◆ SpookStack

This is the introduction specially on by John te Carré tor Philby: The Spy who Betrayed a Generatic ‘Y Bruce Page, David Leitch, as Fhe nemy within: Phillip Knightley, a 312-page examination of the whole intriguing story. Publishée tomorrow by yw Deutsch at 30s., it is the Book Society Choice for March, in Britain, and Book of the Month Club choice in the United States the son of a British Raj; the citadel was dedicated to the preservation of British power; both had been displaced by the evanescence of the Empire. The svea- the Levantine and the amoral loyalty of Kipling’ chowen boy: yet be was ‘still one of them, at war with his own shadow. The avenger would destroy the past; the citadel would preserve it. Yer it was » past they had in common. In the unequal duc! berween Kim Philby and the British Secret Service, a pew dimension is added to the rela- tionship between the privileged Englishman and the institution which be collectively comprises. Let anyone who derides the notion of the Estab- Hishment read this book. 1 sit back now, the manuscript put sway, and reach for the spt phrases of outrage. But none of us is yet equal fo the dimensions of this scandaf Like 4 great novel, and an unfinithed one at that, the story of Kim Philby lives on jin us: it conveys not merely a sense of Participation but of authorship. Sul, lintening to our own judgments we can discern in ourselves the social artirudes and opinions which account as much for Philby’s survival as for his dever- mination to destroy us. Hardly s tcar was sbed for George Blake : Blake was haf a foreigner and ha¥ & Jew. Vessall was an upsiart; Burgess and Philby, ap aggreasive, upper-class enemy, was of our blood and hunted with our pack; to the very end, be expected and received the indulgence owing to his moderation, good breed- ing and boyish, flirtatious charm. In ‘our very notice of the “Thirties Spies’ there is an implicit confession of weak- Thirties’ were the last lot to care; as if we were so fer past the peak of our ational and emotional energy that neither the grouse-moor complacency of Macmillan not the Pygmy grandeur of Wilson could stir us into becoming enemics of our own political incom- Petence. I am uncomfortably con- scious, incidentally, of the ‘we’: Philby's in one of those cascs which force us to define our own place in society. J suppose by ‘we’ I mean the world to which I myself vaguely j belong : middie class, graduate, inel- Jectual. Philby’s world, but indoors. ‘This book is massively incomplete, as the authors are the first to edmit. ‘We abould never forge: the gaps. In this most Marrian of novels, where thesis and antithesis are endemic to Alike, it is arguable that even the prin- lives of Burgess, Maclean and Philby we discern his hand, his influence, his shadow: never once do we set his face or consciously bear his name. He is the Soviet recruiter. For these men were recruited. By whom? Between the ages of 19 and 21, it seems, these children of Cambridge were recog- nised, courted and consciously seduced into a lifetime of deceit. By whom? As they grew to manhood, and the youthful dream of an adventurous crusade gave way to the tedium and fears of criminal betrayal, who sus- tained them in their faith? Who ser- viced them, paid them? Who trained, welfared, consoled and commanded them? Who kept them in play and taught them the clandestine arts? Whom did Philby mect and when? ‘What were the methods of com- tounicatjon? Was. Philby » photo- graphers' refio opera id be yely ge the Pelmanism Mf namesake? Did Philby io tum recruit others? Did be run them? This was his secret fife; it is a secret etill, The street j comer, the hurried handover in the cab, the timed dialogue from kiosk to kiosk; those were the moments when the bunter was hunted, and we know nothing of them st ell. When & boy of 20 gives himself body and mind wm e country he bas ever visited, tw an ideology be has not deeply studied, to a régime which even abroad, during those Jong and wwful purges, was a peril to serve; when be remains actively faithful w that decision for over 30 years, cheat- ‘ing, betraying and occasionally killing, surely we must speculate on the nature ‘of his master; no novitiate can lest indefinitely witbout a confessing fether. He understood us better than we understood ourselves: was he our countryman? He recruited only gentlemen: was be himself a gente- man? He recruited only from Cam- ‘bridge: was be a Cambridge man? AD three recruits would travel far on the reputations of their families alone: was be