Treachery
Sir: Richard Deacon's review of Molehunt (Books, 21 March) questions the signifi- cance of the fact that not a single Soviet spy was caught by MI5 between 1953 and 1963, the decade when Graham Mitchell was successively director of counter-espionage and deputy director-general of the Security Service.
The detection of spies and the safe arrival of defectors are useful barometers of the relative integrity of any Western intelligence agency. Contrary to Deacon's view that 'during this period quite a num- ber of Russian spies were caught and defectors (some of them very important) were won over' there were neither. In reality not a single defector was received in Britain during this period and the only agents arrested were those identified from information supplied by the Americans.
According to one KGB officer who defected to the CIA, the reason for this parlous situation was obvious: the British Security Service had been penetrated at a high level by the Soviets.
Nigel West
310 Fulham Road, London SW10
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