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covered the Korean war from the north for The Worker and Humanité respectively. There is a further subdivision to their motivation. The three favourite Fefuges for defectors are Moscow, Prague and Eas: Berlin in that order ~ pot the 1968 Prague of Dubeek, but the suffocatingly oppressive Prague of Novotny and Gottwald. In other words they overwhelmingly chose the Qhree most intractably hard-line capi- tals. The reason for this is quickly apparent. In the freer air of Warsaw or Budapest they would have been considered raving lunatics to shanden the West and settic in the East, and would have been treated as such. In the tough capitals they had Big Brother's protection. J heve a theory of my own for their almos! manic secrecy, and I beliew it hss nothing to do with political fear, Most of ther were in, or on the fringes of journalism. They know that we know they lead miserable lives in shoddy apartments on coolie wages, scratch. ing for the odd bits and pieces thar make life Jess uncomfortable (Peet scoepted my invitation to hanch, paid for it himself in Eastmarks, and took my Westmarks for himself. Nothing wrong with that of course: it has been. done in every country which has had Gurrency trouble, including Britain). They can hear the laughter of their Weagues in El Vino’s and Poppins’ ” Fleet Street, and the thought galls. Sometime AgO, George Gale then of TL. ©... Tee Guagey Tires Wai touring Easi Berlin with a guide who said, “Alan Winnington hives there," pointing to an apartment block near the Karl Marx Allee. “Winnington,” said Gale. “Fhaven’t "en him since China 13 years ago. Let's call on him." They did so. Winnington peered out of the door and exclaimed, "George Gale! Haven't seen you since China!” He was cordial, but, said Gale, the Strange thing was “He did no! invite Toe into his fiat’”" Sunday Times. Shortly after that Colin Leweon of the Datly Express taw Winningion in East Berlin and com- mented on it. Winnington said, “Ob yes. But I was really in a predicament. J had just half an hour to finish a book I was writing. And I had to get the manuscript to the publisher there and then. T was really under pressure. Thad just 30 minutes. I could not ask George in. It was terribly important Gyre the deadline,” _ awson is one of the toughesi oc in Fleet Street. He cross-examined Winnington re- Morselessly about such a desperate deadline, found the answers uncon- vincing and his conclusion was that the aight of Gale was too painful for Win- fingion to face; a successful corres- ™ pondent free to travel at will, while he, Winnington of the Morning Star, had 20 years of wasted ideology behind him, without even the consolation of the ™ passionate ideals of the Thirties. —*) "Ome can see why tbe big names dare 16 The British Embessy, Paris, 1939: Donald Maciean “ringed) + ‘was third secretary, and to all appearances very moch one of the “‘chéres collegues” bot redefect, Sing Sing and Parkhurst offer prospects even less pleasing than the Kutuzovsky Prospect of Moscow, but one would think it would be comparatively easy and painless for the smal) fry, of whom there are many. But ibey stay put, too, and rerety tome back. Gne reason was suggested in an excelient book, 4 Room in Moscow, written by Sally Belfrage, who was one of them herself in the Fiftues. According to Miss Belfrage many of the expatriates had been ill-used and tortured before achieving limited acceptance. She asked them why they Sayed. They explained that the Soviet Union did not wish to give exit visas to Britush, French, Italian or other nationals who would then go bome and complain of brutaliy, So is Offered exit visas on condition they first became Soviet citizens (wonderful bureaucratic Soviet thinking). But fearing that they would then be even more at the mercy of the regime than before - and not believing & word the Russians tell them — they preferred uo keep their passports and stay. Statistics on the gubect are, of course, impossible to obtain. There may be ten of 18 famities living in East Beriin, not counting the floating wash of military deserters who are anally persuaded to wash back, a seore in Prague, at least one (the Noel Field family) in Budapest, about cight in Peking, and an incalculable number of all nationalities in Moscow. Some are farnous, even eminent, like Pontecorvo, Ivy Low Litvinov, widow of the Soviet Foreign Affairs Com- missar, and Delores Ibarrun, “La Pasionaria” of the Spanish Civil War, though the latter two can scarcely be described as “defectors. But most are obscure, working anonymously in the Foreign Languages Publishing eT pj gf ¢é i House. Some of the brighter ones are employed by Novosti, the go-go Press agency on Pushkin ‘Squuse, or by Moscow Radio. The British colony pines for Britain, but, like Archie Johnstone, is terrified Of the thought of the initiative wich would have to be applied to survive in a free society. The free medicine and free education are constantly stressed when its members talk to Westerners. But the tea-time ritual is observed as faithfully ds it ever was in the outer stations of the British Empire. The late René MacColl] of the Daily Express recalls how one defector recognised him, rushed up to him, and, struck almost dumb by the tumull of questions he was longing to ask, could only stammer out “And tell me . ere thine in Saletan Dinge @ Wormers Green 7" — a question which MacColl found truly sad. To was given limned access to the set because one of its members was longing for up-to-date gossip about Cricket the way Ben Gunn pined for cheese (or, for that matter, the three sisters for Moscow). He asked me to call him “just Jimmie” and insisted “i am very grateful to the Soviet Union for allowing me to stay.” Happily | was able to supply him with the cricketing fitbiu be wanted, and one of the in- direct upshot: was a brief session with Donald Maclean. The backbiting and oommunity hatred that goes on among the expatriates can be imagined, and T do believe that Khrushchev’s de- funciation of Stalin was less of a sen- sation to the colony than Melinda's decision to leave her husband and marry Kim Philby, Maclean had always been resented and envied. He held a responsible position in the Soviet Foreign Office, and when Gromyko had something to say in English, it was to Maclean's office that he looked for style. In comparison, Burgess, Johnstone, Dagleish and the others were shucked off to menial! tasks of translation. Wk WE Riation seems an eapential part of the Moscow defection scene and it is hard to avoid concluding that the Soviet Foreign Office authorities enjoy watching these hapless foreigners squirm Donald Maclean humiliated Guy Burgess by his superior position in the Soviet hier- archy. Maclean also humiliated Ralph Parker by coming to Moscow at all Parker was one of the odder birds of the Moscow crowd. He made the curious switch from one Moscow bureau of the London Times to the Moscow bureau of The Daily Worker. Ds ren rpied 2 D onesies wiel on. Ht Ofer: ie ae Trermed = Russiag girl and dawy in his lot with the Russians and is be- tieved to be the person who thoughi up the idea of accusing the United States of using germ warfare in Korea. James Cameron shared a room with him at the Bandung conference and fecalls him as “scemingty ili and in a sort of physical deapair”. Next Philby humibated Maclean by taking away his wife. And now Philby hirnself has been bumiliated. Whea George Blake, the spy, ecacaped dramatically from prison in England and turned up in Moscow, Philby took him rather patronisingly under his wing, introduced him to bis wife, aod to Melinda. But earlier this year Blake was awarded the prestigious Order of ‘Lenin, an award 50 far denied to Philby himeclf. The anger and social eenbarr- aasment of Philby, whe considered himself, and wes considered, the fhumber-one glamour-boy defector can be imagined. The Western authorities are also hot beyond joining in the gamé of humiliating the defectors. Robert = - ; Maclean, stil! handsome, “the man whe Pisys second fiddle to the Third Man” a l sn ne nr ~_