◆ SpookStack

AST rete ea a Re ET TUR SERA tee ene oe ent 3 : It is now revealed by a former top Soviet agent in Australia, Vladimir ;Petrov, that the two British agents—; MacLean and Burgess—probably ag-; sisted In the atomic esplonage. They; | escaped to Moscow when it appeared certain they were about to be exposed. They were assisted by the Soviet Union in their escape. It has not been disclosed what sort of information the, two British agents transmitted to the Soviet Union, but. the volume must have been great be- cause the Soviet foreign office set a a special bureau to process it. It is known: that the Soviets were able to get a large volume of materia {through a similar espionage setup in jthe United States which was disclosed in the case of Alger Hiss, Both Mac-’: Lean and Burgess had direct connec- tions, with United States high level in- | formation. MacLean occupied’ the American desk in the British Foreign | Office until May, 1951. Burgess was second secretary in the British em- bassy in Washington. During ‘his stay there he carried a 24-hour pass to th Atomic Energy Commission... -- Supposedly during all this time th two. men were under suspicion bu British officials «could - do nothing about it. A similar situation existed in ‘this country in the case of the late Harry Dexter White, an official in the Treas-- ury Department who acted in many in- stan es for the Secretary of Treasury. . The Federal Bureau of Investigation sent letter after letter to the White ouse as well as to other responsibli fficials pointing out.#at White wa nder strong” susz Cion as-a. Con: unist agent. But White kept on get 'ting promotions. oe ho But we have tightened our security i f tup since then. The action was forced congressional investigaiions walch s-rad scores of government em: oyes who refused to testify about their, Communist affiliations on the grounds that anything they might say would be self- ‘lncriminating (Fifth ' Amendment), The rule was lald down that no government employe who took the Fifth Amendment was entitled to re- "main on his job, There heve been a few. ‘instances in which our security measures mis- _. fired. But the common opinion amon mericans is that more Commun ge~*~ have escaped than have: beet aught, The great danger is that wi flhave a tendency to be too lenient—as! i British have been—and not too! ough in the executl ugh in ution of our eeu 48