◆ SpookStack

(ii) Stephen Ward Attempts to;Siave Off a Prosecetion a | i 201, These inquiries by the police got to Stephen Ward's notice aod rs he began to be nervous about them. He took exceptional action. On 7th May, 1963, he telephoned the Prime Minister’s Private Secretary and asked to gee him. An appointment was made for that evening and arrangements: Sere! made for an officer of the Security Service to be present. ui eine 207 _. 202. A note was taken of the conversation. It appeared to the Vrime Minister’s Private Secretary at the time (and the note bears it out) that the main object of Stephen Ward's visit was to get the police inquiries called off and to blackmail the Government by threatening that, unless the inquiries _were dropped, he, would expose Mr. Profumo’s illicit association with Christine Keeler. Here are a few extracts from the note: Stephen Ward said “You see the facts as presented probably in Parliament were not strictly’ speaking just like that. I fear a change may be forced in the. situation .~ - ] made a considerable sacrifice for Mr. Profumo . . . I feel I should tell you the truth of what really happened. You probably kniow as a matter of fact anyway. He wrote Miss Keeler a series of letters. The attachment was - @ much deeper one than . . . F don’t know whether you have any feelings about this, whether there is anything you can do. I know myself here that ‘there is a great deal of potentially extremely explosive material in what I've told you”. ~~ ee cos 203. Stephen Ward next took to writing letters, still in the hope, apparently, of staving off a prosecution. On 19th May, 1963, he wrote this letter to the Home Secretary: oo, . _ “Tt has come to my attention that ‘the’ Marylebone police are s questioning my patients and friends in a line, however tactful, which is - extremely damaging to me both professionally and socially. This enquiry has been going on day after day for weeks. TL; The instruction to do this must have come from the Home Office. Over the past few weeks I have done what I could to ‘shield. Mr. Profumo from his indiscretion, about which I complained to the Security Service at the time. When he made a statement in Parliament I backed it up although I knew it to be untrue. ar a Possibly my efforts to conceal his part and to return to him a letter which Miss Keeler had sold to the Sunday Pictorial might make it appear that I had something to conceal myself. I have not. The allegations which appear to be the cause of investigation, and which I only know through the line of questioning repeated to me, are malicious and entirely false. It is an invention of the Press that Miss Keeler knew a lot of important people. a, _ It wag by accident that she met Mr. Profumo and through Lord Astor that she met him again. I intend to take the blame no longer. - .; That I was against this liaison is a matter of record in the War Sir Godfrey Nicholson who has been a friend for 25 possession of most of the facts since I consulted him at an 67