Negotiating turbulent waters

Paddy Costello’s 1950s were dogged by a drunken September 1950 night in Auckland and by MI5’s pursuit of him following MI5’s debacle with the defection to Moscow of two British diplomats (Guy Burgess and Donald McLean) in May 1951. Costello’s time as a diplomat in Paris had Alister McIntosh facing a near insuperable challenge to his desire to retain his ‘best ever diplomat’. The saga would end with Costello’s resignation in 1954, his departure facilitated by the minister in Paris, Jean McKenzie, New Zealand’s first female diplomat. Alister McIntosh appears to have assisted him financially in this difficult time.