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al | ° ee aes Maclean Linked to Leak Of U.S. See | Hint Briton Had Contact In Embassy °90 Letter Found InLibraryCache “By Don Cook From the Herald Tribune Burcau ©1956,N.¥. Herald Tribune Inc. LONDON, Feb. 13.—The reap- pearance in Moscow of +issing diplomats Donald Maclean and™ Guy Burgess brought the first reference in the British pross to- day to yet another hitherte secret aspect of the case—the existence of a “Cairo letter which suggests that in 1950 Maclean was receiving secret American documents from a contact in the American Em- bassy in Cairo, On assignment in Cairo three months ago, this correspondent was told the story of the dis- covery of the “Cairo letter,” which had only recently oc- curred. The story was given to me in confidence, and there was every reason to respect that con- fidence since the matter clearly was under intense security in- vestigation and the whereabout of Burgess and Maclean was still & mystery. i _ Now Can Be Told But with the public reference . Pe ean exist- pen Of tieiSdtto letter” here | ‘Early last Novemoper, a user of the British Embassy Hbrary in Cairo was leafing through a library book when suddenly out dropped an envelope containing a letter addressed to Donald Maclean. Maclean had peen head of the political department of the British Embassy in Cairo from 1948 until he was abruptly sent home on the first available aircraft after wrecking the apariment of an American girl in & drunken braw!] in May, 1950, | The letter was dated that mouth, and clearly Maclean had left Cairo without having time to “pick up his mail.” Signed by an American The tinder of the letter con- sulted a friend in the British ‘Embassy, who formed the itm- ‘mediate view that it Was a coded message of some sort and the letter was immediately turn over to MI-5, the intelligence branch of the embassy. Of the greatest apparent significance was the fact that the teiter was signed by an American, with indications -that if may have been an employee of the Amer- ican Embassy immediately across the street in Caira from the British Embassy. The letter was a series of cryptic sentences with refer- ences of a clearly conspiratorial sort that only the recipient would fully understand. One sentence ran: “David is very cautious about Donald's replace- . |ment and doesn’t know what he is like.” conclusion that Maclean had an American contact and the two were using the British Enh Consignued on page, column 3 rets in . _jlean tobe “persona non grata” e letter also carried a refer= ence to shirts and towels. Even . a superficial appraisal led to the ° ijIput on the first ajrplane leav- “ we ee), a alro Pa ra a ? * Tl tO FEC GS U55 was airpound for Londo Jo’clock that afternoon. Hence there was scarcely «MM . -~——“Tepportunity for h ick y library for their “communica-. any Satori io Pick one favorite device Off embassy library. But the all ail - certainly gives the lie to the However, after Maclean left) -ertion in the Moscow statemces cuit, “ veins eohambern that neither Burgess nor Ma! building, which was completed ae acted as Commu: last October, and much of ‘ | the embassy library had been! The American Embassy in storage until transferred to|Calvo knows of the discovery new quarters, where the,ietter|*Me “Cairo letter.” but the e was found. tent to which the British m- One other odd cireumstantial/Nave communicated the deity aspect of the affair is the fact|to the American Emtassy ; that the American girl whose[#avé examined with Ameci flat Maclean wrecked whiie/@uUthorities the question ef w! drunk that night in May, 1950,/the Amer‘can author of the k was employed in the American('f 60 Macican might have be- Eeabassy library. Maclean ar-[}8 ROt, of cuurse, known to 1h rived at the girl's apartment|teportcr. In any case, such # very late, having seen her/@ecision would have been takrq eatlier in the evening ata cock-|Secretly in London, and ry tail party, By this time he and/Cairo. a friend with him were quite; As a footnote to the gifs drunk, and they burst in and/Maclean in Cairo occupied GiRE began pulling down curtains,jlarge residence owned by f smmishing pictuies and doing|British government, and as¢ other damage. - December tclephone bills wi The gir] fled and telephoned|still coming in his name. i for help, and by the time the|takes & Jong time to get dig : police arrived the apartmentitories chanped in Cairo. ~ ca was a shambles and the two men |me a : ; had passed out. American Ambassador Jeffer- son Caflery next Morning, as the first business of the day, walked across the sircet to Brit- isn Ambassador Sir Ralph Siev- enson, formally declared Mac- burch ps nanan decal: AE ert te the American Embassy and demanded damages for the girl's effects. “4 ae Sir Ralph ordesed Maclean/: SRS a Sera er SRP R RRMA g Cairo and did not even per- mit him to come into the em-!: iT Prmmrrrs