Mrs. PAINE. It is only the second envelope we have had.
Mr. JENNER. The envelope accompanying Exhibit 404 was marked 404A, and
the envelope now accompanying 408 is marked 408A.
Mr. McCLOY. Is it so marked now?
Mr. DULLES. Do you wish me to mark it?
(The enevelope was marked Commission Exhibit 408A for identification
and received in evidence.)
Mr. JENNER. Have you supplied the Commission, Mrs. Paine, with your
translation of that letter?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes, I have.
Mr. JENNER. And your interpretation and the effect or the impression
that you had of that letter when you received it and as you read it?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Now, turning to the first page, I would like to direct
attention----
Mr. DULLES. Do you wish this back?
Mrs. PAINE. No; I will look at the translation.
Mr. JENNER. She has supplied me with an interpretation. In the first
paragraph it reads and I quote, and you follow me, please. I will read
the whole paragraph:
"Here it is already a week since I received your letter. I can't
produce any excuses as there are no valid reasons. I am ashamed to
confess that I am a person of moods and my mood currently is such that
I don't feel much like anything. As soon as you left all love stopped
and I am very hurt that Lee's attitude toward me is such that I feel
each minute that I bind him. He insists that I leave America which I
don't want to do at all. I like America very much and I think that even
without Lee I would not be lost here. What do you think?"
Had you had any discussion with Marina when you were in New Orleans
on the subject matters which I have just read to you from the first
paragraph of her letter, Commission Exhibit No. 408?
Mrs. PAINE. There was no such discussion in New Orleans.
Mr. JENNER. What impact did this have on you, Mrs. Paine, when you
received this letter and read that first paragraph?
Mrs. PAINE. It was a repetition, or similar to something she had told
me late in March, which I have already put on the record yesterday,
saying basically that he wanted her to go back, wanted to send her back
to the Soviet Union.
Mr. JENNER. And to send her back alone, is that correct?
Mrs. PAINE. That was the impression I carried.
Mr. JENNER. Was there ever any occassion, during all your acquaintance
with the Oswalds, when there was any suggestion or implication that if
she returned to Russia, at his request, that he would accompany her?
Mrs. PAINE. There was no such suggestion.
Mr. JENNER. Was it always that she was to go to Russia alone?
Mrs. PAINE. As she described it, it carried from her the feeling that
she was being sent away.
Mr. JENNER. What about the little child, June?
Mrs. PAINE. June with her.
Mr. JENNER. Was to accompany her to Russia. Now, the second paragraph,
if I may:
"This is the basic question which doesn't leave me day or night. And
again Lee has said to me that he doesn't love me. So you see we came
to mistaken conclusions. It is hard for you and me to live without a
return of our love interest gone. How would it all end?"
Had there been discussions between you and Marina Oswald on the subject
of whether or not her husband had love for her, and in that area?
Mrs. PAINE. What I particularly recall is what I mentioned yesterday,
when he telephoned her and said he had found a job and wanted her to
come----
Mr. JENNER. This was just before going to New Orleans?
Mrs. PAINE. Just before going to New Orleans.
Mr. JENNER. In the spring?
Mrs. PAINE. Right. She said "Papa loves us," as I have testified. She
had wondered to me during the 2 weeks previous whether he did, whether
she loved him. But was clearly elated by his call and gradually came
to her own conclusions. Really, I had no ground upon which to make a
conclusion.
Mr. DULLES. She was speaking in Russian then to you?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Now, were you impressed that this paragraph, however, was
not consistent with her immediate response at the time that telephone
call had been made to her?
Mrs. PAINE. It showed me there was not as much change as she had hoped.
Mr. JENNER. Did you have any discussion with her on this subject when
you were in New Orleans, and when you took her or when you were taking
her from Irving, Tex., to New Orleans?
Mrs. PAINE. No.
Mr. JENNER. None whatsoever. When you were in New Orleans, Mrs. Paine,
did you tour any night clubs?
Mrs. PAINE. No.
Mr. JENNER. Did you or Marina ever evidence any interest in touring
Bourbon Street, for example?
Mrs. PAINE. You are talking about the spring visit?
Mr. JENNER. Yes; I am.
Mrs. PAINE. We went to the French Quarter during the day.