The poet W. H. Auden attempted to evade questioning by MI5 in connection with the “Cambridge Spies”, according to secret documents made public on Friday.

Auden, whose 1930s writings contain frequent references to espionage, became implicated in the investigation into the disappearance of the two Cambridge diplomats turned Soviet intelligence agents after it was discovered that one of the spies, Guy Burgess, had attempted to contact him on the eve of his flight to the USSR.
Don Maclean and Guy Burgess fled Britain by ferry on May 25th 1951, taking valuable British secret intelligence with them. It later emerged that they had been part of the sophisticated spy ring subsequently dubbed “The Cambridge Five”. But the intelligence services were frustrated in their efforts to track down the poet, who had relocated to his holiday home in the Italian island of Ischia by the time the agents’ escape had come to light.

The newly released files reveal that Auden initially told the Secret Intelligence Service that he “certainly did not receive a call” from Burgess while staying in London with fellow poet Stephen Spender, a claim contradictory to Spender’s account of events. A subsequent file stated that Auden in fact admitted to receiving a message from Burgess, but that he had presumed him to be “drunk”.

Although the documents conclude that the case against Auden “proved impossible to substantiate”, their release has triggered renewed debate over the reasons for Auden’s “evasive” attitude under questioning, with some literary experts accusing the media of attempting to construct biography from fiction.

Dr. Ian Patterson, an English fellow at Queen’s College, has dismissed the conjecture over Auden’s role as “sensationalist, totally insignificant, and completely trivial”. Patterson claims that “the stupidity of the British Secret Intelligence agencies where this kind of thing was concerned was limitless. Auden was not a spy”.

This view has been reiterated by Edward Mendelson, the literary executor of the Estate of W. H. Auden. “Auden had nothing to do with the affair,” Mendelson claims. “The MI5 files are fairly obviously the work of Inspector Cluso. The incompetence and ignorance demonstrated in the files would be laughable, if it had not been the basis of so much government policy”.

Others believe the poet’s embarrassment over his close relationship with the “flamboyantly homosexual” Burgess explains his reticence when questioned. In a letter to Spender dated 14th June 1951, Auden wrote: “the whole business makes me feel sick to my stomach. I still believe Guy to be a victim, but the horrible thing about our age is that one cannot be certain”.

Auden expert Professor Stanley Smith claims that there is “no doubt” that Auden knew these letters would be opened. Smith draws attention to the final sentence of the letter, which reads: “If you could get one of the servants to pack up my camera and post it, I should be grateful”. This comment, he says, “may be made in all innocence, but nevertheless has the authentic ring of the spy’s coded messages”.

Katherine Faulkener