Alister McIntosh’s ‘best’ diplomat

Paddy Costello was Alister McIntosh’s best-ever diplomat. Costello’s intellect was too original and sceptical to be an agent for any other power than New Zealand. A communist when a student at Cambridge, his subsequent four years fighting had matured him ahead of becoming a New Zealand diplomat in 1...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inNew Zealand international review Vol. 42; no. 6; pp. 2 - 5
Main Author Ross, Ken
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New Zealand Institute of International Affairs 01.11.2017
Subjects
Costello, D. P. (Desmond Patrick), 1912-1964
New Zealand Security Intelligence Service
New Zealand. Department of External Affairs
PADDY COSTELLO
New Zealand
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Summary:Paddy Costello was Alister McIntosh’s best-ever diplomat. Costello’s intellect was too original and sceptical to be an agent for any other power than New Zealand. A communist when a student at Cambridge, his subsequent four years fighting had matured him ahead of becoming a New Zealand diplomat in 1944. Costello’s misfortune from the perspective of Britain’s MI5 security organisation was that he fell in love with and married a tough-minded British communist. McIntosh read Costello accurately and got him to work brilliantly, but had to let him go: while Peter Fraser had confidence in McIntosh on Costello, his successor as prime minister, Sidney Holland, did not.
Bibliography:NZIR_c.jpg
New Zealand International Review, Vol. 42, No. 6, Nov/Dec 2017: 2-5
ISSN:0110-0262
2230-5939