I Spy One of the things I find most striking
about all this spying business is how easy it makes the job of journalists. Consider. A journalist has only to write 'Mr. X was an agent of the British intelli- gence in the Middle East,' and, not, merely does he thrill his readers, but he also has no fear of contradiction, for denial would simply be what everyone expects. No spy is going to admit he is a spy. it all reminds me of the man who, when asked on a visa form: Are you an anarchist?, refused to put 'no' on the grounds that this was what a real anarchist would say. So the journalist has his story—indeed dozens of stories—at the cost of a little expense of imagination and the typing of a couple of paragraphs. Continental journalists learned to apply this technique to the doings of 'Le Intelligence Service' decades ago. Their British colleagues arc now making up for lost time. Perhaps, however, they are missing their vocation. To think out eight logical ex- planations of the Philby affair on the available evidence is quite easy, but the really profitable place for this sort of speculation is between 'the boards of a thriller. There it can be done justice and help many a sufferer through influenza.
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