◆ SpookStack

HAVE been m deeply interested tn the mgstery of the Missing Diplomats than most people, sad ins try to penetrate it. For ore of them, Donald Maclean, his wife Melinda. were my friends, , they had been my neighbours in Calro. From there, indeed, Denakl and 1 had flown back ta England together on the eompleion-—aithough neither of us then Knew it-of our respective terms of service: in that part of the world, Decision After his. disappearance ! remaingd in clese touch with Meinda during. the first. twe unhappy years of her exist - ents as the Wils of. the Missing Diplomat, and it was anly in the final four months before she disappeared that I ceased - te hear from. her.. After she had fone i berame the confidant and friend of her _Stiet - stricken mother, Mrs. » Durbar. * And df was one night Jast Decersber, in the course of one of our endiecs discussions, of this tragedy which had faNen on her and her family, that | s@ecided will -har approval fo “write “The Missing Macleans,” a book which would iry to Present a true picture. The Case of the Missing Diplomats, Donald Maclean and Guy | For the world at darge if opened on Thursday, dune 7. SENSATION WN that pleasant summer morning, when ihe Korean warowas Durely a yesr old. the story of these two men first Hoare on the beach at Villers-sur-mer, near ‘+ The next summer she disappeared RETO RAererne neneare ~ ” e. oidintedrst hardly realised dis ine wow! ai POrtance, The headlines were bald and | black, but the storie, beneath ikem were guarded, And th Was mo mention of the. twa hames whith were te beeome a byword of ihe times we five ©” in. Said one repert: Seatland Yard officers and French detectives: are boating fer lwo Briteh Government einplosvess believed to have | feft Londea with the Intention of getting ta Morcow. & friend is quoted as saying they planned the jou sree, : ir “idealintie pur- | somewhat better position te 1: | homag win the wartedtg “ magazines: Burgess, was one of ; the major sensations of 1a5i. >: “soberly and isenfed. A jot “sensational ; ~ Whe iwe mea are employed oy the Forklign Office ad shane ig & possibility they might Rave - _, Bnpertant papers with them. _ Severatvexperta have flown “fram Landon to France te werk Lowith the French potlea, and all French airports and thers . are being waiched The palice, oS te undertoad, are watehing “walters to the Soviet Emiasey in Paris. “ No newspaper sensation could have hada Better begin- ning. The stery bad all the Lage ae adle a te rmieing | diplomats, Might to” Moscow, . important papers. ' Valrports + and frontiers watched, Soviet. Enibagsy Invelved. a : That same afternoon the. Foreign Offre-—a week late yeluctantly divulged sufficient details to give the brew more body.) - oan An announcetient from, | Whitehall sald that two mem- berg of the Foreign Service had been missing fram thelr sinre May 25, They were Mr. D, D, Maclean and Mr, G, de M. Burgess. AIL possible inguirler afe being made, ee je known Rs | they went to Pra fate a5 . ago Mr. Matican hada break... OWT BR FERT ago OWing to aver.’ sitain bet eee believes tally: to haye recovered, ‘ Owing to their dbsenes with! majeave, both have been sya: ended with effect from June 1} Since that day, over three: years ago, more bas probably : beer published about the Maclean and Burgess mystery Rewspapers and” ARH: _ han on any other Single topic. Some of it has been the’ fest of painstaking, con | Scientions Envestigatian, adcurately pre hos been mere reporting. Too been unabashed, much has third-rate fiction, been either esey “forward to report. broke onan England whieh at . a the actual fight fron: ng: | land to France, Certainly the story bas never or xtraight- ard After the ahoriously. assembled detalls reporters had - “tathing ta go on, for, despite Fe ceealabae age an enormous hue asd ery in: ‘Eegiand and an the Continent, - Wo men were n€VerPren «