◆ SpookStack

went - ae et Te tall ay HE three men who know more than agyone else in Britain about the drama of the vanished diplomats—Burgess and Maclean—speke y¢sterday in a Commons that was strangdly quiet and clearly ill-at-ease. Little in their stories was new ; the details, mostly familiar but still fascinating, led to no startling climax—only to the frustrating ‘ realisation that the two men outwitted the nation’s security services. How did they do it? Attention fixed on that point [may 25 (authorising | the’ i j a autherisin as MPs listened, first to Mr, Harold Macmilian, the interrogation ot Maclean) aad present Foreign Secretary, and then to Mr. Herbert Morrison, Labour's. Foreign Secretary when the two escaped in 1951. Mr. Macmillan did not discount the possibility that that’ they were missing on that night.” Mr. Morrison produced a fand-written jetier—" from a, F . ri f mine Burgess or Maclean was tipped off. But he suggested respected , friend ie Oren and-""" ‘affairs 1 respect.” : that they might have fled after their suspicions had been aroused in some other way. . *The possibility of a tip-alT has beeg very seriously con- sidered,” he said. “Searching ahd protracted investigations ifto the possibility have been idertaken and are pro eding.” Then he told MPs that, after close investigation, no evidence had been found that Mi. BH. A R. Philby-—named - by a back-bench M.P, in the House recently-—~had warned Burgess or Maclean. “There is no reason to con- elude that he has at any time defeated the interests of this country. or ta jdentify him with the co-called Third Man ~-if indeed, there was oie.” the Foreign Secretary gaid. PHILBY ASKED TO RESIGN said at her flat in Drayton Gardens, Kensington, tast night: “I think it ts wonderful that he has been cleared of the imputation.” She said her son would be there this morn- ing. “I can't tell you where he is now.) Colonel Lipton (Lab, Brixton} — the man who named Philby a fortnight age ~—refused to retract when ha spoke Jater in the debate. “When the verbal niceties of the Foreign Secretary's statement have been examined,” he said, “it will be found that 1 am justified in not making any withdrawal.” Colonel Lipton got a very stormy reception from both sides of the House. When Mr. Nutting, Foreign Affairs Minister, asked him if he He gid not name the writer, but offered the information to- the Minister. Slowly, in # tense atmosphere. he read: “. , - knew them both, and actually Junched with Maclean the day befor} he disappeared. On that apy 1 am sure he had no intertion of leaving England In the Way he djd. coe fr ‘DID HE GET WARNING ? “He spoke to me 80 normally as to his private affairs, his wife's confinement and his plans for the immedi- ate future that I am con- vinced he was not then intend: _ ing to leave the country. “This makes me feel that, subsequent to meeting me on May 24, he received some warning that he was under - . yes =—Ss would tell the Foreign Secre- suspicion, and immediately _.. Mr. Philby, a university. .tary what the information was eft the country with Burgess. friend of Burgess, had Commu- nist associates during and after his university days. He was asked in July, 1951, to resign from the Foreign Office. While in Government ser-— on which he based his charges, he refused, . He said he would only give them to the inquiry he wanted to see held, But Mr. Morrison declared “It may be, therefore, that someone in the Foreign Office told him on May 25 that you had “authorised him to be questioned, . 2.” : As Mr. Morrison read, fhe vice he was able and con- with studied emphasis of foreign Secretary looked lat z scientious, “IT have no reason Maclean: “I am inclined to Gir Anthony “Ede and he : ¢ to conclude that he has at any think he was tipped off | Prime Minister shook his head z-; tyme betrayed the interests of somebody—and if so I wis negatively s Pe —- We - OR a so a eee — £ this country.” added Mr. Mac- Nan. Mrs. St. John Barbe Philby, mather of Mr, H, A, R. Philby, we could find that somebody. “It certainly was a remar able coincidence that I shoul have given that order o ee yt shot a”