PAPER SAYS BLUNT SPY CASE REOPENED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96B01172R000300030031-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 14, 2007
• Sequence Number: 31
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2007/12/14: CIA-RDP96B01172R000300030031-2
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Reagan loses
popularity
NEW YORK
US President Ronald Rea-
gan's approval rating has
slipped to 38 per cent, its
lowest level since he took
office, according to a poll
released on Saturday by
Newsweek magazine.
. Just 38 per cent of those
polled thought Reagan
was doing a good job as
.president, compared with
48 per cent six months ago
and 60 per cent in 1981.
Half said they disap-
proved of Reagan's han-
dling of the job and the
remaining 12 per cent said
they didn't know.
On Reagan policies, 49
per cent said the president
should reduce the govern-
ment budget deficit by cut-
ting defence spending and
27 per cent supported fur-
ther cuts in non-defence
spending. Twelve per cent
favoured raising taxes,
and the rest said they did-
n't know.- UPI
LONDON
THE British secret serv-
ice has reopened, in-
quiries into the case of
spy Anthony Blunt and
may be on the trail of
another Soviet spy, the
Sunday Telegraph news-
paper reported on Satur-
day night.
The newspaper said a
MESSINA, Sicily
A SOVIET tugboat and
an Italian navy helicop-
ter rescued 35 crew mem-
bers of the Maldive Grace
on Saturday, leaving six
men missing from the
freighter that caught fire
in the stormy Mediterra-
nean, rescue officials re-
ported.
A spokesman for the
navy command at
Messina said six out of
nine crewmen who tried
to escape the blazing
13,381-ton ship in a life-
boat were missing and
navy helicopters
searched for them up
until nightfall.
The lifeboat capsized in
the gale-lashed seas,
some 128 kms southeast
of Cape Passaro, at the
southeastern tip of Sicily.
Three of the nine aboard
managed to cling to the
upturned lifeboat and
were saved by one of the
helicopters, but the other
six were swept away.
The other 32 crew
n In
former agent of MI-5, the
British counter-intelli-
gence agency, was under
suspicion for his role in
the Blunt affair.
A spokeswoman at the
prime minister's office
declined to comment on
the report.
Blunt, an art historian
who ran Queen Eliza-
~~v~~t executive
members, who included a
woman, found it impossi-
ble to launch lifeboats be-
cause of the gale and hud-
dled on the forward deck
as the flames swept the
ship. The captain re-
ported the fire started in
the crew's quarters.
The rescue spokesman
said the Soviet tugboat
Nikoladze, which an-
swered the distress call,
managed to take aboard
the 32 crew members
trapped on the freighter.
Rescue officials said
they did not know im-
mediately where the Rus-
sian ship was taking the
survivors.
The three rescued by
the navy helicopter were
taken to a hospital in the
Sicilian port of Catania
where doctors 'said they
were in "satisfactory"
condition. Rescue offi-
cials said the Maldive
Grace was registered in
the Maldive Islands, in
the Indian Ocean.- UPI
beth's art collection, con-
fessed in 1964 in return
for immunity from prose-
cution that he had spied
for the Soviet Union.
But his treason re-
mained secret until 1979,
when he was publicly
named as the "fourth
man" in a major Soviet
network at the heart of
the British intelligence
services during World
War Two and in the two
succeeding decades.
Th. S'znda Telex, apb
said the se.mt aenzD
only recently became
suspicious of the man
now under investigation,
who is in his sixties. His
service record and the
whole file on Anthony
Blunt, including the way
he was given immunity,
were being closely exam-
ined, the paper said.
Blunt, who was strip-
ped of a knighthood by
the queen after his spy
role became known, re-
cruited spies Donald Ma-
clean, Guy Burgess and
Kim Philby.
Burgess, second secre-
tary at the British
Embassy in Washington,
and Maclean, acting head
of the Foreign Office's
American department,
defected to the Soviet
Union in 1951.
Philby, a masterspy at
MI-5, followed them in
1963. - Reuter
jn UK found dead '
LONDON
A 62-year-old Soviet
businessman was found
dead Saturday, appar-
ently after committing
suicide in his apartment
near the offices of the
Soviet Trade Delegation
in north London, police
said.
A Scotland Yard
spokesman said the body
of Ivan Melnikov was dis-
covered by his wife when
she returned to the cou-
ple's apartment from a
shopping trip.
The spokesman said
she found the body hang-
ing in the bathroom. Foul
play was not suspected,
he said. .
Melnikov, a director of
a British-registered
metals company, had
been due to return to the
Soviet Union next month
after three years in Brit-
ain, the Scotland Yard
spokesman said.
He said an autopsy
would be conducted
tomorrow, followed by an
inquest.
Melnikov lived a few
blocks from the apart-,
ment of Vladimir Cher-
nov, a 31-year-old Rus-
sian language translator
who was expelled from
Britain earlier this
month for spying.
He also lived close to
the Soviet Trade Delega-
tion office, which had em-
ployed Vadim Zadne-
provsky, another Soviet
official who was ordered
out of the country in
February, 1981.
There was no evidence,
however, that Melnikov
had been involved in
espionage, the Scotland
Yard spokesman said.-
AP
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Approved For Release 2007/12/14: CIA-RDP96B01172R000300030031-2