Could you tell me from your file the next document that you looked at after receiving a copy of the Embassy despatch of July 11. 1961?
Miss JAMES. I have some notes I think will help me better than the file which isn't in chronological order. I think it would have been the Embassy report asking for a security advisory opinion on Mrs. Oswald's visa application, which would be August 28, 1961, Commission No. X-26---

Mr. Coleman.

You mean State Department number.
Miss JAMES. I say, State Department No. X-26(2).

Mr. Coleman.

Can the record show that the Commission exhibit number on that document is Commission Exhibit No. 944.
Now, you say you received a copy of the August 28, 1961--
Miss JAMES. Yes, sir; I received that.

Mr. Coleman.

Operations memorandum--
Miss JAMES. Twenty-five.

Mr. Coleman.

Now, after you received a copy, what did you do?
Miss JAMES. I have no exact remembrance of that, but I can tell you what my practice is. In receiving a document like this, and we have many cases Similar, I keep it some place handy, and I will check with the Visa Office and see what they are going to do about it, and are they going to---are they handling it. Then we follow through to see if she is passed by the various security offices. We are aware when these come in that a person has an exit visa. This time it was before .the exit visa, I think. Yes--well, we were trying to get this case prepared so it wouldn't ,be held up in Moscow because of investigations that might be delayed on this side.

Mr. Coleman.

Why would you do that?
Miss JAMES. Only because it is our regular practice to expedite these matters.
Mr..COLEMAN. Wouldn't that depend upon whether the case was meritorious or not?
Miss. JAMES. Yes; but I mean as a general thing we would expedite, hoping it would be expedited until it is turned down. Then if it is turned down, that is the end of it.

Mr. Coleman.

What you are saying is that SOV just wants to make sure that all the paperwork gets done, that you are really not making the decisions but you don't want any decision held up on the ground that the papers aren't there, but you have no particular interest which way the decision would be made?
Miss JAMES. Yes; we have an interest in that. We know from our policy what we think is good for the U.S. Government, and we would hope that cases are .handled in that framework.

Mr. Coleman.

Would you say that there was a decision in the Oswald case that the best thing for the United States was to get Oswald out of Moscow, Russia, and back to the United States, even if he had renounced his citizenship?
Miss JAMES. I can't go on that because that is a supposition, but on the basis of the case we felt that it was better for the U.S. Government to bring Oswald back.

Mr. Coleman.

Who made that decision?
Miss JAMES. Again, that is our general policy. When we received this OMV asking for an advisory opinion on Mrs. Oswald's visa application, we already knew that the Passport Office had approved her husband's citizenship.

Mr. Coleman.

So you say, therefore, that once it was clear that Oswald was still an American citizen, that you felt it was to the interests of the United States?
Miss JAMES. Of the United States?

Mr. Coleman.

TO get him out of Russia?
Miss JAMES. To get him out of the Soviet Union, and also to bring his family.

Mr. Coleman.

Now, could you look in file No. VIII of ,the State Department, Document No. 21. Is that a telegram?
Miss JAMES. No; that is a wire.

Mr. Coleman.

Would you read what it says? Will you describe to whom it is sent and tell me what it means?

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