Mr. RANKIN. Do you have any recollection of any other correspondence or
communications of any kind?
Mr. DOBBS. No; I do not, sir.
Mr. RANKIN. With Lee Harvey Oswald?
Mr. DOBBS. I do not.
Mr. RANKIN. You will note that Dobbs' No. 13 refers to a communication
from Lee Harvey Oswald of March 24, presumably 1963. Do you recall ever
having seen that?
Mr. DOBBS. No; I do not, and obviously it was not in our files or we
would have included it in the material we turned over to you.
Mr. RANKIN. While you are making further search for this last item,
would you kindly make another search to see if you do have any copy of
Dobbs' No. 13 and also the letter from Lee Harvey Oswald of March 24?
Mr. DOBBS. That's referred to here?
Mr. RANKIN. Yes.
Mr. DOBBS. Yes. We will make a recheck.
Mr. RANKIN. We should also like that clipping that is referred to as
being enclosed with Mr. Oswald's letter, if you find it.
Mr. DOBBS. Yes.
Mr. RANKIN. I was not quite clear, Mr. Dobbs, about your response in
regard to that. Is that the type of letter you would not expect to have
a copy of in the files?
Mr. DOBBS. Yes.
Mr. RANKIN. Because it is a general form that is followed? Is that the
reason?
Mr. DOBBS. Yes. The reason--I can explain to you, however, our basic
procedure in matters of this kind. We receive quite a few inquiries,
and we have more or less an established policy of reply along the
lines I have indicated to you, so we do not keep an accumulation of
the--all the letters received and all the replies sent. As I told
you, our office work is done essentially by volunteer help. We are a
small organization with meager resources, and we have to adjust our
proceedings accordingly.
Mr. RANKIN. Do you have any knowledge of any collaboration, association
or combination of any of the people in the Socialist Workers Party,
Pioneer Publishers, or The Militant, with Lee Harvey Oswald and his
action in connection with the assassination of President Kennedy?
Mr. DOBBS. None whatever. So far as I know, nobody in any of the
categories mentioned by you ever knew anything about him other than the
written material that we have made available to you.
Mr. RANKIN. With your position in connection with these organizations,
would you have such material? Would such information be available to
you if it existed?
Mr. DOBBS. Yes. If anybody in the organization would know, I would
know. I am the central executive officer of the party.
Mr. RANKIN. You are satisfied that no one had such an association with
Lee Harvey Oswald from those organizations?
Mr. DOBBS. Absolutely so.
Mr. RANKIN. Do you know of any other communications, either orally or
in writing, between any of those organizations and Lee Harvey Oswald,
other than what has been produced here?
Mr. DOBBS. No; I do not.
Mr. RANKIN. We have some information, Mr. Dobbs, that when Lee Harvey
Oswald was about 16 years of age, he communicated with the Socialist
Party of America and the Socialist Call. I would like to know whether
or not those have any relationship with the organizations that I have
just described that you have some connection with?
Mr. DOBBS. No, sir; it is an entirely different organization. Our
organization didn't come into being until 1938.
Mr. RANKIN. And these organizations, the Socialist Call and the
Socialist Party of America, were not predecessors of your organization?
Mr. DOBBS. No.
Mr. RANKIN. Or associated in any way?
Mr. DOBBS. No.
Mr. RANKIN. Do you have any knowledge of any conspiracy or association
with Lee Harvey Oswald by anybody with regard to whatever he did in
connection with the assassination of President Kennedy?
Mr. DOBBS. No; I do not, and I would add that it's a matter of historic
record, long established, that our organization's philosophy is opposed
to individual acts of political terrorism.
Mr. RANKIN. Do you have any additional information beyond what you have
supplied here that might be of assistance to the Commission in regard
to the assassination of President Kennedy?
Mr. DOBBS. No; we do not. We have sought voluntarily to provide you
everything we have in the spirit of giving you whatever cooperation we
could, and we have given you all the information we had.
Mr. RANKIN. And that includes anything, either oral or in writing?
Mr. DOBBS. Correct.
Mr. RANKIN. Thank you very much, Mr. Dobbs.