Soviet Duplicity
WHEN The Dialek Affair, by Stewart Thomson (Allan Wingate, 15s.), came to me for re- view I thought to myself, 'Here's just another of the many books that have been written lately by Soviet officers and officials who have fled to the West.' I found, however, this one to be widely different from others dealing with the same topic and infinitely more intense, In the foreword Mr. Stewart Thomson says: `When 1 first met Robert Bialek, in February, 1954, at the time of the Berlin Conference, he was living again like a hunted man, leaving his flat in West Berlin only at nightfall. . . . The Communists in the Soviet Zone had every interest in kidnapping Robert Bialek, if they could lay their hands on him.' There is a, certain piquancy in these words, especially when he continues: 'Bialek is now only 39, and more will he heard of him in the very near future.' Indeed more was. For, since the publication of this book, readers will no doubt remember that only a few weeks ago all the daily papers carried headlines about the kid- napping of Robert Bialek, Who was doped and hurried across the frontier to East Berlin. I had the curiosity to telephone the publishers
of this book to inquire if they had heard tl of Bialek. Yes, they said, they had. He
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