Cairo
In 1948, he was appointed head of Chancery at the British embassy in Cairo. As soon as he arrived, however, Maclean had problems with his KGB contact, who arranged their meetings in the Arab quarter. Yuri Modin, explains that the tall, blond Briton in immaculate suit and tie felt conspicuous "as a swan among geese." Maclean suggested that, instead of these absurdly dangerous games, Melinda should simply pass the information to the wife of the Soviet resident at the hairdresser. "Melinda was quite prepared to do this," Modin reports.
At this time Britain was the major power in the Middle East with troops in both the Canal Zone and nearby Palestine. So this was an important post, where the Russians were seeking to undermine the Arab Kingdoms, including Egypt, which Britain supported. British policy was one of laissez-faire or non-interference with the corruption surrounding King Farouk. Maclean disagreed strongly and felt that Britain encourage reform which alone, in his opinion, could save the country from communism. "And, except to stress its dangers, that was all I ever heard Donald say about communism." recalls Geoffrey Hoare, the News Chronicle Cairo correspondent.
By now, the double life was telling on Maclean. He began drinking, brawling and talking about his life as a spy. The second incident was far more serious. In March, 1950, Melinda organised a trip up the Nile to Helouan in a felucca as a treat for her sister Harriet. A ghaffir or armed night watchman challenged them on arrival with an antiquated rifle. Maclean sprang at him, wrested the rifle away and swung it around his head, threateningly. An embassy colleague who tried to restrain him broke his leg in the tussle. After another drunken brawl which resulted in the wrecking of a female embassy staffer's apartment, Melinda intervened. She told the ambassador that Donald was ill and needed leave to see a London doctor.
Read more about this topic: Donald Maclean (spy)
Famous quotes containing the word cairo:
“St Louis, that city of outward-bound caravans for the West, and which is to the prairies, what Cairo is to the Desert.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“The Cairo conference ... is about a complicated web of education and employment, consumption and poverty, development and health care. It is also about whether governments will follow where women have so clearly led them, toward safe, simple and reliable choices in family planning. While Cairo crackles with conflict, in the homes of the world the orthodoxies have been duly heard, and roundly ignored.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)