The Sunday Herald (Sydney, NSW : 1949 - 1953), Sunday 20 September 1953, page 9

The

Vanishing
mumm.iiilllimlllllMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIMIIIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIinlll

Lady

Sets

A
Staff in

New
Correspondent London.

Puzzle!

Melinda Maclean, photographed with two of Northolt Airport, London, on her the French Riviera in return from a holiday on September, 1951-four months after her husband's
Mrs. her children at

disappearance.
ililli!!!

National Library of Australia

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18512017

and tentatively behind the Iron Free Europe Curtain-this weekend 10,000 police and Security officers are Maclean. Mrs. Melinda seeking the "Vanishing Lady" thing happened when much the same months Mrs. Maclean's brilliant, neurotic husband, Donald, and his
All
over
-

Foreign Office colleague, alcoholic Guy Burgess, disappeared at St. Malo, France. after leaving a cross-Channel steamer

NOW
Foreign Security

erics

of the cannonade the British that

Office

is inept in is raised matters ever loudly than more through the disappearance

the possiMaclean might try to get in touch with her, the spokesman replied: had
bility

kept in mind that Donald

of Mrs.

Maclean.
of atom in spies,

The
the of

cases

Klaus Fuchs

and Nunn

disappearance atomic expert,

May, Europe

tecorvo, are

Bruno Pon perhaps somewhat illogically dragged in to support a theory that the Foreign Office has once again slipped
security.

the possibility, "There was it is quite unreaof course, but to suggest sonable for anyone that a perfectly blameless who woman happens to be who vanishmarried to a man should ed in a strange way could be constantly be or hounded and spied upon." Was
aware

the

Foreign

Office

on

facts, and the Mrs. Maclean's posiliving quietly in Geneva tion, she did with her mother, as

What

are

that between July, 1952, and last June, Mrs. Maclean 16 journeys (three of made in one day) over the them frontier few miles a French from Geneva? The Foreign Office answer: evi-1 is absolutely no 'There that these trips had any dence significance."
j I

what was

and three She

20
last

children?

left

England

on

July

year for Paris, and twOj months later settled in Geneva

in

above a shop. week-end, a Foreign Ofhce spokesman told a "Sunrepresentative: day Herald" "My dear fellow, this lady has been completely a free agent
a

flat

This

16 Trips

Over

The Frontier
Is Swiss
official
'

it asked true that we police to keep an uneye on her9

with
ftas

We certainly were in touch the Swiss police, but it

all

\cry

%ery

unofficial.

Do
men the

\ou imagine we trailing her time,

could have all around going everywhere she

if

went1

she had wanted boat, plane or tram to Russia there was nothing we could have done about She was a private person vital m of no possession
to

In fact

pick

up

it

itcrets

"

Asked

if

the Foreign

Office

last week, allegedly from her missing of the two wife of Donald Maclean, one daughter, British diplomats who disappeared in France nearly two and a half years ago.

The telegram Mrs. Dunbar received

Mrs. Melinda Maclean,

iNIIIIMMMINIINNIIimillMIIINUIIIIIIINIHIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIIIilflM

Foreign Office refused diswhether to disclose any creet inquiries had been made in Moscow or other Iron Curtain countries since Maclean and Burgess vanished on May It will not 26, 1951. make the identity or whereknown of the abouts, at the moment, said to have two Security men directly to Switzerland gone disapafter Maclean's Mrs. made known. pearance was can "We say nothing about them, nor say where they are," said the spokesman. the the time, same At mystery of "Robin Muir" has is Mrs. Maclean deepened. said to have told her mother just before disappearing that she was to visit "Muir," whom had she and her husband in Cairo, at the villa known Muir and his wife occupied Montreux. near The

But meanwhile, beyond the the case public disquiet over and the Maclean of Mrs. evasions of the Foreign Office, it be said that at least in can

I was police knew small hired car. I was closely questioned career whole and about my of work, going back a number out

and only in

years. authorities Security still maintain a strong interconnected, howest in anyone ever tenuously, with Maclean and Burgess. Britain,

Then I back and

is

was

slapped

on

the
"It

told

jocularly,

of matter you're in the clear."

a

just

routine,

In
was

November,
Tatsfield,

last

year,

Surrey, the at village from which the two .Office drove Foreign men away
to

I was asked to write nothing for "burglary" the about "Security reasons."

