to the Visa Office, and this would more or less give them some assurance that their recommendations were in harmony with our thinking. This is the way we work, very closely with the Embassy in Moscow.
When we are in harmony with what they do, we write memos through the Department. We frequently send memos to them so they say, "Well, we have made the right recommendation. The Political Office is supporting us and now we wait for the other offices in the Department."

Mr. Coleman.

Were you aware, did you know, or did you have anything to do with suggesting to the Embassy that they should try to send Mrs. Marina Oswald into the country by her first going to Brussels?
Miss JAMES. No; except that is a regular procedure that we use, we call it third country procedure. The immigrant can't come directly to the United States. They do go to another country.

Mr. Coleman.

But you were not. the one to suggest it in the Oswald case?
Miss JAMES. No; it is established procedure, though. It would not be unusual for any officer in the Visa Office to think of that.

Mr. Coleman.

But you didn't suggest it?
Miss JAMES. No; I did not.

Mr. Coleman.

Now, when Mr. Oswald came into the country--when Oswald left Moscow, I take it you were informed the day he left or the day after he left, and did you receive a copy of the telegram from Moscow to the State Department, dated May 31?
Miss JAMES. Yes; our office received it, SOV.

Mr. Coleman.

I have marked that as James Exhibit No. 10.
(The document referred to-was marked James Exhibit No. 10, for identification.)
Miss JAMES. Yes.

Mr. Coleman.

And you then, after he got back, drafted a letter to Oswald's mother?
Miss JAMES. Yes.

Mr. Coleman.

I will mark that as James Exhibit No. 11.
(The document referred to was marked James Exhibit No. 11 for identification.)

Mr. Coleman.

This is in file IV, a copy of it. I show you a copy of a letter from Robert I. Owen to Mrs. Oswald, under date of June 7, 1962, and ask you whether that is the letter.
Miss JAMES. Yes; I drafted that letter. I recall it.

Mr. Coleman.

Now, in connection with the Oswald case, was there any instance where you wanted to do one thing but somebody told you no, something else would have to be done?
Miss JAMES. In the Oswald case?

Mr. Coleman.

Yes.
Miss JAMES. We worked in harmony on these cases. The Visa Office is very well--harmonize with SOV policy on these cases. There is no bickering or unpleasantness or somebody pulling one way or the other. We seem to go along with them. Every time one comes up they go along in the regular way based upon established policy.

Mr. Coleman.

There was no instance where you said, "I think that this ought to be done" and somebody said, "I don't care what you think, this is the way it should be done."
Miss JAMES. No.

Mr. Coleman.

In all these cases you discussed the problem with the Visa Office and you reached a mutual agreement. You never had a dispute?
Miss JAMES. I recall no such feeling or reactions.

Mr. Coleman.

You had indicated earlier, Miss James, that there was a general policy in your office to see that husbands and wives were not separated.

Would you want to describe for the record just what that policy was?
Miss JAMES. May I go back historically?

Mr. Coleman.

Yes.
Miss JAMES. Since the time we first recognized the Soviet Union, we have had these cases of separated families, spouses, husbands and wives and children and other relatives who by some reason or another, mostly because of the operation