Under the Table

To loyal readers of British spy fiction, it seems almost incredible that the cold-eyed watchdogs of counterintelligence in Whitehall could let H.M.G.'s closest secrets slip into the hands of the enemy. Yet Atom Scientist Klaus Fuchs got away with it, and so did Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess of the Foreign Office, not to mention the more recent indiscretions of Admiralty Clerk, William Vassall.

Each case has brought another examination of security procedures, and two trials last week at the Old Bailey were no exception. In one, Aviation Ministry Engineer Frank Bossard, 52, was sentenced to 21 years for photographing and selling, since 1961, heaps of missile data to the Soviets for $14,000. In another case, a Defense Ministry clerk. Sergeant Percy Allen, 33, got ten years for peddling data on Israeli arms to Iraq and Egypt.

One difficulty had been an overzealous concern with spies' legal rights, which prevented government officials from investigating suspected leaks until the courts rendered a verdict. The government's fear was that an announcement of an investigation might bias prospective jurors or witnesses. Nonetheless, three hours after Bossard's conviction, Prime Minister Harold Wilson announced in Commons that in the future, government employees will be grilled as soon as a lapse is discovered, though results will be kept private until after the trial. "It is not enough, once the horse has bolted, to have a high-level inquiry six months afterwards to see what went wrong," said Wilson.

Naturally, something had to happen to show that the barn door is still not locked. The very next night, Housing Minister Richard Crossman, an acid critic of the Vassall affair, took some work with him to dinner at the West End's elegant Prunier's restaurant. After coffee, he absentmindedly left behind under the table 18 sheets stamped "Confidential." At a nearby table was a Conservative businessman, Geoffrey Blundell-Brown, who gleefully retrieved the papers, read them, then called the Daily Express to lambaste the lapse. With that, Blundell-Brown returned the documents. Crossman said he was "much obliged"; Harold Wilson doubtless was much embarrassed.

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