◆ SpookStack

HIS BREAK ONSIDER the facts of the Maclean and Burgess affair, ald Macivan, a brilliant {€ erratic British diplumat of Couns tio rank with special knowledys of Ameri- can affairs and Anglo~ American relations, decided dn 1951 to cut and run for Russia He was quite a prize; sor he knew the secret form in Washington and) Leadon aimost equally well. He wi obviously sincere in his mo' and useful when he arrived + for the Russians found ways of transferring £2.000 to his wife Melinda, She was enticed Into Switzerland and thence sumggied Into Russia with her children to Join her hoyband. That suggests some lonk-term employment of a political nature fur her hugpand. i if is my belief that in the course of his embassy duties in Washington Maclean formed the strong impres- sion that America, then sole custodian of the atom bamh. was moving towards a eventive war with would explain the —~pafsionate outbursts against. Tt would give a desperate Sdealfst a motive for/going East. It may even be [thal the wild man of Brifish diplomacy has since miaged to infect the Russians with his own apprehensions, and | bring them to reason. Of course the death of Stalin In March 1953 made miany things possible. But even before that there were signs of an unusual mind at work in the service of the Kremlin. When the East Coast Moods fund was opened in February 1953, Russia sent us £90,000—a gesture that would have occurred neither to Stalin nor Molotoy. For our little catastrophes are small compared with the suflerings of Asia. And th Kremlin mon withou prompting would hardly ev ritain’s floods a thought, GET-TOGETHER Ww ITH bewildering speed the friend- ship campaten Tolled on througn = the Malenkoy interim. It was not Jett an exchange of speeches and Notes, Russian newspapers ceased te elaim that a Russian had invented the steam engine, that Edison stole the telephone from a Russian professor. ane Mar- coni Alehed his wireless tdeas from an unrecognised Lenin grad genius. This return to Sanity was accompanied by a subtle gel-together tech- nique. i ascribe to the Maclean Nd Burgess brains trust uch touches as the evening in a Moscow theatre devoied © Brifish contemporary art, the early 1954 directive Russian dipiomats in Wash- ington and London ta drinking more with West¢ acquaintances, the stoppihg ‘of dreary Marxist tracts, the sending of ballet companies and singers instead. T ascribe to them also the | dropping of the Red. Dean. For someone has insinuated to the Kremlin leader: there are better wa getting tension relaxed than Da ing this one - man ecclesiastical band, Better facilities for tourists and journalist tw ULN. funds for ,children, reasoned and prompt Press reaction in Moscow. palatable advertising — 0) British hoardings, football teams and rowing fours, delerates to the Edinburgh Festival. Some of these visitors may be Secret Service men, but nevertheless in the war of gestures Russia has not Yeen Jeft behind. She is actuplly ahead of us. Someone fia fausht the Suvirt ers how to use public op!kion the Western way. . LIFE'S WORK F Maclean and Burgess were nob Ina high advisory capacity in Russia they would have been displayed to the world Jong ago, like the well ‘tual Otto John in East \Germang. ‘They wguld have ‘bern allowed to broadcast and write articles for the Press. They would have been geiling drunk and sinashing up cafés in satellite capitals, Instead of that, they have found their life's work. To be sure the De-freeze has many arehitects at all levels, from Churchill at the Summit to the Jeft wing of the Parliamentary Labour Party, But those deft and rapld touches in Moscow are the work of a team on the spot. What other experts are there who have chosen the East 2? You could count them on the fingers of one hand. And none of them rems BO well suited to fe on what the West. is as Donald Duart Macleant abiv su Bu ed by Guy de Money fOr a donation *