Word: galbraithe
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...Vassall, 38, was actually planning to defect to Russia when he was arrested last September. Grimly, but without judging the accuracy of the story. Macmillan told the rest: Vassall had intended to go first to Italy, where he was to join his former boss, Thomas Galbraith, who had been Civil Lord of the Admiralty until three years ago. Then, said Macmillan, recalling the case of a nuclear physicist who defected to Russia by way of Italy in 1950, Vassall supposedly planned to "do a Pontecorvo." Moreover, "the clear implication" of the story was that Galbraith "also intended to defect...
McCarihyite Innuendo. While Galbraith listened stony-faced from the Tory benches, Macmillan added: "It was also said that my honorable friend was believed to have spent holidays abroad with Vassall before." Explaining that his informant had heard this account of the case from "a leading member of the press." Macmillan declared: "This story, if it were true, would amount to something akin to treason...
Earlier, Macmillan had denounced "speculation and innuendo" arising from a series of 25 fairly innocuous letters from Galbraith that had been discovered in Vassall's apartment (TIME, Nov. 16). Now he declared that, "however preposterous, however wicked and however vile" the charges, it was his "duty" to appoint a judicial tribunal to investigate the story -though hitherto he had brushed aside persistent Opposition demands for such a tribunal. This, Macmillan concluded, was "the only machinery open to us for the defense of innocent men if they be innocent, but for their condemnation if they be guilty...
...fully exploited by the Laborites, Prime Minister Macmillan ordered the correspondence published. Contrary to gossip, it turned out to be about as intimate as an Admiralty corridor. Addressed to "Dear Vassall" or "My Dear Vassall," the letters were mostly from the spy's former boss, pleasant, plodding Thomas Galbraith, 45, a Scottish M.P. who was Civil Lord of the Admiralty (roughly equivalent to U.S. Under Secretary of the Navy) until he was named Under Secretary for Scotland three years ago. Typical was Galbraith's note: "My room at the office is in a filthy state...
While the letters cast no doubts on Galbraith's loyalty and contained no suggestion of homosexuality, they nevertheless showed him as naive, overly trusting and unduly chummy with his lowly underling. Macmillan accepted his resignation, provoking anguished protests of "McCarthyism" and "guilt by association." Still, while Galbraith may or may not have been made a scapegoat, the fact remains that the British security system appears to be worthy of Colonel Barmitage...