - was also, began life as a conventional ‘member of the Indian -Civil Service. Kim was born in India in 1912. But St. John became decidedly eccentric as time went on, When I first met him in Cairo in 1946 he had become the personal adviser of King Ibn Saud . and a Moslem. He had been briefly interned in Britain during the war on grounds of doubtful loyalty, and lived” by preference in Saudi Arabia. His :,MOrmal-looking English wife told me’, that she was quite happy,to put on the veil*asid live in the harem. I heard old St. John tell his son that he must always carry through to the bitter end whatever he thought right, Kim has certainly done that, and sur- passed his father in _Dutrapeousness into the bargain, . T WAS at Cambridge in the early thirties with Philby. Maclean and Burgess—-what a mob!—though I met them only when I was a diplomat in. later years and then only casually. Looking back, [ can see, with an’ effort, how the atmosphere at: the university coyld lead to pro-Commu- nism among_gpme intellectyals.. Brit- - ish_society.tlign was = stuffy and eon: . time. Aan _ Tushed off to cover the Ci . War in Spain, but with a dif- servative. The ruling Tory party was both pompous and ineffectdal;“tne” Labor party just plain ineffectual. Hitler had appeared and no one was doing anything about him. War was on the way and only the Communists seemed really interested in averting it. Congequently, a good few. intel- lectuals turned to the extreme left, without, of coprse, troubling to see how far real conditions in the Soviet Union justified their idealistic hopes. Few turned toward the United States “. because, again out of ignorance, they tended to consider it remote from European affairs, brash and over-rich. Most of these men, having “gone Communist’? in greater or lesser degree, had the good sense to turn away again, but not Philby. He be- came not merely a Communist but, a carefully controlled Communist in- | telligence agent in 1933, while still ~ Thus, from the age of; at Cambridge. 21, his life was wholly dedicated to two things: passing on to his Moscow masters as much valuable information as possible about Britain and the United States, and decéiving his friends and colleagues in doing so. it is difficult to say which gave him, more pleasure, In other words, for 30 long years, Philby lived a lie every riomeni™ OF the day“and night. He mar.” ried four wives; he produced ..-. five children; he had plenty of ' mistresses; ‘he drank like a fish, He was handsome, soci- ally easy, The only outward, sign of strain was a stam- mer, which varied in intensity * and which some girls found; attractive. In all this career* of duplicity, he slipped only ; three times, and in different ~ ways he got away with it each : 12 Pusys first assignment. after Cambridge was, typical-; ly, to appear to be a pro-Nazi. : He went into journalism and,’ like many British enthusiasts, | ference from most ot his'* DONALD MACLEAN —+}1, Be ad He, Burgess end Philby were all together at Cambridge in the garly thirties before going to work for Moscow—in the British Government.