◆ SpookStack

Even when suspicion finally fell upon them, hey were allowed to leave the country as to Boulogne without passports. The depth and extent of the treachery have been exposed only because one Russian spy chose to sell out. What else is there that is vile and rotten and has not been & ? exposed? NEXT CHAPTER Are we to wait for the next spy who comes over before we hear the next instalment of this sordid and disquieting story? ~ if the guilty officials ‘can help it, we will hear nothing more except what may be forced out by the next accidental disclosure. There is oniy one man who can make sure that the White Paper or the subsequent debate in the Commons will have any real meaning or any real value. at man is Harold Macmillan, the Foreig secretary. Nobody can possibly blame hi or the ill-smelling mess he has inherite Eut he alone can clear it up. % e alone can insist on having the names and the heads of the men who have persistently fed the Ministers, Parliament and the people with calculated fies, , UNSUSPECTED We are far from suggesting that the Foreign Office is a nest of traitors. But the Foreign Office is a place almost equally dangerous. it ig a place where traitors have been able to nest, unsuspected and uncontrofled, We do not pretend to know the reason for the immunity that the traitors so long enjoyed. lt may have been negligence, favouritism, laziness or plain stupidity, Whatever the réason, the: public must have ~ fem assurance that the scandal will never happen again. Then another White Paper will be called for. Not a White Paper BY the Foreign Office, but a White Paper ON the Foreign CGftice. The difference between the two fs the difference betwen a whitewashing agd a thorough clean-up main questions have been worrying the~ ee By CUY EDEN HO gave Maclean the tip-off. that he was under sus+ picion, enabling him to escape before the Intelligence men elosed about him? That is one of the which security chiefs ever since Maclean and Bur gess. disappeared more than four years. age. A Foreign Office spokesman admiited yesterday that it seemed certain some such hint was given. There theories: y Vhat Maclean, with “ his free access to documents, was able .te pub two and twp to gether from what he would see, and come to the conclusion that he ha better get out. 2 That an investigator acted chamsily in his infwiries and gave th alarm. : are several -of , M.S; 3 That 4 friend who, knew of the investi- gation warnéd Macleart The Secret Service does pot know how the’ secret got out and pre- sumably have been un- able to Gnd any hole ihere may be in the securily net, Sir Percy Sillitoe, head ; 5, the British- Counter Espionage. Organisation at the time of the Maclean-Burgess escape, had no comment ta make last night. Lord Strang, w ho was Permanent Under- Secretary of State at the Foreign. Office at the same time. retired in November, 1993, Lord Strang is a Rus- sian expert. In 1830 he was appointed Acting Counsellor at Moscow and acted as chargé W@alfaires, WLP.s want. io know: WHY, if their activi- ties were under investi-« gation by © Intelligence and security authorities, were Burgess avid Mac- Jean allowed to continue their work in the Poreign Office? WHY were they allowed to get out of the coutitry, withaut at least being ordered to remain here? WILY was not some * yolding charge” made against them? WHY, if they were under suspicicn, were they not suspended? WHY did the Govern ment pul up & security screen of silence about the two men after they had escaped behind. the Iron Curtain? DID Intelligence lose track of them antil Petrav made his revela- tions in Australia? MP CALLS FOR NEW PROBE OL, MARCUS LIPTON, Socialtst MP. for Brixton put down a question yester- ‘day asking Sir Anthony Eden: “whether, he wil appoint a Select Com mittee 10 bivestigate th eiycumstances of . th disippearance of Bur- gess and Maclcan and the general ej ficiency aj Civit Service. security arrangements,” ; But ff seewis unlikely this will be granted. be- cause both Front A Foreign Office . Jenene are. involved. - ars xpokesman said yester~ dey that definite sus- picions jell on Maclean by April, 1951. Burgess wus mot yar. ticularly under invepti- gation as to his secuqity wind his loyalty, but aiis general conduct was under examination. , : f 4 / a