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12, Maclean's absence did net beecme kncwn tc the authcrities until the morning of Menday, Hy 28, The Fereign Office is Tegularly cpen for ncrmal businoss on Saturday mernings, but officers can, from tine to time, obtain leave to take a week-end off, In acccrdance with this practice Maclean ayplied fcr an © sbtaines leave te be atsent on the merning cf Saturday, May 26, His absence therefore causeino ‘remark until the following . Monday merning when he failed tc appear at the Foroign Office, Burgess was on leave and under no obligation te report his mevenents,. 13. Immediately the flight was known all possible action was taken in the United Kinicom, and the French and cther continental? security authorities were asked to trace the whereabouts of the fugitives and 1f pcssible to intercept them, 411 British Gcasulates in Western Europe were alerted and special efforts were made to disccver whether the fugitives had crossed the French frontiers on May 26 or 27. és a result cf these and cther enquiries it was established that Maclean and Burgess tcgether left Tatsfield by car for Scuthamptcn in the late evening cf Friday, Mey 25, arrived at Southampton at midnirht, caught the 8,8, Falaise fcr St. Ilo and disembarked at that pert at 11.45 the following mcrning, leaving suitcases ani scme cf their clothing on beard, They were net seen on the train from St. Malo to Paris and it has been reperted that twe mea, believed to be . Maclean am Burgess, took a taxi to Rennes and there got the 1,18 p.m, train tc Paris. Ncething mcre was soen of then, 14, Since the disappearnnce varicus communiceticns have been roceived from them by rs_cf their familics, Cn Jane 7, 1951 telcgrams cstensibly frcem Moelean wore recoived by his “other Lad clean, and his wife Mrs, Melinda Maclean, who were both , at th’ time in the United Kinrelcm. The telierram te Lady Naclean -®as a short perscnal nessare, sirned by a nick-nime known only within the immediate family circle, It merely stzted that all was well, That adiress.d to lirs, inclean was similpr, expressing regret for the unexpected departure and was signed "Donald", Both telegrams were despatched in Paris on the eveninre cf June 46, Their receipt was at once repcrted tc the security authcritics but it was impossible tc identify the perscn cr persons who ha harded them in. The criginal telegraph ferms showed, hcwever, that the messages had been written in a hard which was clearly not Macleanis, The char-cter of the hand-writinr, eni some mis-spelling, suggested that both telegrams had been written by a foreigner, : - - On June 7, 1952, a telegram was received in London by essett, Burgess’ Mather, It contained a shcrt and . nate persenal message, together with a statenent that the sender wis embarking on a long Mediterranean holiday and was ostensibly from Burfess himself, The telegram had been med in at a Fest Office in Rome earlier on the day ef its receipt, 4s with the telerrams from Paris te Maclean's family, there was no possibility of identifying the person who had handed it in, The handwriting had the appearance of being foreign and was certainly net thot cf burgess. 16, According to information given te the Foreign Office in - confidence by irsz bar, Maclean's Mether-in-law, who was then living with her daughter at Tatsfield, she reeaived cn aucust 3, 1951, twc registered letters pestcd in St. Galien, Switzerland on Aurust 1, One ccntained a draft cn the Swiss Bank Corperstion Lomion fer the sum cf £1,000 payable tc Mrs, Dunbar; the other fa araft