◆ SpookStack

Mea, geet 4 aoa . wer A, ‘ ; ad also been heard a“, s. g day to say that tojthe best of my recollection’ she had spoken to no one of the Daily Telegraph, the newspaper reiterated the fact that both its own switchboard and the GPO confirmed that the call had - been made. On August 3 the Observer published letters from : Lady Maclean and Lady Violet Bonham Carter praising it for us attitude, and on October 22 Mrs. Melinda Maclean told the Swiss authorities that she would like to make Geneva her permanent home, What. happened thereafter is common There can be no dowht in ee TO eG - When Mrs. Maclean wrote the followin BRAS GfiR GR ke ve sae. iy h . e ne the minds o 3 of all except those deter- " nined to maintain unsupported attitudes that reporters of both * he Daily Telegraph and the Daily Express did in fact conduct - ‘ lephone interviews with Mrs, Maclean. Naturally we do not "Ricise Lady Violet and’ Mr. David Astor for choosing to . fieve Mrs, Maclean's word rather than that of a reporter. . . 4 that time Mrs. Maclean had the sympathy of most people; 2 seemed pathetic and honest: the great majority of liberal _ inion tended to be on her side and on the side of Lady Violet | geous attempt to uphold the |’ what seemed to be a caura he last to suggest that Lady ‘ics of the press. We should be ¢ | Met’s advocacy in a good cause would be in any way deter- ted by the socia! position of the people she was secking to - .% but/it.is untikely that she would have taken up this Ucular case if Maclean had been in a different social posi- _. for the reason that she might not have known about it. : € course she is not to be blamed for her efforts. On the rary; when it is remembered that Maclean's father had © an old Liberal colleague of her father’s, and that she: If served on the board which selected Maclean for the. ga Office, then it is perfectiy understandable that she. d have believed the false words of Mrs. Maclean. at by other members of the newspaper's ° a t { why reg But things look different. today. Who now can doubt’ that? Mrs. Maclean was a Communist. and that she was a’ . Munist during the time that elapsed between the flight of husband and Surgess and the departure of herself and 1 children behind the Iron Curtain? Journalists who had Teasonhs to suspect that at the time and who acted on their’ suspicion? in the best traditions of a free and unfettered press cannot no - be condemned for lack of good taste. In her cunning campai: which fooled many people, Mrs. Maclean must have had t objectives: to rejoin her husband and to discredit this country 48 much as possible. As Miss Rebecca West pointed out in} three brilliant articles in the Daily Express last week, the mode .of departure of both Maclean and his wife was such as to create the maximum interest and publicity and to: make the} British security service and the Foreign Office look as incompe-'}) tent as possible, (This aim Mr. and Mrs. Maclean realised or yah too well.) Mrs. Maclean needed some excuse to get to Swi -4 | fand. What better excuse than that she was being hounded off | by the unscrupulous and hard-hearted gutter press? Her lies | naturally ensured that the press should be interested in her: | She thus provided herself with an excuse to leave the country". Bossame And at the same time ensured that the greater part of liberal." wee opinion would be on her side, She successfully duped Lady ° | Violet Bonham Carter, Mr. David Astor and others, Where the 2 press is free it is inevitable that some sections of it should beg over-zealous in their methods. The fact that there was so much§ |. greater fuss over the alleged mistreatment of Mrs.° Maclean’ . would seem to tell in favour of Mr. Fairlie. But that is a matter. of opinion, and here Mr. Fairlie can fight his own “Lady oot “fu we are concerned to do now is to point out that Lady Violeg: Bonham Carter and Mr. David Astor were miclad Mrs,? . jews 4 . Astor were misled by Maclean; "3 and that in denying the authenticity of the inter they were wrong. Would they not now do better to admi