How MI6 failed to spot the mole in its ranks

In a scene reminiscent of John Le Carre’s thriller Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, files released by the National Archive reveal how a Russian defector came close to unmasking the Cambridge spy ring – only to be betrayed to his death by traitor Kim Philby.

Soviet intelligence had recruited at least five former Cambridge students before World War Two, who went on to work in the upper echelons of the British espionage world.

Diplomats Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess defected to the Soviet Union in 1951, sparking the hunt for the “third man” – a fellow traitor who had tipped them off that their covers had been blown.

Suspicion quickly fell on Harold “Kim” Philby, but not enough evidence could be found to convict him of spying for Russia.

But 420 documents released by the National Archive contain evidence that all three men could have been unmasked years before the secret finally came out.

Suitcase of secrets

In September 1945 Russian diplomat Constantin Volkov turned up at the British consulate in Istanbul, offering to hand over a suitcase containing the names of 250 Soviet agents working in Britain and 314 in Turkey, in exchange for £50,000 and asylum in the UK.

He said he could expose two moles working in the Foreign Office and seven in British intelligence, including one “fulfilling the functions of the head of a section of the British counter-espionage service in London”.

This description fitted Philby, but before he could be exposed, the traitor took personal charge of the case. He tipped off the KGB, then deliberately delayed a trip to Istanbul, giving Moscow time to act.

When Philby arrived in Turkey, the unfortunate Volkov had been flown back to Russia on an aircraft carrying a Soviet military doctor.

The would-be defector would almost certainly have been tortured and executed by the Soviets – a sign that the names in the briefcase were genuine.

But MI6 chief Sir Stewart Menzies ruled out an investigation that might have unearthed the traitors.

After Maclean and Burgess slipped out of the country, Philby told his superiors Maclean and Burgess could both have been double agents, in an attempt to deflect suspicion from himself.

He talked of Maclean having photographic equipment, and told his chief there was “little doubt that Burgess had available the essential requirements of an espionage agent”.

‘Gnawing on a leg of mutton’

The papers also show how US officials found it hard to understand how men like Burgess and Maclean had been allowed to reach positions of influence in the secret world.

Both men had homosexual tendencies at a time when gay sex was illegal in Britain. Both drank heavily and could behave erratically when drunk.

The files contain a string of bizarre stories about Maclean, who was married but bisexual.

One account of Maclean, describing his behaviour while posted to Cairo, recorded that “Maclean was often drunk in public, that on one occasion he knocked down the Assistant Military Attache at the latter’s own party and that ‘on more than one occasion’ Maclean had to be picked up drunk off Princess Faiza’s doorstep”.

On a boat trip in 1949, he “got fighting drunk”, ending up with his hands around his wife’s throat, and had to be separated by other diplomats, one of whom suffered a broken leg.

Donald Maclean and his friend broke into an adjacent flat belonging to an American girl serving at the US embassy, in which they proceeded to destroy everything breakable

According to another account: “Donald Maclean and his friend broke into an adjacent flat belonging to an American girl serving at the US embassy, in which they proceeded to destroy everything breakable.”

They were later “found lying quietly in bed giggling. Donald Maclean had a leg of mutton in his hand which he was gnawing.”

Maclean was sent home in disgrace after this incident, and was treated for a nervous breakdown.

Unkempt, promiscuous and frequently drunk, Burgess was also frequently hauled in front of disciplinary boards.

One security officer wrote: “Burgess appears to be a complete alcoholic and I do not think that even in Gibraltar have I seen anyone put away so much hard liquor in so short a time.”

After Burgess and Maclean evaded their MI5 watchers and escaped across the Channel in 1951, US officials complained that they would never have been given access to sensitive material in Ameria, according to the British embassy in Washington.

“They pointed out that in the State Department repeated drunkenness, recurrent nervous breakdowns, sexual deviations and other human frailties are considered security hazards, and persons showing any one or more of them are dismissed summarily.

“The incident, these officials said, has severely shaken the State Department’s confidence in the integrity of officials of the Foreign Office.”

Darling mum…

The authorities were anxious about the prospect of Burgess and Maclean returning to Britain after defecting.

A “drill” was prepared detailing how the traitors should be arrested and processed if they came back.

Letters from the two spies to loved ones in Britain were intercepted, with forensic experts poring over the types of ink used and the grade of paper to try to figure out their location.

Burgess put a brave face on life in Moscow in letters to his mother, but by the end of the 1950s he was writing of his hopes of returning to Britain.

Ironically, MI5 used Anthony Blunt, the Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures, to put him off the idea.

Blunt wrote to Burgess: “You would be arrested on landing – that is certain – and put on trial.

“What the outcome of the trial would be is, of course, a matter of speculation, but on the way the whole story would be raked up again, many of your friends would certainly be called as witnesses, and mud would be slung in all directions.”

It was not until 1964 that Blunt admitted his own role in the Cambridge spy ring.

MI5 accepted that they could not prove Philby was the “third man” and no criminal case could be brought against him.

Philby, codename Peach, was publicly exonarated by the Prime Minister, but had to quit his job in MI6. He worked as a journalist in the Middle East before finally confessing his treachery and defecting to Russia in 1963.