◆ SpookStack

HIS BREAK ONSIDER the facts of the Maclean and Burgess affair. yald Maciean, a brilliant {{ erratic British diplumat of Counselior’s rank wtth special knowledge of Ameri- can altairs and = Anglio- American relations. decided jn 1951 to cut and run for Russia, : He was quite a prize; for he knew the secret form in Washington and Leadon aimost equally well. He was obviously sincere in his move sind useful when he arrived ¢ for the Russians found ways of transferring £2.000 to his wife Melinda, She was enticed inte Switzerland and thence smuggled into Russia with her children to join her hayband. That sugvests some lonk-term employment of a political nature fur her husband. i: if is my belief that in the course of his embassy dities in Washington Maclean formed the strong impres- sion thit America, then aole custodian of the atom bumb. was moving towards a pyeventive war with Rijssia. . ' hat would explain the =——pagsionate ontbursts arainst Ardericans. It would give a desperate jdealfst a motive forjgoing East. Jt may even be]}that the wild man of Brifish diplomacy has since nn@iaged to infect the Russians with his own apprehensions, and — bring them to reason. _ Of course the death of Stalin in March 1953 made Diany things possible. But even before that there were signs of an unusual mind at work in the service of the Kremlin. When the East Coast floods fund was opened in February 1953, Russia sent us £90,000-—a gesture that would have occurred neither 1o Stalin nor Molotov. For our little catastrophes are sinall compared with the aullcrings of Asia. And the Kremlin men withou prompting would hardly giv titain’s floods a thought. GET-TOGETHER \ ITH bewildering speed the friend- ship campaign Tolied on througn§ the Malenkoy interim. It was not left to an exchange of sDteACHUS and Notes, Russian newspapers ceased tu claim that a Russian had invented the steam engine, that Edison stole the telephone fram oa Russian professor. ane Mar- coni Alehed his wireless tdeas from an unrecognised Letnin- grad genius. This relurn to Saniiy was accompanied by a subtle fel-together iech- nique. I ascribe to the Maclean jana Burgess brains trust. such touches as the evening na Moscow theatre dcvoied * been 1 the early 1954 directive ; Russian dipiomats in Wash- . ington and London ta. drinking more with Weste nequiintances, the stopp! Of dreary Marxist tracts, the fending of ballet companies and singers instead, T ascribe to them also the dropping af the Red. Dean. For someone has insinuateci ta the Kremlin leaders that there are better ways of gelling tension relaxed than parading this ecclesiastical band, Better facilities for tourists one- man” and journalists, a donation‘ to U.N. funds [or children, - reasoned and prompt Pres Teaction in Moscow. palatabte advertising on British hoardings, football teams and rowing fours, deiczates to the Edinburgh Festival Some of these visitors may be Secret Service men, but nevertheless in the war of gestures Russia has not een jJeft behind. She is actuplly ahead of us. tauzht the Suviet dea how to use public op: the Western way. « LIFE’S WORK i F Maclean and Someone fas ers ion Burgess were not In a high advisory capacity in Russia they would have been displayed to the world Jong ago, like the tneltectual Otte John in East Germat They would have allowed to broadcast and write articles for the Press. They would have been geiling drunk and smashing up cafés in satelite capltals, Instead of that, they have found their life’s work. To be sure the De-freeze has many atchitects at ail levels, from Churchill at the Summit to the Jeft wing af the Parliamentary Labour Party, But those deft and rapld touches in Moscow are the work of a team on the spot. What other experts nre there who have chosen the East?) You could count them on the fingers of one hand. And none of them frems 80 well suited to advife on what the West likds as Donald Duartl Macleaw abiv supported by Guy de Moner erm no Brifish contemporary art,” Bursess. / Og oy :