On March 26， 1981 Mrs. Margaret Thatcher， the British<br >prime minister， announced that her government was to set up<br >an inquiry into the defenses of the security and intelligence<br >departments against penetration by spies. It would be the<br >first independent inquiry into this situation for twenty years，<br >and it would also cover the Foreign Office， Home Office，<br > Defence Ministry， and other departments of state harboring<br > sensitive information.<br > The prime minister made this announcement as part of a<br > long statement about the original British edition of this book，<br > which had been published that day， and as a direct conse-<br > quence of various disclosures it contained. In her statement，<br > the prime minister confirmed that Sir Roger Hollis， a long-<br > serving director general of MI5， had been deeply suspected<br > by some of his own colleagues of having been a Russian<br > agent， perhaps for nearly thirty years. The suspicion was so<br > great that Sir Roger had failed to dispel it wh~l~ called back<br > from retirement in 1970 and fully interrogated. So， in 1974， a<br > further inquiry， to settle the issue if possible， had been set up.<br >i in great secrecy. A former secretary of the Cabinet， Lord<br >[ Trend， had been asked to undertake it- and had spent a year<br > doing so. Before the publication of this book， the public had<br >| known nothing of what has since become known as the Hollis<br >Affair or of the Trend Inquiry.<br > <br ><br >