Hoover 'told British Philby was spy’

Press, 28 November 1977, Page 8

Hoover 'told British Philby was spy’

i JNZPA-Reuter London I The London “Sunday Times” has said that J. (Edgar Hoover, the former (chief of the United States i Federal Bureau of In-; jvestigation, tried to unmask; ithe British-born spy Kim ( ■ Philby, eight years before hei (was finally shown to be an; (agent for the Soviet Union. The “Sunday Times” de-j voted nearly two pages ( yesterday to “startling' facts” it said its reporters I had uncovered in secret; F. 8.1. files obtained under; the United States Freedom of Information Act. The paper said that Hoover had evidence that Philby was the third man who tipped off Guy Burgess and Donald Mac Lean, two other British Foreign Office diplomats working as spies (for the Soviet Union. They 'fled to Russia in 1951 just .when British intelligence (was closing in on them. ‘ Philby, whose role as the 1

11 third man was confirmed i after he, too, headed for ;\ Russia in 1963, was first . I cleared by a British security ■{inquiry in 1955. ;j The “Sunday Times” claim ■; is that before the inquiry itook place Hoover alerted {top officials that Philby was, jin fact, a spy for the I Soviets. j One of the “Sunday ■j Times” reporters said there i were three reasons why this Jinformation did not lead to {.Philby’s unmasking at the ‘1955 tribunal. •: One was that Philby had {strong support in British Initelligence. Another was a feeling in Britain, in the wake of the McCarthy anti-com-munist witch-hunt, that Philby was being persecuted. i The third was that the British Foreign Secretary (Mr Harold MacMillan) who i told Parliament that Philby I was not a Soviet spy, only {received a brief from {Philby’s department. the 'Security Intelligence Service,,

which did not reflect th' F.B.T’s information or that c its closest British equivalent M. 1.5.