Former spy Maclean dies at 69

Press, 12 March 1983, Page 9

Former spy Maclean dies at 69

NZPA-Reuter New York Donald Maclean, the British diplomat who spied for the Soviet Union before escaping to Moscow with colleague Guy Burgess in 1951, has died in the Soviet capital, a friend of his family confirmed yesterday. The friend, who declined to be identified, said that the 69-year-old former spy had died in hospital on Tuesday. He had been in poor health for several months. Melinda Maclean, Donald Maclean’s daughter, who lives in New York, was unavailable for comment. Maclean fled to the Soviet Union in 1951 with fellow spy Guy Burgess, now dead, after being tipped off that British and American counter-intelli-

gence services were closing in on them. Maclean is believed to have passed on priceless foreign policy secrets to Moscow over a period of 15

years. Maclean took Soviet citizenship after his defection and worked as an analyst of British policies at a Moscow foreign relations institute. In conversations with journalists and other visitors he said that he had never regretted what he had done. But in later years he showed some disillusion with Soviet-style Communism, and frequently voiced admiration for the theories of the independent “Eurocommunist” paties of Italy and Spain. After returning home from hospital in December, Maclean said that he felt well and was planning to return to work. But visitors found him in poor shape and said that he was unable to leave the confines of his flat.