Mr. Oswald. I believe without exception, sir, looking at the originals, that they were opened by unsealing, rather than cutting.
Mr. Dulles. I was asking because it is sometimes possible, by modern methods, to determine whether a letter has been opened and resealed, and if the letter is cut, that can be done.
If the letter has been torn open where the seal is, you cannot do anything with it. You cannot always do this, but there are certain techniques.
Mr. McKenzie. Mr. Chairman, did you have reference to when Robert opened the letters?
Mr. Dulles. Well, what I had reference to is to whether if the letters were cut and not resealed, then there is a certain possibility of ascertaining whether the letter has been previously opened by a censor, and then resealed. I was just getting at that.
Mr. Jenner. Mr. Dulles is interested, I see, in whether the letters had been censored in Russia before they arrived in the United States.
Mr. Dulles. That was my point.
Mr. Jenner. May I inquire of the witness on that subject further?
Mr. McKenzie. Let me state this for the record. When Robert Oswald or his wife opened the letters, as you can plainly see from the letters here in front of you, they were either opened by letter opener—a knife or a letter opener, or just torn open.
Mr. Jenner. Mr. Chairman, it is entirely possible and might even be probable that the Commission would be interested in examining the originals on this subject—that is, to determine through experts as to whether the envelopes had been opened and censored, and the contents censored, before being resealed, if they had been so opened, and dispatched to the United States. And I take it that your inquiry was directed towards that.