Mr. Jenner.

Were you the leader of that committee?

Mrs. Paine.

I was not. But I was chairman of a committee of that committee, which was called Correspondence, and I helped make contact between young people in this country who wished to write to someone in the Soviet Union, and an organization of young people in Moscow which found pen pals for these young Americans.
We particularly wanted to go through an official organization so as to be certain we were not endangering or putting suspicion upon anyone, any young person in the Soviet Union to whom we were writing. We felt if they picked their own people that would lessen the suspicion of the Soviet person.

Mr. Jenner.

Were you active in that group?

Mrs. Paine.

I was chairman of that for sometime.

Mr. Jenner.

Did you take part in the pen pal correspondence yourself?

Mrs. Paine.

Yes; I did.

Mr. Jenner.

And do you recall now the names of the Russian young people or Russian young person with whom you communicate, or sought communication?

Mrs. Paine.

I recall I wrote a few letters to a person named Ella, I have forgotten her last name, and I don't believe I have the correspondence still. If I did, I don't any more.

Mr. Jenner.

If you once had it?

Mrs. Paine.

If I once had it, I don't have it now in my possession, and then that stopped because she stopped writing. I wrote and got another correspondent whose name is Nina Aparina, with whom I corresponded up to last spring, I would say, and I haven't--yes; and I haven't heard anything from her for about a year.

Mr. Jenner.

What was the nature of the correspondence, particularly with respect to subject matter?

Mrs. Paine.

We discussed?

Mr. Jenner.

In this letter period?

Mrs. Paine.

We discussed our mutual interest in language. She was a teacher of the English language. She married an engineer during the time of our correspondence.

Mr. Jenner.

Russian?

Mrs. Paine.

Yes; of course.

Mr. Jenner.

Russian citizen?

Mrs. Paine.

Yes. We exchanged a magnetic tape recording one time. I sent her one and she sent one with music and readings, hers were music and readings in Russian, and mine was similar in English as part of language study aid.
My last communication said she was expecting a baby last June but I haven't heard anything from her since that communication, as I say, probably a year ago that came.

Mr. Jenner.

Now all of your activity, this activity, of correspondence between you and any citizen in Russia, was part of it, originated in the Young Friends group, an activity to supply here a meeting with, communication by, Americans with citizens in Russia, and then latterly in your communication with the lady you have last mentioned, a mutual exchange between the two of you here to improve her English and you to improve your Russian?

Mrs. Paine.

That is right. The committee was formed much the same time that our State Department made arrangements with the Soviets for cultural exchange, and I think our Purposes were similar but, of course, outside the government.

Mr. Jenner.

Now the three Russian students who came over here, did you have any contact with them?

Mrs. Paine.

I met them once at an open meeting in North Philadelphia.

Mr. Jenner.

Were a number of other people present?

Mrs. Paine.

Oh, yes.

Mr. Jenner.

And that is the only contact you had with them?

Mrs. Paine.

Yes.

Mr. Jenner.

All right. Proceed.

Mrs. Paine.

Except that I read a book that was written by one of these students nearly a year after he had gone back to the Soviet Union which I found most disillusioning, I must say, in which it was pure Propaganda.