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Cambridge Five Spy Ring — Part 32
Page 64
64 / 121
é
KIM PHILBY continued
How'd they get Burgess out? Three traffic tickets did it
Affair. There was already evidence
that the Foreign Office had been pene
treted Both Krivitsky and Volkort
{Soves defectors) had said 40. There
a5, of course. nothing 10 auggest
that the three sources referred 10 the
same man There ts sil! no basis for
that supposition Bur if the assump-
thor had been made. if ip parucular
the Krisitshy material had been stud-
ie im relation 10 tbe
Washington deak, # search
among the diplomats
would have started without
oss of ume — perhaps
even before } appeared on
the scene
Bur anocher feature of
S the case was even more
puzzling} must contes
to have enjoyed a great
advantage in that 1 was
pretty certain from the
beginning who was an
volved But even discount
ing that
advantage, it
me quire ob.
vious Isom the nature of
the reports that we were
rot dealing with the pets
agen' emptying waste
Paper baskets and snatch-
Ing the odd carbon, Some
fof the seports dealt with
political problems of some
complexity There could
bbe no rea) doubt the we
‘were dealing wath # man
of staigre The reluctance
to iniate inquiries along
these lines can only be
atribured wa genuine
‘merits! block which stub.
bbornls resisied the belie
that respecied members of
the Establishment could
0 such things The exis
fence of such a block was
amph
borne our by
‘that
lowed the di
Maclea and Burgess —
land. for that matier. my
own Explananons of ex
the obssous stonple tru
Yer J knew qi
thy brearte
could not go on for ever
Once investigation of the
diplomats saried, 1 would
feriainly yield the right
answer, sooner or Ia
The grea question
How soon” How late?
From discussion with
my Friends a) meetings ou
side Washingion. «wo main
points emerged Firs, 1! was essential
fo rescue Maclean before the net
‘closed on him That was accepted as
an axiom) No question wat raused
‘thout his future pocentia! to the Soviet
sn im the event of his escape. It
fe enough that he was an
‘Genera! Krisitshy, a Red Army inte)
gehce Ollie” deftcled 10, the Wer in
1999, wroie x hook called 2 Chose Fer
om and Tater when living tn the US.
mimirieg suicude VotLow seme » RuNins
agent who tried to defect 10. the Weee
Phulty "hardieg the eane Volkor never
nde it
old comrade Some readers. prisoners
‘of prevadice. may fing this hard to
eallow 1 do not ash them to do 50.
But they cannot blame me if they
‘tuffer “unpleasant shocks. in future
eases Second. it was desirable that
Maclean should stay in his pos! as
Jong as possible After his dep
8 was said Dlandly that he was “only”
head of the American Department of
But there were two further compl.-
cations 1 had been tent 10 the United
for w two-year tour of duty. and
T could therefore expect to be repinced
in the autumn of 1951. 1 had no idea
‘what_my next posting would be: it
could easily have heen Cairo or Sings-
ore. far out of touch with the Mac-
ean case Groping in parus! darkness
BS we were, if seemed safent 10 gel
Hollandia -the Dutch pipe
_ that’s kind to every toi
the Foreign Office, and thus had little
sccess 40 high-grade information. But
4H in nomense 10 euppene thal a ree-
Jute and experienced operator oecupy.
ing 4 senior post in the Foreign Ottice
ean have access only Wo the papers
thet are placed on his desk in the
ordinary “courne of duty 1 have
already shown that T gained access 10
the files of Briish agents in the Soviet
Union when I was supposed. to be
chivvying Germans in Spain Tn shor,
‘our duly a0 10 get Maclean to safety,
bur not hefore s'was necessary
Maclean away by the middie of 1951
the lates. The second complication
rove from Burgews pouition He
was emphatically oot @1 home in
the Foreign Office, for which he had
neither the right Cempe
Fight personainy. He
ng for some time of getting oul. and
hhad one or two irons in the fire an
Fleet Sureet As a result, his work
for the Foreign Office had suffered
46 much 40 that it Jooked like # close
thing between resignation and. dis
-missal from his post In any case, he
—
As anxious to get back to Ehglad
In somebody's mind — 1 do not
know whose — the two ideas merged
Burgess return to London and the
rescue of Maclean MW Burgess re
tuned to London from the’ Britich
Embassy in Washingion. it seemed
‘aatuzal that be should call on tbe hea)
of the “American Departmen. He
would be well placed to se! the ball
roling for the rescue operation 1:
would have been possible for him 10
have resigned in Washington. and
returned to London without fuss. But
it might have looked w bit
= 08d Hf he had pone back
Yoluntarity short belore
the disappearance of Mat
lean. Matters had to be
so arranged that he was
vent back, wily-nilly
was the sort of projec:
to which Burgess delight
‘e8. and he brought i: of!
in the simplest possible
way. Three times im one
ay be was booked for
speeding in the State of
‘Virginia, and the governor
reacied just as we had
hoped. He sent + tunovs
Protest to the State De
ariment agains this fia:
Brant abuse of dipiomane
Privilege, which was then
brought to the antention of
the ambassador Wsthin a
feu days. Burgess was re
rettulls informed that he
Would have to jeave
As soon as the possiil
of Burgess helping in
the rescue operation
emerged from our disc.
won. greal attention was
aid 10 my awn position
Despite all precaubon.
Burgess might be seen with
Maclean, and inquiry into
hhis activity might lead 10
doubts about me. There
seemed very litle that
‘sould be done about it, bur
1 occurred to me that |
could help ta divert sus
pron by making & pos:
we contribution te the
solution of the Briush Ern-
assy case Hitherto. I had
lain Jom. lecung the FBI
and MIS do what they
‘could Now that the rescue
plan mas
T should not give the in-
‘vesuganion a nudge in the
ight direction
To that end. I wrote &
Head OF.
mF our Tame
i exhaustive anvesip
tions of the embass) me.
fats J recalied the statements of
Krivisky 10 the best of my ahi
from memory. -He had said that the
‘Soviet intelligence for Wesiern Europe
baad reervited 1m the middle. Guise.
"young man who had gone ino the
Foreign Office He was of good farm
ity. and hag been educated at Eton
and Oxford He was an ideaiist
Working without payment. T suggested
that these di such as they were,
should he matched against the records
of diplomats stationed in Washington
between the relevant dates in 1948-28
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