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ras ignlle . must Yet the Burgess build-up cgn- nues. Many of his friends ent to fight in Bpain. He gid t. Mr. Driberg is not content ; merely, to state that fact. tL) declaim that “Guy re- ' ‘gtsted the emotional urge to follow the example of these heroic friends.” * : Who cares? : HAT 1s an example of something phoney {n the whale thing. It sounds a false, cracked note. In the pottery trade it would be known as “seconds.” After all this we are Invited to take serlousiy Burgess’s views on men and events. "Guy thinks this.” “Guy finds that.” Who cares ? “Guy Burgess considers that it was Bevin, even more than the Americans, who was respon- sible, oY, his continuation pf Churchill's policy, for starting the Cold War.” he opinion is worthless, Bat tHe sentence is loaded with ig- shiuation. It infers that it was al Labour Foreign Minister, a nservative Prime Minister, and the U.S. who were respon- sible for the perennia) crisis in which we are living today. Not Russia! Never Russia ! And that is the real theme of this book. Upon the slender story of Burgess's life (he eats four ezes for his breakfast and ‘wears an Old Etonian bow-tie |) and the interesting narrative of the flight from Britain is hung the continual suggestion that the West is the sinner and Russia the saint. It is the | Driberg theme-song. # It is that of Burgess too. When he was at the B.B.C. he saw to it that a “harmless” series on food was turned into Left-Wing propaganda. A series on Spain gave equal time to oth sides, But Burgess “ cdi- rived that the Repubiican siqe hould be reported by the bett@r. peakers.” So that is how It Js done Mr, Driberg should not have ven the game away, At one int he solemnly tells ug: ‘Chamberlain and W “acre not, of course. conscio ahd deliberate traitors Britain.” The ingenuousness of that phrase, in the context of this book, is delicious. But Driberg is not being funny—at Jeast not intentionally 50. Some statements will make the reader queasy. One fs that Burgess and Maclean went to Russia “for the sake of prin- . ciple... in the earnest hope of doing something. however smali, to secure world peace.” Sadness ACLEAN went because he was in imminent danger of arrest. Biggess went becalise Maclean asHed him to. Even in Prague hel half-thought of going to Ita@y because “After all I done my part by Donald—I delivered him behind the ‘Irqn Curtain’ ” So much for tle “earnest hope of securing wor peace." > We proceed to Mr. Driberg’s final dissertation on treason, which few will find acceptable, and to Burgess's statement that he hopes to return to England “when the hysteria of the Coid War period has completely died down.” Since Russia has restarted the war by the murder of Hungary it seems that it will be some time yet before, his native land will have the prvieg and pleasure of seeing im again: Weep, Britannia ! The healthy-minded reader will turn from this book with a cling of sadness. It congerns en who are rootiess and fgith- 14@ss, with little idea of pringple, nour, dignity. or truth. ere pps they deserve our pity rAther than our censure.