Ex-Foreign Office man admits contact with spy

Press, 26 December 1979, Page 6

Ex-Foreign Office man admits contact with spy

NZPA Londor A former top British Foreign Office official, Johr .Cairncross. has admitted that he passed on information to the Soviet spy. Guy Burgess, but he has denied that it. was “hot intelligence.” And as a Labour member of Parliament demanded s Government statement on “yet another Establishment cover-up.” Mr Cairncross, who is 66, now in retirement in Rome, said he had beer very fortunate not to have been prosecuted. His links with Burgess — they were both members ol the notorious Cambridge Communist cell in the 1930 s — were discovered by the security services in 1951. They were exposed for the first time in the London “Sunday Times” at the week-end. After the case was revealed. a member of Parlia ment, Dennis Canavan, whr wrote personally to the

Queen over the Anthony Blunt affair, said: “This latest case reveals yet another Establishment cover-up which has gone on for 28 .years. ! “The public are entitled to know what other people ; were involved in espionage (activities and whether they I have been granted immunity ■ from prosecution.” I According to the “Sunday Times,” Mr Cairncross gave Burgess up-to-the-minute accounts of Britain’s diplomatic strategy and inside I top-level political options in (the turbulent months leading !fo the outbreak of World IWar 11. This was a time when StaIlin was deciding whether to [join a Western alliance or do a deal with Hitler. ! Asked by the 8.8.C.’s World at One News programme what he had given Burgess that he was clearly 'able to pass on to Moscow. Mr Cairncross said: "Opinions about Britain going to

war or arming. I don’t really remember, they were general summaries.” 1 Speaking from his flat tn ; Rome, he said Burgess had ! expressed an interest in i character sketches of leading : , politicians. but. said Mr [Cairncross: “If I had been a ’ spymaster. I wouldn’t have ’ regarded this as hot intelligence.” The spy had invited him : to at least one party and : they had met socially, but Mr Cairncross disagreed that : he had been asked for information. “It’s very difficult to reI'construct. It was not a -direct thing." he said. ■ I “One can elicit informa--|tion if one has a certain ■ skill, which he undoubtedly had.” i: He said that he was very [surprised when he was i; interviewed by counter-in-•’telligence men. “It was so long ago, it was an episode I had completely forgotten, i he said.