Mr. DULLES. May I ask one question about Exhibit No. 912?
In the second paragraph of this letter, Exhibit No. 912, Oswald says,
"I appered [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."
Do you know how he learned about his legal rights? Did you tell him his
legal rights in your conversation with him? Or where did he get the
information about his legal rights, if you know about that?
Mr. SNYDER. Well, to the best of my knowledge, Mr. Dulles, I did
discuss with Oswald both the significance of his act and the legal
basis of it, and so forth. And I believe that in the letter which I
wrote to him----
Mr. DULLES. Which was subsequent to Exhibit No. 912, was it not, in
answer to 912?
Mr. SNYDER. In answer to Exhibit No. 912--in the letter which I wrote,
replying to this, I purposely used the word, I think, "again", or words
to that effect, and I put that word in there at the time, indicating
that he had been told this before, and that I was repeating it to him.
Mr. COLEMAN. You are talking about Commission Exhibit No. 919, the
third paragraph, is that correct, where you use the word "again"?
Mr. SNYDER. Yes; that is correct.
In other words, at the time Oswald was there, the reason which I gave
him for not taking his renunciation at the time was not that he was
not legally entitled to have it, but that the office was closed at the
time. In matter of fact, I don't think I had a secretary there to type
out the form and so forth. But this is really quite beside the point.
But the reason which I gave him was not that I had any legal right to
refuse him--that is, it wasn't based on a provision of law, as it was
based on simply the fact that the Embassy was closed at the time.
Mr. COLEMAN. You will recall in Commission Exhibit No. 913, which was
the first letter that Oswald gave you, that the last paragraph states,
"I affirm that my allegiance is to the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics," and once again I take it that you didn't think that that
was the type of oath or affirmation which is set forth in section
349(a) (2)?
Mr. SNYDER. Yes, sir; that is right.
Mr. SLAWSON. Mr. Snyder, in reference to the same document, Commission
Exhibit No. 913, do you think that Mr. Oswald, when he appeared before
you and gave this to you, believed in his mind that this was sufficient
to renounce his citizenship?
The CHAIRMAN. How could he tell what was in his mind?
Mr. SNYDER. I really don't know.
Mr. SLAWSON. Do you believe that if you had given Mr. Oswald the
opportunity to carry through with the procedures, that he would have
renounced his citizenship at that first appearance?
Mr. SNYDER. Yes; I have every reason to believe he would have.
Mr. COLEMAN. Sir, I also would like to show you a copy of a passport
issued by the United States, which has been marked as Commission
Exhibit No. 946, and ask you whether that is the passport that Mr.
Oswald gave to you when he came into the Embassy on October 31, 1959.
Mr. DULLES. May I ask a preliminary question about Exhibit No. 913?
This is undated. Do we know the date of the receipt of this by the
Embassy?
Mr. COLEMAN. Yes, Mr. Dulles; the testimony is that when Mr. Oswald
came into the Embassy, sir, he handed this document to Mr. Snyder.
Mr. DULLES. That is the first time he came in, he handed this document
to you?
Mr. SNYDER. Yes, sir.
This is undoubtedly his passport; yes, sir.
Mr. COLEMAN. After you received Commission Exhibit No. 919, which is
the second letter from Oswald, the letter dated November 3, 1959, you
then prepared and sent to the Secretary of State in Washington an
airgram which the Commission has had marked as Commission Exhibit No.
920.
(The document referred to was marked Commission Exhibit No. 920 for
identification.)
Mr. COLEMAN. I show you the document and ask you whether you prepared
the original thereof and sent it to the State Department?
Mr. SNYDER. Yes, sir.
Representative FORD. May I ask a question here?
When Oswald first came in, and either placed his passport on the desk
or the table, or you asked for it, did you note that he had overstayed
his visa by 5 days?
Mr. SNYDER. I can't recall that I did or did not, Mr. Ford.
Representative FORD. Is that something that you would normally examine
and determine under circumstances like this?
Mr. SNYDER. Oh, I might if there were some reason to look at it--if it
were particularly relevant to something I was thinking at the time or
asking about at the time.
In terms of Soviet practice, it is not really too relevant. That is,
if the Soviet authorities find it to their interest to keep a person
around, then there is no problem. And if they do not, one does not
overstay one's visa in the Soviet Union.
