HC Deb 18 June 1951 vol 489 cc30-3
47. Mr. Duncan Sandys

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what positions in the public service were held by Mr. Guy Burgess in the last five years and during what periods; and whether the Government was aware of his associations with Communist circles.

Mr. Younger

On 5th June, 1944, Mr. Burgess joined the News Department of the Foreign Office where he remained until December, 1946, when he was appointed an Assistant Private Secretary to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland, who was then Minister of State. In November, 1948, he was transferred to the Far Eastern Department of the Foreign Office and on 7th August, 1950, he was appointed to His Majesty's Embassy in Washington with the temporary and local rank of Second Secretary. The Government were not aware of Mr. Burgess having associations with Communist circles of a kind which throw doubt on his reliability.

Mr. Sandys

Were the Foreign Office not aware of the strongly expressed Communist sympathies of Mr. Burgess when he was given the very confidential appointment as personal assistant to the Minister of State? Were they not aware of those Communist sympathies when they decided to put him on the permanent establishment in 1947?

Mr. Younger

I have already said in my answer that the Government were not aware of any associations with Communism or any Communist views which were thought to affect the reliability of Mr. Burgess. The right hon. Gentleman must appreciate that in speaking of "strong Communist views" he is using a phrase which is very vague and is liable to be misinterpreted.

Mr. Sandys

May I ask whether the information now available to the Foreign Office about Mr. Burgess was available to them at the time when his appointment was made or whether they have subsequently acquired information about this gentleman's views which, if they had had it at the time, would have precluded them from appointing him to this position?

Mr. Younger

I am not prepared to make any statements about very recent inquiries, but before these recent events Mr. Burgess was subjected to a security check.

Mr. Pickthorn

Can the right hon. Gentleman say whether the Foreign Office, when it appoints persons with university or similar degrees, always consults those academic authorities who know most about the person so appointed?

Mr. Younger

I think that under the modern system which has been adopted since the war general inquiries of many kinds are made, not only about people's academic attainments but also about their general character, and no doubt the sources which the hon. Member has mentioned are among those from which inquiries are made.

Mr. Somerset de Chair

Is it not a fact that the Government themselves recently instituted a purge of people with Com- munist affiliations who were holding positions of a confidential nature in the Government service? If so, how is it that Mr. Burgess escaped that scrutiny? Are we to understand that nobody in the Foreign Service was subjected to the scrutiny?

Mr. Younger

It would not be correct to assume that. As I stated in a previous answer, a security check was made on Mr. Burgess some time ago and it was negative in its result.

Brigadier Head

When Mr. Burgess was taken on as a permanent member of the Foreign Office staff, was he again screened before he entered this confidential employment?

Mr. Younger

I do not think so. Frankly, I do not see why he should have been. That does not seem to me to have been a particularly appropriate moment. He had already been in the Foreign Service and other forms of Government employment some time before that. His establishment did not give him an any more confidential position than he had before, and I do not think that a check was made at that time.

Mr. Godfrey Nicholson

Is the right hon. Gentleman prepared to leave the House and the country with the impression that there may be other members of the Foreign Service in similar confidential positions who hold views of the same nature that Mr. Burgess was known to hold at that time?

Mr. Younger

No, Sir, I hope that the hon. Gentleman will not make any remark which is a general reflection on the Foreign Service or, indeed, upon the public service generally. We may not all take the same views of people's political views as the hon. Gentleman does.

Hon. Members

Oh!

Mr. Emrys Hughes

Has my right hon. Friend seen the statement in the American Press that some of the stiffest Notes to Russia, which were approved by the Opposition, were composed by Mr. Burgess?

Mr. Eden

I should like to elucidate the right hon. Gentleman's last answer about political views. Has it not always been the assumption by us all that the Civil Service has no part in political views?

Mr. Younger

That is absolutely correct. I should like to say that it is very dangerous to bandy about these general phrases as if any of them constitute a proper criterion for checking the views of civil servants and members of the public service. The phrase "Communist sympathies" has been used in a very inaccurate manner on many occasions.

Mr. Eden

Then I cannot understand what the right hon. Gentleman's answer means.

Mr. Younger

If I am right in remembering the answer to which the right hon. Gentleman is referring, I was saying that to use a phrase such as "the sympathies which Mr. Burgess was known to hold" was far too vague. We may have very different views about what people's sympathies or political views portend.

Sir W. Smithers

What are the views of the right hon. Gentleman?

Mr. Younger

I have known many people referred to as having Communist sympathies who held views which were normally Liberal.

Mr. Sandys

Does the right hon. Gentleman, by his latest answer, imply that the highly Communistic views which have been widely expressed by Mr. Burgess could by any stretch of official tolerance be regarded as consistent with holding a position of confidence in a Minister's office?

Mr. Younger

I do not know to what particular views the right hon. Gentleman is referring as he has not explained it to this House. To try to make this a little more precise, perhaps I might say that what the Prime Minister said when we were discussing this matter some three years ago, was that it was the policy of the Government that no one who is known to be a member of the Communist Party or to be associated with it in such a way as to raise legitimate doubts about his or her reliability is employed in connection with work the nature of which is vital to the security of the State. I think that is a very reasonable way of putting it and that it is about as precise as one could make the standard.