Mr. Coleman.

(The document referred to was marked Commission Exhibit No. 912 for identification.)

Mr. Snyder.

Yes--to the best of my knowledge, this was the next thing that I heard of Oswald--the next thing I heard from Oswald.

Mr. Coleman.

How did the original of Commission Exhibit No. 912 come into your possession?

Mr. Snyder.

I believe it came through the mail.

Mr. Coleman.

And after you received commission Exhibit No. 912, what did you do?

Mr. Snyder.

I wrote Mr. Oswald a reply, I believe, the same day.

The Chairman.

Exhibit No. 912 was a request to revoke his application to renounce citizenship, was it not?

Mr. Coleman.

No, Mr. Chief Justice; Commission Exhibit No. 912 is a letter from Mr. Oswald complaining that the Embassy had not permitted him to renounce.

The Chairman.

I misread it. Yes; that is right. Excuse me.

Mr. Coleman.

You say you wrote Mr. Oswald a letter the same day?
We have had marked as Commission Exhibit No. 919 a letter from Richard E. Snyder, to Lee Harvey Oswald, dated November 6, 1959.
(The document referred to was marked Commission Exhibit No. 919 for identification.)

Mr. Coleman.

I show it to you and ask you is this a copy of the letter which you wrote to Mr. Oswald?

Mr. Snyder.

Yes, sir.

Representative Ford.

Mr. Chairman----

Mr. Dulles.

Could we have some indication of what that letter is, for the record.

The Chairman.

Referring back to Exhibit No. 912, where I was acting apparently under some misapprehension I read the first three lines and it said “Nov. 3, 1959. I, Lee Harvey Oswald, do hereby request that my present United States citizenship be revoked.” Well, that is consistent with what was said.

Representative Ford.

I think that is a pretty categorical statement.

The Chairman.

Yes; it is.

Representative Ford.

He subsequently, in Exhibit No. 912, makes a protest about the fact that he was not accorded that right previously. But I don’t see how we could come to any other conclusion but the first three lines are a specific request for the right to revoke his American citizenship.

The Chairman.

Yes; but I had misread that first sentence, and I had asked if it wasn’t a revocation of his original request. I was in error when I said that. You are correct, absolutely, on your interpretation of it.

Mr. Coleman.

As a result of receiving Commission Exhibit No. 912, you wrote Mr. Oswald a letter which has been--a copy of which has been marked and identified as Commission Exhibit No. 919, is that correct?

Mr. Snyder.

Yes, sir.

Mr. Coleman.

Earlier in your testimony, when asked about what a citizen has to do to renounce his citizenship, you referred to section 349(a)(6).
I would like to call your attention to the fact there is also another provision--section 349(a)(2)--which provides that an American citizen shall lose his nationality by “taking an oath or making an affirmation or other formal declaration of allegiance to a foreign state or a political subdivision thereof.”
Did you consider whether the Oswald letter, marked as Commission Exhibit No. 912, was such an affirmation or other formal declaration?

Mr. Snyder.

There is a considerable body of law, I believe, interpreting this provision of law as to what constitutes an affirmation or other formal declaration. I believe that I was quite aware at the time that a mere statement did not constitute a formal declaration within the meaning of the law.

Mr. Coleman.

Did----

Mr. Dulles.

May I ask one question about Exhibit No. 912?
In the second paragraph of this letter, Exhibit No. 912, Oswald says, “I appeared [sic] in person at the consulate office of the United States Embassy, Moscow, on Oct. 31st, for the purpose of signing the formal papers to this effect. This legal right I was refused at that time.”