366 • MITCHELL, LESLIE
the F3 section of the antisubversionF Division, concentrating on the
surveillance of suspected fascist sympathizers. At the end of the war,
he succeeded Hollis as director, F Division.
Mitchell’s career in the Security Service continued into the post-
war period and in 1952 he was promoted to head thecounterespio-
nagebranch in succession toDick White, who had been appointed
deputy director-general following the resignation ofGuy Liddell.
During the four years Mitchell held the post, until his move to the
deputy director-general’s post in 1956, he was responsible for draft-
ing the notorious 1955 White Paper on thedefectionsofDonald
Macleanand his old friendGuy Burgess. This extraordinary docu-
ment remains to this day a lasting testament to the perfidy and incom-
petence of the Security Service’s counterespionage branch under
Mitchell’s stewardship. Not only did the White Paper contain numer-
ous of errors of fact, but it deliberately set out to mislead Parliament
and the public over the sequence of events that led up to the defec-
tions. Far from not realizing that Maclean had disappeared until
Monday, 28 May 1951, as claimed by Mitchell, MI5 knew of his es-
cape to France when it took place the previous Friday evening. No
explanation for the many more preposterous assertions contained in
the White Paper has ever been forthcoming, although this omission
may be explained by the embarrassing fact that Mitchell himself was
to be investigated as a possible Soviet spy. In May 1963 Mitchell fell
under suspicion during amolehunt conducted to identify a Soviet
spy inside the Security Service, but he opted for early retirement in
September, after an inconclusive inquiry codenamedpetersthat las-
ted only four months. Mitchell died in November 1984, shortly after
the revelation that he had been the subject of an investigation.MITCHELL, LESLIE.Head of theSecret Intelligence Service(SIS)
Norwegian Sectionduring World War II, designated P13, Leslie
Mitchell took over Flemington, a farm north of Lerwick, to run the
Shetland Bus, a shuttle service toNorwayoperated jointly with
David Howarth ofSpecial Operations Executive. After the war
Mitchell opened the SIS station in Copenhagen. He was then ap-
pointed to Washington, D.C., for three years, and was later head of
station in Bern.