◆ SpookStack

[rae teat a Sain ain G - Cs Burgess and MacLean: In the mind of the public these two nanes have become inseparable: Like Laurel and Hardy, Castor and Pollux, Guy Lux and Leon Zitrone, Tintin and Milou, Bouvard and Pecuchet. But, we should not make a joke of it: the names of these two English diplomats, who disappeared from England in May of 1951, and did not reappear until five years later at Moscow, are still today synonyrous with shame and embarrassment throughout the British kingdom. Burgess and MacLean are perhaps the first great self- inflicted slap in the face that modern England has ro ved. After that came the Vassa] Scandals (a young naval attache defecting under the pressure of Russian blackmail for homosexuality) the Ward - Profumo - Christine Keeler Scandals, - undoubtedly even greater than the defection of the two diplomats. After this, England began to say to itself: “Well! All things considered, maybe our citizens are also corruptible and fallible.” THE “DECAYED " ELITE But, until Burgess and MacLean, England believed in loyalty, uprightness, and dignity of the elite which made up ‘the Establishment." Until Burgess and MacLean, in England it was understood that a young man from a very good family, who had gone to very good schools and colleges (Eton, Oxford, Cambridge), who belonged to very good clubs, and who had entered into Her Majesty's Service in the Foreign Service, could not defect. Se would be & gentleman, and gentlemen make up the backbone of giand. Now, with Burgess and MacLean (who both had each of the qualities required bythe Establishment”) the myth was shattered: there are not gentlemen init: there are weak men, alcoholics, probably homosexuals, chatterers and talkers who betray the nation without a shade of remorse. Mot only is the myth shattered, but it is rapidly transforming itself completely (especially with the Christine Keeler Affair ten years later): henceforth, it will be said that one must distrust the elite, because it is the most decayed” class in all the nation. England today has had some difficulty in finding its balance between these two myths, and will henceforth only place @ part of its confidence in the gravest assurances of the most solemn government. And, all this because of - Guy Burgess and Donald MacLean and ... a‘third man.”