Mr. Dennett. That is true.
Mr. Tavenner. Then take it up from there and tell us what occurred.
Mr. Dennett. That was part of the story on which this allegation of FBI agent thing arose.
When I was first confronted with the story I recounted this whole thing in every detail to the leader of the section. The person was Mr. Jim Bourne. Mr. Jim Bourne told me to sit tight, do nothing, say nothing until I heard from the district.
I waited from March until June 1947, and still had no word from them. About sometime in June I was invited to a meeting which was called by the Communist Party for the purpose of preparing its defenses from the anticipated attack which would come from the Canwell committee investigation which was about to open.
I reluctantly went to the meeting because I felt I was under a cloud. However, I did go. I am glad I did because they did discuss the whole question of these investigating committees, and it gave me some insight as to my rights under the fifth amendment of the Constitution of the United States. It was thoroughly discussed in this meeting, and we understood that that was the sole and only real protection that a person had if he wanted to avoid testifying.
However, during the course of that meeting I spoke to a leader of the party, asking what was happening to my case. He advised me to speak to Mr. Huff. I spoke to Mr. Huff about it and Mr. Huff, as a result of it, arranged a meeting of the control commission.
The control commission called me to a meeting within a week’s time. We reviewed the whole situation, the whole case, and I told them every single thing I knew about it. They asked me to submit a written statement. I did exactly that. I detailed everything that I knew about the situation in the statement.
I declined to sign the statement, however, because at that time I feared that their practices and methods were a little bit too loose, and I feared it might fall into the wrong hands and be used against me.
However, they accepted the statement, but they did not like what was in it.