Roger Hollis in 1956 and remaining in that post until his retirement in 1965. After Kim Philby's flight from Beirut to Moscow in 1963, rumours began to circulate that Hollis had alerted him to his impending arrest. Hollis was criticised for not alerting John Profumo, the War Secretary in Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's Conservative government, that he might have become entangled with a Soviet spy ring through his friendship with Stephen Ward, and his affair with showgirl Christine Keeler, who was introduced by Ward to Profumo. Soviet Naval Attache Eugene Ivanov was also involved with Keeler at this time, in the early
Profumo affair ministers felt it necessary to demonstrate their loyalty to the prime minister. In a BBC interview on 13 June Lord Hailsham, holder of several ministerial offices, denounced Profumo in a manner which, according to "The Observer"s reporter, "had to be seen to be believed". Hailsham insisted that "a great party is not to be brought down because of a squalid affair between a woman of easy virtue and a proven liar". In the debate, Wilson concentrated almost exclusively on the extent to which the prime minister and his colleagues had been dilatory in not identifying a clear security risk arising