◆ SpookStack

wo (Py ~ “There are other theories. Qne hoiding the two were ona mannoth drinking spree hac consideratie currency - until the passage of time pusied it beyond the limits of credikiiity. There has been talk of kidnaping and of a postibtle euicide pact; there have been hints that the case is one imvolving sexual perversion. "The two have many acquaintances in diplomatic circles in Washington. Mclean; who is 38, served with the Erbassy here from 154, to 1948. Big, handsome, intensely nervous and high-strung, he worked prodigiougly at his job as head of the Chancery, often stick- ing to his desk until 9 or 10 o'clock at night. Between times, with his American wife; the former Melinde Marling of Chicago, he enter tained energetically in his home on Georgetown's P Street, attended the usual round of diplomatic parties - and rested up by playing tennis. "He beheved himself in Washington, and is remecbered as ‘one of the nicest fellows you could hope to meet-' Transferred to Caira, -_ however, as Counselor of the Exbessy, he seemed gradually to fall , victim te a sort of mervous and moral breakdown. His friends insist it was simply the strain of overwork which did it. In any event, he becan to drink herd- His binges became wild seizures ~- ‘the was inclined,' says one acquaintance, ‘to throw bottles around.' Finally, when he invaded the apartment of an absent friend and smashed it to pieces, he was recalled to Lomion. There, having undergone psychiatric treatment which supposedly cured him of hi e ile, he took over the Foreign Office's Arerican section, PRurgess; a LbO-year=old bachelor, was another story. Like Mclean, he was a Cambridge man (Eton, too). He wore the old school tie and his club stood next to McLean's on Pall Mall. But be wasn't the type. His service in Weshington began last November and ended two months ago, when he was recalled te London. The reason for his recall = teaneral unsuitability, ' said the Foreign Office —- was not wholly the fact that he was arrested three times” in one day last Feb- ruary for driving 85 miles an hour in Virginia. His associates at the Embassy say frankly that, while Burgess had undoubted intelli- gence, they also found hin incapable of applying it with any efficiency : and co-ordination. "Burgess was given very little to do in Washington, simply be- cause it was felt there was little he could do. By the time he ieft, according to a close fr¢end, his stete of mind verged on the suicidal. ae gedeleien faw fan ea hte hebtéeew amet mez enarmn’) see ec cesemane ha a Was ide BEER a OO MUCG 140 HVA wO GH Pes OVI, C/E a EL came progressively slovenly. He would frequently drop into the offices of other Exbassy officiais topour out his woes - his hatred of America, his feeling of frustration in his career. In middle life, he had reached the rank of acting second secretary and already was over his head. "He was a close student of the writings of Lenin and Stalin, and his knowledge of the Communist dialectic reportediy had contributed to some of the West's more effective diplomatic exchanges with the Kremlin. Yet, by the time he got back from Washington, the Foréign office apparently had had enough of Mr. Burgess. He was put on leave, and his departure fron the service was corsidered imminent. rv D - 10 =~