Southampton to catch boat for France. I was gathering material for article and a "Sunday Herald" hired a taxi which waited for while I walked round Macme in the lean's deserted house
their village.

few days later I realised wise to agree to write nothing, for the "burglary" A
was

never

happened.

I learned from another polthat the interviews ice source

A
police office

few

days

later, London

called

at the "Herald's"

had been an elaborate plan to find out precisely what was my interest in Donald Maclean I had and why spent hours in

villagers those questioning and asked to see me. him. who knew conmuch roundabout investigating The Mrs. Police versation Mysterious at the police station I was Maclean's disappearance have told it was understood last Robin Muir I established that she was had been in Tatsfield questhe railway station at seen on tioning villagers about Machas The Foreign Office Lausanne, in Switzerland, with that there had been checked the suggestion that lean-and the children a few minutes a burglary on the day of my "Muir" colleague of was a visit. before the Sofia-bound Orient in the Cairo Donald Maclean due in at 2.50 It was pointed out, sooth- Express was Embassy, and has been unable I on ingly, that September 12. could not, of a.m. find any of a man trace to not Mrs. Mac-, have had anything to or Whether course, of that name having been emdo with the burglary, as heavy lean caught this train, bound in Egypt. ployed by them carried for inside the Iron Curtain, is been But meanwhile, beyond the furniture had I was knew mark

After

now

ing tion.

over

the question mark hangthe whole investiga-

The black Chevrolet car in her she drove from which flat on Geneva September 11 found in a garage early was
last

sary him, hood fiom

of Maclean and that in is now she Switzerland.

to
all

rejoin
likeli-

far

away

Two

Days In
a

Wednesday.

Lonely Mountains
well-held theory that time Mrs. Maclean a tenuous however -by knowhad some thread-has and his ledge of her husband whereabouts. Last February she "vanIt was ished" for a week. afterwards found she had gone a winter holiday to Villars, from miles 100 resort, Geneva. Villars her brother From in-law, Mr. Shears, took her in Norlonely house to a She stayed there a mandy. then returned to week and She "disappeared" Geneva. also while staying in August, 1951, in a villa at Beauvallon, the Riviera. for That was on
It is for
some

"The'Little
Lost
AU
is

Lamb"
or

that

two

torn a called

remains in the car and three cartons fairy book children's Little Lost "The

Lamb." telegram, a came Then allegedly sent by Mrs. Maclean, to Mrs. Dunbar, at Geneva, but in fact, sent by someelse. Lodged at Territet, in Switzerland, it read:
one

Terribly sorry delay in unfor contacting you have circumstances seen Am arisen. staying here advise longer. Please returning schoolboys all about a xoeeks time
-

extremely well-pink rose in marvellous form-love Melinda. from all

-

spelling

a curious misthe telegram. The was "circumstances" word in the French spelt originally way-"circonstances" and the himself had wire operator altered the "on" to "um."

There

was

in

Swiss Police Chief Charles Knecht said the telegram was with a much sent by a woman than Mrs. rounder face Maclean's. The sender spoke

"it not was but English, Mrs. Maclean," he said. original of the teleThe is reported to have been gram taught 20 written in a manner in Swiss and Cenyears ago tral European schools and not in the

Anglo-Saxon

style.

London Authoritative inclined to believe circles are well that Mrs. Maclean may her husto join have gone
band. A Foreign Office described a report that she had "pretty kidnapped as been can nonsensical as far as we gather." as regarded theory The is Mrs. likely that most voluntarily went Maclean with an emisto a rendezvous of Maclean
to rejoin
official

DONALD

MACLEAN

later only two days, which, appeared, she spent high up in in mountains lonely the Maures, near Saint Tropez. she now months For many has been living with her mother flat a in a above shop in

it

Geneva, mostly shunning

tact

con-

with outsiders and conthe welfare of centrating on her children. she has Never appeared

was and of money, -in June, reported had 1952, that her husband transferred to her account the of 1,000 sterling. The sum said to have come was money from a Prague bank to one in Zurich, and thence to her

short

it

reliably

account

in

England.
the
once

all after Now, months, she has

quiet

again
lady.

become

the vanishing