◆ SpookStack

The” pleture of" Phitby's d survival given “in Insight's | report is a shocking one. On four separate occasions he got away with the benefit of the doubt: on the last he simply ot away. The reasons are two- old. One was that he had Proved himself, to the Ameri- cans as well as the British, a very high-class operater who was also a charming fellow, “one af us.” The other was even more serious: the poli- liciuns’ reluctance to deal with @ very unsavoury ques- tion on fts merits, Any asscssinent of possible reforms must begin with what hes already been done, While Poilby and ‘his“friends “were doubfe-crossing us, we were pulling in good numbers of high-grade defectors from the other side. One could name at least fifteen in the past two decades who have entered with equal zest into the double game and given rey, McDermott). Fournier Foreign’ Office Adviser to the Secret Intelli- “soatsegence Service... i IS PIULBY really all that huportant? Eo his activities, past, present ani uture, ti . Feeney travtbed. souk | ooos to Sir Dick White: by tas satching by the authorities? the best head of ST'S we ‘have Delly syndrome warping the Oot te ne na Teed Ge Judgment of serious. people? ernicious’ rivalry between For a start, it is worth These two services ' and, recording the opinion of those equally important, got rela: inside the datelligence world, tions with the CLA back on I have been able to do this. 2 Hood footing, . There, is no doubt in the v He has also improved SIS minds’ of the Secret. In- Practice in security and re- telligence Service. Up to 1951 cruitment. Socially the service Philby had solid hopes of Is now considerably more [. becoming head of that organi- heterogeneous than ‘the. sation: and, as they later di: Foreign Office. They also treat covered, he Was ing Mux ecurity against enemy penc- imum damage in those same Tan NEDY SCrlOUSY. ion years. Equally the KGB (the ay OW hossian Vatcltigence service) about the top SIS echelons risked keeping him in the is that they are too. gentle. West fora dozen years after manly ‘in’: a deadly game, he came under stspicion as where that is a pothole i rf, b se of disadvantage. Nevertheless, the ahird Man, because fo think that the great vaiue of them, . . Insight’s report is the gues- His use was not merely in von at raises about SIS's the provision of disconnected onaical and public accounta- detal, By luck and Judgment, Giitys? 1 Selieve thet the iils master spy and arch traitor was able to supply Moscow not only with S1S's daployment in the field, but with information on the state of their intelligence on Com. yaunist affairs, Unlike George | Blake, he was able, in fact, to influence , both British and Sovi ~ present dispersal of power etween..the Foreign Office and the Prime Minister ex- poses SIS toa dangerous degree of autonomy. To my mind there is a strong case for.a new body, ‘quite outside Whitehall and’ Westminster, to subject the service to 3 regular inspection and, if necessary, overhaul.’ a 7% ya : but no ong. seems‘to pay” more and’ more into’ use the Government machi 1e, and in the United States'thes are co-opted into the White House itself to advie on Secret matters of global policy. A group here cancisi- tits of, for instance, a sul high: powered - business, Scientist, . journalist, - don, dge, and worten might well produce a valuable ine: in public confidenc he Philby phantasmagoria, which scems Incredibla even though it: is trué, ‘shows that we need them, We can dis- miss the tired joke that we have no secrets worth ‘the keeping. : The KCB do hot scem to think so. The day we can relax will be the day the last KGB agent gtts the train for Moscow. There: is no sign ‘of a slackening of KGB activity in Britain; quite the contrary. We can be certain that hidden in the recesses of the Western body Politic there are other as tial Philbys. And in his KGB ofice Kim is hard at work right now on the best method to recruit and exploit them. aay attention wo Its reports! Trug outsiders gre‘alresdy coming i 4 are es