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FROM SUBJECT: ji f a, OPTIONAL POEM NO. 10 f 1e-108 M. emorandury | ‘maT 19462 ODITION Gha Gen, AEG. WO. 27 UNITED STATES GO\ .NMENT Mr. WW. C. Sullivan yg DATE W. A. pagan BOOK % EW "THE WHILBY CONSPIRACY" Bruce Page, David, Leitch, and ‘Phillip Knightley Harold Adrian Rycs- af) PL! Ly This memorandum is a review Of the above captioned book. Dthae PACKGROUND: . Py Philby is the former MI-6 (Eritish Intelligence Service) agent who defected to Russia in 1963 and is still there, He has written a book in which he states that he was recruited as a Soviet agent in 1933 and operated as such for 30 years. THE BOOK: The authors have written a comprehensive review of the entire life of Philby and have obviously contacted any peyson who had dealings with Philby. The weakest portion of the bo deals with Philby's stay in the U.S. from 1949 to 1951 and f this it can be assumed that their sources in the U.S..were not as cooperative as their British sources. The writers also tray the development of Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean ,as'well as Philby from their youth, through college, and their careers in the Eritish Government up until their defection to Russia, In analyzing the actions of these men, the writers feel that they were moved by a "quasi-religious faith" and believed that Russia was better than England because it had adopted communism, They feel that these men were successful because the British society could not comprehend that-an Englishman might be "in bond to an alien and all-justifying ideology." They also introduce the theory that British intelkigence decided to break Philby when they interviewed him in Béirut, Lebanon, in late 1962 and early 1963 and then frightened him into defecting rather than return him to England to BEG a trial with all its embarrassing . revelations. - ~<a _./ i 0 ee Ee ae , j ~b4 jmeate'v vo pigia . ——y- \, 3 (7 Y JPL: sic LI “connmxuey = OVER