◆ SpookStack

Last week Mr. Connolly depicted the early lives of Guay Burgesa and Donald Maclean. In 1935 Maclean passed into the Foreign Office, where his reputation soon mounted, Burgess went from the B.B.C, to the Foreign Office in 1944, and the For-Enstern tae 2 opel Bee Department in 1948. In 1944 Maclean was posted to Washington as act- ing First Secretary, and on his return four years later was appointed Counsellor in Cairo. But in Cairo came a breakdown. On Noverober 6, 1950, after six months’ leave, he went back to the Foreign Office as head of the American Division. ‘buut the war in Korea. ‘rgument was that Lake hé War had reached both sides «i One evening at the vad entirely forgotten this, -eTe exploiting them for thelr It was essential wh prestige. =a; NE day towards the end of 1950 Donald Maclean invited me to luncheon this club and talked at length « His what aattered most in the world ras People. The Koreans were eople, but in the stage which TS LW =e = bade This was not the orthodox © munist view. according to which only the North Koreans were “people” and the South Koreans | (as Burgess maintained) had really started the war. Maclean went on to suggest that all colonia! posses- sions in the Far East were morally untenable, and when I pleaded that we should be allowed to keep Hong- kong and Malaya for their dollar- earning capacities he said that that was precisely the reason why we should give them up, as only then could we prove ourselves in earnest and lay the basis of future good relations. Office | back £ talked for a little about how he feit at being back at work and “Sir Donald” again, and he told me how fond he was of his cal- | eagues, how secure and womb-like the Foreign Office seemed, and how . well he had been treated. J men- tioned that I had at one time been intended for the Diplomatic Ser- vice and that I had = always ‘regarded it since with some of the | wisliulness which he felt for litera- ture. We left rather late and he merged on the steps into a little pin-striped shoal of hurrying officials, who welcomed him affectionately. end of that and | winter a friend came round for a drink, He said that he was in a difficulty : he had been up very late with Donald the night before, and SING —a | » stop the war at all costs and oe te nd Donald had said to him, “ What: et them established as peeplociid you do if I told you was ‘wad THE SUNDAY MES London, 9-24.52 n RS? ICNAGE - R 9 \ yer. LOUDON. * DONALD DUART MacLEAN, ST AL a Communist agent?” “7 don’t know.” “Weil, wouldn't you report mer” "“T don’t know. Whe to?” “Well, lam. Go on, report me.” His friend had woken up with a confused feeling that something unpleasant lay before hin. It was an absurd situation, for it was impossible to be sure that Donald was serious. My friend knew him 50 Well that he could not believe it was true. The whole incident seemed preposterous in the light of day. Burgess Recalled from Washington ia August, 1950, Guy Burgess had been posted to the Washington Embassy as Second Secretary; he had last visited Washington in 1942. By the early spring of 1951 things were not going 50 well for him. The telegrams which he dralted were often rejected as being biased. there seemed nothing for him to do, he was not popular with his colieagues, he was drinking heavily again, and on one day, February 28. he was stopped three times for speed- ing, which led to an official com- plaint. Then he gave 4 lift to a young man and jet him take the wheel. There was ah accident, and it tumed out that the young Man had no driving licence. Burgess Rib bw sae eases . pleaded diplomatic immunity. At about the same time an English visitor to the Embassy reported him for anti-British talk, He was recalled . from Washington 68 |“ generally unsuitable ” and arrived A few days later T ran into him in the street. He came up with his usual shaggy. snarling-playful manner and said he was just back from America. “Where were you?” “ Washington.” “What was ft like?” “ absolutely frightful” “a Why?" . “Because of McCarthy.” = in the Queen Mary on May 4. I EXCLAND SES UTM eel) ~ _ ft _—d _—— weyers RECS ee hire @ ' OCT 16 1952 af ope ee