Mr. Stern.

Would you look at page 4 of your report, Mr. Fain, the fourth full paragraph from the top of the page, the paragraph that begins, "Mrs. Oswald stated," and the last sentence of that paragraph reads, "Mrs. Oswald stated that she would not have been surprised to learn that Lee had gone to, say, South America or Cuba, but that it had never. entered her mind that he might go to Russia or might try to become a citizen there." As far as you can remember, is that accurately what she said?

Mr. Fain.

Yes; that is as she said, I put it down. She seemed very much upset that he had gone to Russia.

Mr. Stern.

Did she explain that to you?

Mr. Fain.

None other than this. In other words, she said she wouldn't have been surprised that he had gone to, say, South America or Cuba, she was taken aback by learning he had gone to Russia. You see, he had told her he was going over to New Orleans to go to work over there, and she was apparently very surprised that he had taken this boat to Europa, to Russia.

Mr. Stern.

Mr. Fain, in your report of your interview with Mrs. Marguerite Oswald, you quote several letters and refer to other specific bits of information. How did you get that so accurately?

Mr. Fain.

She had all of those in her purse. She had all those clippings that had appeared in the. paper, and she had quite a stack of them there, and I got the information out of those at the time.

Mr. Stern.

She displayed them to you and let you copy them?

Mr. Fain.

Yes, sir; she displayed them to me, that is right.

The Chairman.

Gentlemen, are there any other questions any of you would like to ask Mr. Fain? He has stated that everything he knows concerning this matter is contained in his written report.

Mr. Fain.

Yes, sir; that is correct.

Representative Ford.

May I ask a question?

The Chairman.

Yes, indeed.

Representative Ford.

Is it the practice of the Bureau to check with relatives of those who defect or make an attempt to defect to the Soviet Union?

Mr. Fain.

Well, I was--my primary motive here was--trying to locate her. I wanted to talk to her. If I had been able to talk to her, the mother, I probably wouldn't have contacted Robert. But he was the only one that I could locate there that knew anything about it, about where she might be, so I, in the course of things, interviewed him to try to find out what I could find out from him.

Representative Ford.

I am more concerned about the overall policy. Whenever an individual makes an attempt to defect or does defect, is it the policy of the FBI to subsequently interview relatives of the individual who tried or did defect?

Mr. Fain.

Mr. Ford, I am unable to answer that because I am not versed in overall policy, and I am sorry. I am not trying to avoid your question, but I just actually don't know.

Representative Ford.

What prompted you then in your capacity to interview----

Mr. Fain.

Robert?

Representative Ford.

Either Robert or Mrs. Oswald?

Mr. Fain.

Well, I was instructed to get in touch with her and find out what the situation was. The only way I could get the information was to talk to her, and I talked to Robert only in connection with my attempts to locate her.

Representative Ford.

But your instructions came from whom?

Mr. Fain.

I don't have the memorandum or communication that came in here in connection with this, but it came from the Bureau, I am sure, through the Dallas office.

Representative Ford.

And you were working out of Dallas?

Mr. Fain.

Right. My supervisor over in Dallas, no doubt, either called me or else very likely he wrote an assignment and mailed it to me in Fort Worth.

Representative Ford.

Your assignment was really to check with the mother, both, or all?

Mr. Fain.

Actually, I don't recall how the assignment was worded, I really