too » man of social imBucnce? Todsy, if be exists, he may be walking the streets of London; vary probably cipal character ia still missing. In the, be did nothing which st that time was whoever he was? Or are there, mong the surviving contemporaries of Bur- gets, Maclean and Philby, men whom be unsuccessfully approsched? This is but one of oumberless questions provoked by this brilliant but neces- sarily incomplete sccoumt of the Philby story. Philby may wish to enlighten us but probably never wil: the Russian apparstus of bureaucratic sanction is even more lugubrious than our own: and though be is avid for praise, be is not yet ready to redefect. T do not much believe in the poli- tical motive of Kim Philby; but 1 am sure that the British Secret Service kept it alive as po other environment could have done. The British Intelligence world described here is spolitical. Once entered, it provides oo further opportunity for spiritual development. ‘The door that clanged behind the new entrant protected him es much from Aimself as from reality. Philby, oace employed, met spies, technique; be had said goodbye to controverry. Such political opinions as sustained him were the opinions of his childhood. The cleaner sir of the outside world would have blown them uway in 9 year. Instead, be took into thy soundless’ shrine of th secret wo, the huff formed jarggn val his inteliécrual “betters, the brutal memories of ‘his father, Vienna and Spain; and from there on, simply ceased to develop. He was left with a handful of clichés whose application had ceased in 1931. Similarly, the posturing chauvinism of his superiors would long have passed for idiotic in the outside world; in the secret world it passed for real. Thus, in the same secret place, under the same secret wun, the anachroaisms of his quarry were sheltered from the changing froms of reality. Citadel and avenger, ‘both unnaturally protected, were fight- ‘ing out the battles of the thirties, For this reason, the early life of Kim Philby is doubly important: all Kim's life wes early. upbcity for Kim Philby was something of a family tradition. However Philby reacted to his coninently distaste- ful father, whether be wished 20 destroy ‘or outshine him, of merely to follow ip his footsteps, be could hardly fail, in the outposts where they lived, eo inherit many of his characteristics. A litle king in bis desert palaces, St John F, Philby did not hide from Kim his con- tempt for bis superion ia London; the loyalties be preached were at best dynastic; st worm they constinned a doctrine of militant arrogance. St John himself waa s men of unrecon- led and wilful parsdor, be wes an the man who brought Cadillacs to the sbeiks. Now and then, operating the reverse market, he sald off oi] conces- sions to the Americans. From bis father, Kim acquired the weo-Fascist instincts of a slightly berserk English gentleman; from bis fatber, the Establishment’s easy trick dressing them in the clothes of a higher cause; from his fatber the car- tographer’s memory; far he no more forgot a word or a gesture than another man forgot tbe way bome; from his father the scholar’s perception which enabled him to keep track of his own complicated treachery. And he could hardly fail, when his father delivered him over to the Establishment for his education, to-fee! already thet be was ‘being trained in the epeaay camp. Like Kipling’s boy, one feels, be was already waiting for the cal]: “1 was intrigue, of course ~ hi knew that much, he had known all evil since he could speak — but what he loved was the game for its own sake-the stealthy prowl through the dark gullies and lanes...” 1 dream in mad moment - but anything is possible between those two ~that St John recruited his own son for service agains, the “missionaries «ad white men of serious aspect”, against the soh town-dwellers of ‘Whiteball ignorant of real men's ways. ‘He did not, of course; but if Be had Iaboured all his life to create in Kim the irresistible chemistry of the, boy's ater betrayal, be could not have done much more. Kim prowled the edges of the Establishment as his namesake stalked the back-streets of Lahore: “in beadlong flight from bousetop to ousetop under cover of the hot dark”. For the Philbys strode from peak to peak, and fools lived in the valley. Through his father, moreover, Kim Philby acquired his richest asset ‘ua spy: a0 Morthess familiarity with the quarry. Through his father, and the ‘education which his father gave him, Ibe expericaced both ax « victim and as a practitioner the capacity > [21°