Mr. Dulles. But did you indicate he was rather glad that they had later taken this position so that he could get his passport back or did I misunderstand you on that?
Mr. Paine. Well, I pointed out to him that or said "it was kind of fortunate that they had held your passport," and I think he nodded his assent to that.
Mr. Liebeler. Did he tell you why he decided to return to the United States from Russia?
Mr. Paine. Most of this conversation, I think, was when we had first met and I wasn't sure whether he was speaking derogatively of the Soviet Union in order to win my good graces or thinking he could win my friendship that way.
However, he spoke more with disfavor of the Soviet Union during this first meeting than was quite comprehensible to someone who had gone there.
Mr. Liebeler. What did he say?
Mr. Paine. But chiefly what he said was that he didn't have choice of where he could live, you were assigned, he spoke with a certain amount of derision, scorn of the fact that you were assigned jobs, and he thought the food was boring, I think, to use his word. He had mentioned that he liked to—he had gone hunting with some friends, that was the only thing he mentioned about the Soviet Union in which I sensed that he had been with people except for also mentioning that he had been the center of interest as an American who couldn't drive a car.
But apparently he had relished going hunting. He had also said with resentment, a Soviet citizen could not own a rifle. They could own shotguns but not a rifle, and that you could shoot a rifle only by joining a rifle club which he said was a paramilitary organization.
Again, this was with a degree of scorn in his voice or his attitude. I had assumed that he at least tried the paramilitary organization, the rifle club, so he could speak with such scorn, with knowledge of what he was speaking about.
Mr. Liebeler. Did he tell you that he had joined an organization in which he was permitted to shoot a rifle?