No Sign Rothschild a Soviet Spy, Thatcher Says

LONDON —  There is no evidence that Lord Victor Rothschild was ever a Soviet agent, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said Friday, a day after the banker and World War II intelligence officer appealed for an official declaration clearing his name.

Thatcher’s brief statement fell short of the request by Rothschild, who had asked Britain’s MI-5 counterintelligence service to state publicly that it has “unequivocal evidence” disproving rumors that he was the “fifth man” in the infamous spy ring of Guy Burgess, Kim Philby, Donald Maclean and Anthony Blunt.

Rothschild, 76, a hereditary peer and former adviser to former Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath, made the request in a letter published Thursday in the London Daily Telegraph.

Thatcher caused an uproar in Parliament later Thursday by refusing to comment either way, saying that the government was still considering the plea.

“I am advised that we have no evidence that he was ever a Soviet agent,” Thatcher said in a statement issued Friday.

Exception From Policy

She said: “I consider it important to maintain the practice of successive governments of not commenting on security matters. But I am willing to make an exception on the matter raised in Lord Rothschild’s letter.”

Newspaper and radio reports Friday said that the “unequivocal evidence” was a secret 1962 meeting in London at which Rothschild nailed Philby as a Soviet agent. Philby, a former British intelligence officer, was then a Beirut-based journalist.

The meeting was also reported by author Nigel West in his 1982 book on British spies, “A Matter of Trust.”

West and the published reports said Rothschild was tipped off by a British woman, Flora Solomon, who told him in 1962 that Philby had tried to recruit her as a Soviet spy in the 1930s. Rothschild immediately arranged a meeting at his London home between Solomon and the head of Britain’s MI-6 overseas intelligence service, in which Philby had served.

Only Survivor

MI-6 officers later told Philby there was conclusive evidence against him and offered him immunity from prosecution in exchange for a confession, West wrote. But in 1963, Philby fled to Moscow, where he still lives. He is the only survivor among the quartet.

Diplomats Burgess and Maclean fled to Moscow in 1951. Blunt, who became Queen Elizabeth II’s art adviser, was named by Thatcher in 1979 as the fourth man. He remained in England with immunity from prosecution in exchange for his confession.

Rothschild’s intelligence connections have resurfaced because of a court case in Australia in which the British government is seeking a ban on a book, “Spycatcher,” by retired MI-5 officer Peter Wright, now living in Australia.

Rothschild paid Wright’s air fare from Australia to meet journalist Chapman Pincher, author of a 1981 book on MI-5 and British spies, “Their Trade is Treachery.”

The information Wright gave Pincher included the allegation that the late Roger Hollis, director general of MI-5 from 1956 to 1965, was a Soviet agent. Thatcher in 1981 told Parliament that investigations had produced no evidence against Hollis.