Representative FORD. But if it is, for some Soviet reason, a good
reason to keep somebody around beyond the time of their visa, wouldn't
that be of some interest to us--I mean to the United States officials?
Mr. SNYDER. Oh, yes; but, of course, that assumption was already
strongly made in the Oswald case by other circumstances in this case.
There was no question in my mind that Mr. Oswald was there in Moscow
for the purposes for which he stated he was in Moscow, and that this
was known to the Soviet authorities, for he said he had applied for
Soviet citizenship.
Representative FORD. Is it the usual thing for them to let an
individual stay beyond their visa termination date?
Mr. SNYDER. Well, I would say it is not usual. Again, one can never
cite a list of specific instances in these things, but I think that
when you are working as a consul in Moscow for a couple of years, you
have a considerable feel for these things, and that I would say it is
not usual--people simply do not overstay their visas in the Soviet
Union without the knowledge, by and large, of the Soviet authorities.
And this is because of the nature of the passport registration system
at your hotel, and all of this sort of thing. It simply is not normally
done by oversight or by lapse either on the part of the individual or
on the part of the Soviet State.
Representative FORD. When he presented the passport, or when you were
given the passport by him, did you examine it?
Mr. SNYDER. I undoubtedly examined it.
Representative FORD. Where in the passport would this fact be noted
that he had overstayed his visa by 5 days?
(At this point, Senator Cooper entered the hearing room.)
Mr. SNYDER. It may either be on the original visa or on the police
stamp placed in his passport at the time. This is to the best of my
recollection.
Mr. COLEMAN. Congressman Ford, as I understand it, one of the stamps in
the passport, which would be in Russian, indicates the visa that he got
in Helsinki, and also indicates the length of time he was permitted to
stay.
Representative FORD. So it is clearly a Soviet document in the passport?
Mr. COLEMAN. Yes.
Mr. SNYDER. I could probably find these for you, if you would like.
Representative FORD. When Oswald came in, did you notice anything
peculiar about his physical appearance--any bruises, any injuries of
any kind?
Mr. SNYDER. No, no; as I said--you may not have been here, Mr. Ford, at
the time I made my original comments on his appearance.
He was very neatly dressed, very well composed, and to all outward
appearances a respectable-looking young man.
Representative FORD. I was there then, and I was interested because
I think we have testimony to the effect, or we have documentation to
the effect, that he had tried to commit suicide prior to his coming to
the American Embassy for the purpose of renouncing his citizenship. In
other words, he had cut his wrist and had been in a Soviet hospital or
medical facility. And I was wondering whether you had noticed that.
Mr. SNYDER. No, sir; I did not.
Representative FORD. You did not.
Mr. COLEMAN. Mr. Snyder, on November 2 you sent forward Commission
Exhibit No. 908, which is the Foreign Service dispatch. You had also
sent forth 2 days earlier a telegram advising them about Oswald.
And on November 12 you had sent forth Commission Exhibit No. 920. Now,
according to the files that we have, except for Commission Exhibit
No. 916, which is the telegram asking where the dispatch was, we have
no other communication during this period from the Department to the
Embassy giving you advice on what to do in the Oswald case.
Was there any messages that went back to the Embassy, other than
Commission Exhibit No. 916, during that period?
Mr. SNYDER. I can't really say, Mr. Coleman, that I have personal
recollection. But I have no reason to believe that there was anything
else came in, other than what is now in our files.
Mr. COLEMAN. Well, would you expect to get some answers to those
dispatches that you were sending forward to Washington?
Mr. SNYDER. Not really--not really. The thrust of information in
something like this is from the field to the Department. The Department
really answered the only thing which I asked them. That is, I told
the Department what I intended to do concerning his request for
renunciation, and the Department responded to that. And this was really
all I would have expected from them at the time.
I would have expected--if the Department had had any information
concerning Oswald in its files--I would have expected them to let me
know if they had indication, for instance, that Oswald was mentally
unbalanced or emotionally unstable or anything else of this sort,
anything which might look like a repeat of the Petrulli pattern, I
would have expected them to let me know this, so I would know how to
handle the case.
Mr. COLEMAN. Sir, 3 days before Mr. Oswald came into the Embassy, did
you have occasion to write a letter to Mr. Boster in Washington, asking
him how you should handle these matters of attempted renunciation of
American citizenship?