Out of court
Sir: May I suggest that your correspondent Tibor Szamuely has been a little unfair to the Sunday Times cohort in this dispute over Gerald Brooke (2 February)?
First, in the Soviet code, the lines between treason, sabotage, politicaf agitation and espionage are less definite than many of us would suppose. Secondly, Brooke's confession read at the Moscow City Court was abject, however obtained and how- ever politically venal his counsel (Borovik). Can Mr Szamuely assure us, as confidently as he stig- matises Yurii Konstantinov, that the KGB does not hold poor Brooke's confession to technical espion- age? Thirdly, the Nrs admitted long ago that Brooke was their agent. He carried printing mats for use on underground machines, and made con- tact with the organisation's men on the spot. Was there to be no transmission of intelligence on the return journey?
The Brooke lobby has been well supported by the SPECTATOR and much of the western press be- sides. It is compassionate. Count me in. It must also be realistic. The Nrs, avowedly subversive, even inflammatory, has been a thorn in the side of the Red oligarchy since those-flays when some of our present leaders were wetly excusing Stalinist excesses. While not withdrawing a particle of sympathy for Brooke (nor forgetting, please, the young Russians incriminated through his failure) is it not prudent, in assessing his predicament, to give due weight to the Soviet authorities' view of the case'?
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