And Is There Honey Still For Tea? Read Online Free Page B

representative in Washington, a post in which he would no doubt have remained indefinitely. But when Burgess and Maclean disappeared, suspicion fell on Philby as being the so-called Third Man: that is to say, a spy who had worked for many years with Burgess and Maclean to pass some of our most sensitive secrets – not to mention those of his own country – to the Soviet Union. He was forced to resign from MI6 but, remarkably, he was exonerated after a number of inquiries. He later re-emerged as a freelance journalist working for a number of respected titles, including The Economist. He was last seen in Beirut in 1963, from where he disappeared, like his friends Burgess and Maclean, no doubt to a hero’s welcome in Moscow.
    I obtained some of the information for this article from sources who cannot be named for fear of compromising their professional standing and, indeed, their personal safety. But much information is now in the public domain as a result of more recent well-publicized scandals in Great Britain, which frustrated the natural inclination of the British government to cover up the failings of its security services. In 1961, a Russian-born intelligence officer, Gordon Lonsdale, was unmasked as a spy, arrested and prosecuted. In 1962, George Blake, an officer of MI6, was convicted of spying for the Soviets since the early 1950s. In the same year, John Vassall was likewise arrested and convicted of passing Admiralty secrets. In 1963, the British Minister for War, John Profumo, was compelled to resign after the revelation of his relationship with a call-girl by the name of Christine Keeler, whose services he was sharing with a naval attaché at the Soviet Embassy in London – an affair in which many believe MI6 was implicated.
    Certain questions must be asked. What do these British spies have in common? Is there anything which explains the reluctance of the British government to reveal their activities frankly and openly, if not publicly, at least to its most important ally, the United States? Are there others linked to the known spies, still at large and in positions of influence, who continue to betray their country and ours to the Soviets? If so, who are they?
    First, what do they have in common? Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, and Kim Philby are all graduates of Trinity College or Trinity Hall in the University of Cambridge and began their studies there in the period 1929 – 1931. All are known to have had communist sympathies during their time in Cambridge. Maclean and Philby were members of the Cambridge University Socialist Society. Burgess had also been a member of the Apostles, a secretive debating society based in Trinity College which has left-wing, anti-establishment tendencies. The three men continued to associate after their time at Cambridge and worked their way into the heart of the British establishment where they were seemingly immune from suspicion and where they had ample opportunity to pass secrets. They did this by posing as loyal patriots who had repudiated their early sympathies with communism. In 1937 Philby went to Spain to cover the civil war as a journalist from the Franco side, and received an award – the Red Cross of Military Merit – from the General personally for his efforts. Burgess and Maclean also took steps to hide their left-wing leanings. All three are known to drink heavily. Burgess is a known homosexual – the practice of which is a criminal offence in England. All three have been implicated by Soviet defectors in the business of espionage. And Burgess and Philby had a long, close personal and professional relationship with James Jesus Angleton, now the doyen of the CIA, a man educated in England and inured in English ways, and who learned his trade as a spy at the feet of Kim Philby.
    Are there likely to be others? There have been whispers of a ‘fourth man’. But in truth it would not be surprising if there were a fifth, sixth, or even a