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Cambridge Five Spy Ring — Part 8

101 pages · May 09, 2026 · Broad topic: Intelligence Operations · Topic: Cambridge Five Spy Ring · 99 pages OCR'd
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O Guy Burgess, though he preferred What was clean at this time was the company of the able to tffe——pens and Maciean at this tim ae v4 ood connections ~ artistic. alro moved on tne edge of “Tr ye same World, @ was ol a very Trinky the oth. two years later, i heiwht. with blue eves, an on by Gresham's tool And Trinity quisitive nose, sensual mouth, curly ” hair and alert fox-terrier expres- Tal TT F Cambridge y kngiy each other th sion. He was immensely energetic, members of the left-wing circle , @_@reat talker, reader, boaster, there. But there is no evid-| Walker, who swam like an otter an . : ; drank, not like a feckless under- pace of that oppressive Darenta’ graduate, as Donald was apt to do, SULMOTILY Wied Griyves Young mien. » Tal wma Garatatcian Bottle. to revolt. | bub like some Radelaisian GOL Pre-War Cambridge Marxists © r was more than ten years since’ the end of the first world war, and a new generation was growing up which found no outlet in home politics for the adventurous or aitruistic impulses of the adole- scent. Marxism satisfied both the rebelliousness of youth and its craving for dogma. . The Cambriage Communists sub- stituted a new father or super-ego ‘or the old one, and accepted a new justice and a stricter authority. They felt they had exposed the weaknesses of Liberal- able. ’ Contrasts in Their . THE physical type to which Donald Maclean, despite his puppy fat, belonged was that of the elongated, schizophrenic, sad- countenanced Don Quixote— introverted and diffident, an sudden outbursts of’ aggression: whereas Guy Burgess, despite his intelligence, was a round-faced, golden-pated Sancho Panza, ium glong with their elders’ ignor- extrovert. exhibitionist, manic. ence of economic affairs. Te this cynical and argumentative, avidly veneration Communism made an Curious, yet sometimes vague ‘ntellectual appeal. standing for amd incompetent. With all his toughness. moreover, Guy Burgess ove, liberty and social justice and y j wanted intensely to be liked and lor & new approach to life and urt. Yet it was connected with a political party, and this party is S@lionalist and an enthusiastic aot inelined to relinquish Its hotd. builder-up of his friends. Beneath “Yhe Comintern,” says Arthur the “ terribilita " of his Marxist ‘loestier, “ carried on a white-slave irafiic whose victims were young Hicalists flirting with — violence." Tne feelings of such young men ure described in numerous novels and poems. or in such tracts as Mr Stephen Spender’s “ For- te moral cowardice of the publi hoolboy. HE FIRST HIS IS instalmen ward from : Liberalism” , the end of May last year. It will be They imvalved betraval of le writers’ own .ountry, and the ‘lose of Marxism was seldom ‘@thal. What were these two young menlike? Donald peculiar problems arising in an age of —_— = = - = 1 Characters vos idealist and a dreamer given to was indeed likeable, a good conver- | nalyses one divined the affection- . Connolly’s personal and intimate study of Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean, the two members of the Foreign Office staff who vanished towards particular interest by those concerned with the conflict which is often projected on the plane of private personality. A second. and concluding article will appear next week. ae common to both Bur- heir instability: and ambitious fous men of Vigence and & : ms rere somehow parodies o what they set out to be could take them engaged to the younger Pitt. Burgess, indigen ally, was & great reader of fiction; swiper whose thirst was unquench his favourite authors were’ Mrs. ell and Balzac and, later 6n. Mr. EB. M. Forster. ° Lenin had said - somewhere that he had learnt joore about France from Balvac’s novels than irom au misbuly-DOOKs pul together. Accordingly Balzac;was the greatest writer of all times.” (Koestier.) Donald was seldom heard to talk litics, Guy hever seemed to stop. e was the type of bumptious Marxist who saw himself as Saint- Just, who enjoyed making the flesn of his bourgeois listeners creep by his picture of the justice which ' history would mete out to them. | Grubby, intemperate and promis- cuous, he loved to moralise over his friends and satirise their smug class- unconscious behaviour, so reckless of the reckoning in store. But when bedtime came, very late, and it was the moment to put the analyses away, the word “ Prepos- terous ’ dying on his lips, he would imply a dispensation under which this one house at least. this family, these guests, might be spared the worst consequences, thanks to tie rotection Gf their — brilliant friend we hunger-marching ¢ sition woud be so commandibg the happy} workers’ Utopia. f Mr. read with ideological ——_ sr rr ime when Apyssipia + was the mattered, before the Ru an purges ha ken place and the especial bitterness of Communist controversy had arisen. There were Maclean was Loo wt--j--.---.---- ee ee sandy - haired, po --—- ‘all. with great latent physical An old Etonian, an “Apos trength, but fat and = rather ho had taken a First In History lubby, Meeting him, one was at Cambridge, and was tempted to ‘onscious af both amisability and become a don, he yet seemed an veakness. He did not seem adventurer with a first-class mind, who would always be in the know, a framer of secret licies, @ financial wizard already and a future editor, at least, of “ The Times.” Though he enjoye bout of luxury. he was indifferent to appearances and even hostile efuge on the more impetuous and to his own. Urilike Donaid. he mancipated fringes of Bloomshury——cancealed his sexual diffidence by nd Chelsea. Such a young man _ over-confidence._ _ an be set right by the devotion of © i intelligent, older woman, and it _ political animal but resembled “ae clever helpless youth in @ ‘Tuxley novel, an ogtsize Cheribino ntent on amoroug experience but oo shy and clums: succeed. The hadow of an august atmosphere iy heavy on him, and he sought ‘as a misfortune that Donald was ist not quite able to inspire such attach sa . attachment; charming, clever d affectionate, he was still too tnfarmed. : charming a. eo very - and the ty’s claim to represen 2 xtreme left-wing was not disputeg. Unlike ali other political partie, . Nobody quite seriously: they were two characters in a late ovel, Laurel and Hardy RUS edt iay Telleyrand and
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