I did not expect him to become disillusioned, certainly, with the Soviet Union. I am not, of course, sure that he did become disillusioned with it. It just seemed unlike him to come back to this country when he said he would never live in either as a capitalist or as a worker.
Mr. Jenner. When did he say that?
Mr. Thornley. He said that at a press conference in Moscow according to the papers.
Mr. Jenner. This was something you read in the Stars and Stripes?
Mr. Thornley. I don't know whether I read this in the Stars and Stripes or whether I read this—I certainly read it when he came back from Russia, I remember. It was in the article from the Times my folks sent me. Said when he had left for the Soviet Union he had said such-and-such, quote.
Mr. Jenner. You said you did not expect him to become disillusioned with Soviet Russia. Was it your impression at any time, take the several stages, that he had a conviction with respect to any form of political philosophy or government?
Mr. Thornley. Well, he did definitely always before and after have a Marxist bias. From anything that has come to me, that has never—I have never reason—never had reason to doubt that.
Mr. Jenner. That, you think, was a conviction?
Mr. Thornley. I think that was an irrevocable conviction, you might say.
Mr. Jenner. You do not think it was not merely a theoretical concept which he used for argumentation?