Authors: Tim Milne
8. As background to [one line of text redacted] it must be appreciated that since 1945 evidence had been accumulating of the extent to which Soviet Intelligence had successfully penetrated the British Intelligence Services during the war-time period of alliance. In all there were seven separate indications. The significance of the information recently obtained from Philby may be judged by the fact that it has resolved with certainty these causes of anxiety. It has also resulted in the removal of suspicion from several innocent people.
9. Philby’s disappearance was unexpected. The probable reason was his realisation that, as a result of his confession, it was impossible for him to continue his life in the West. To the best of our knowledge his wife was unaware of his treachery and intentions and she has given us all possible help in our enquiries into his whereabouts. We believe he left Beirut for Odessa clandestinely by a Russian ship on the night of the 23rd January.
Notes
1
. Sir William Strang, Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office 1949–53.
2
. Sir Percy Sillitoe, Director General of the Security Service (MI5) 1946–53.
3
. In fact, Major-General Sir John Sinclair did not become Chief of the SIS, or ‘C’, until 1953. At this stage, and at the time of the reference in paragraph 5 of this document to 17 January 1952, the Chief of the SIS was Sir Stewart Menzies, who served as ‘C’ from 1939 to 1953.
4
. Sir Patrick Dean, chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee 1953–60.
5
. Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick, Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office 1953–57.
6
. Klaus Fuchs, German scientist who worked on the Manhattan Project, the Anglo-US nuclear weapons programme, and betrayed its secrets to the Russians.
7
. David Greenglass and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were American communists who worked on the Manhattan Project and were among the Soviet ‘atom spies’; Harry Gold, another American communist, was a courier for the ‘atom spies’. The Rosenbergs were the only ‘atom spies’ to be executed, even though in Ethel’s case there was no evidence that she had done anything more than support her husband. Their execution while others served only relatively short prison sentences or went free altogether remains highly controversial.
†
White, a wartime friend of Philby, was Director General of MI5 (1953–6) before taking charge of MI6.
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