Lord Rothschild Demands Britain Clear His Name in Spy Rumor

Britain’s spy dispute took a new twist Thursday when Lord Victor Rothschild, a member of the wealthy international banking family and former secret agent, demanded his name be cleared of suggestions he was a Soviet spy.

In a letter to the Daily Telegraph newspaper, the 76-year-old merchant banker said there have been innuendoes in the press over the last few years that he was the mysterious “fifth man” in the notorious “Cambridge spy ring,” which included Kim Philby, Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean and Anthony Blunt.

Philby, called possibly the most damaging spy in British history, became known as the “third man” because he alerted Burgess and Maclean to flee to Moscow in the 1950s when their spying was exposed. Philby eventually joined them and lives in Moscow. Burgess and Maclean have died.

Six years ago, Blunt, another former MI-5 officer and the queen’s art curator, was unmasked as the “fourth man” in the ring. Because Rothschild was a friend of Blunt’s and also knew Burgess, rumors were revived that he was the “fifth man.”

Rothschild, a former senior officer in the counterespionage service MI-5, called on the agency’s present head to clear his name publicly.

“The director-general of MI-5 should state publicly that it has unequivocal, repeat unequivocal, evidence that I am not, and never have been, a Soviet agent,” he wrote.

Cleared Earlier

Rothschild, a confidant of several prime ministers, was questioned and cleared after Blunt confessed to being a Soviet spy.

Allegations against Rothschild resurfaced this week in connection with a court case in Australia, where the British government is trying to block publication of a book by former MI-5 officer Peter Wright.

Wright said in court that he had been put in touch with journalist Chapman Pincher, with whom he cooperated on a previous book on MI-5, by Rothschild. Among the claims in that book was that former MI-5 chief Roger Hollis, now dead, was a Soviet agent.

Wright’s statement prompted allegations by opposition Labor Party members in Parliament that Rothschild had brought the two together in order to highlight the Hollis claim and remove suspicion that he was the “fifth man” in the spy ring recruited at Cambridge University by the Soviet Union in the 1930s.

In Parliament on Thursday, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher refused to act immediately to clear Rothschild’s name.

“I have seen Lord Rothschild’s letter published this morning. That letter is being considered by the government. I cannot add anything further at this stage,” Thatcher said after legislators from all parties urged an immediate statement.