Signed: HENRY HUFF, _District Chairman_, C. VAN LYDEGRAF, _District Orig. Sec’y_, _For the Northwest District Committee Communist Party, U. S. A._ uopwa No. 35. Mr. VELDE. There is one question I would like to ask you, Mr. Dennett, about your expulsion and your wife’s. You probably recall the argument that took place within the ranks of the Communist Party during the change from the Communist political association to the militant type of organization it was before. Did you or your wife engage in any of those arguments after the receipt of the Duclos letter? Mr. DENNETT. Yes, we did. Mr. VELDE. I am interested in that, if you will please be as brief as you can. Mr. DENNETT. I will do my best, sir. I was still in the service at the time. This occurred in New Orleans. My wife was still doing this same work in New Orleans. Mr. VELDE. Was that in the middle of 1945? Mr. DENNETT. That is right, in May and June of 1945. And with the publication of the Duclos letter in the Daily Worker, which my wife was a subscriber to at that time, we observed that something tremendous was taking place within the party. And she made contact with some of the party people in New Orleans. When they found that we had an interest in it, they invited us to the meetings where this discussion took place. And I was quite startled to find that the general criticism was mainly directed at the bureaucratic attitude and dictatorial policies pursued by Mr. Earl Browder. I was flabbergasted because I did not have that conception of him, and I was quite surprised as a result of it. And, of course, you know the rest of the story, which was published. Mr. VELDE. In other words, you and your wife both took the side of Earl Browder? Mr. DENNETT. I wouldn’t say that my former wife took the side of Earl Browder. I wouldn’t say I took the side of Earl Browder either because I was not in the party at the time. I was simply a visitor invited, and I was mainly surprised. I questioned the reports that people made. I didn’t pass judgment on it. I simply could hardly believe the criticism which I heard. Mr. VELDE. It appears to me from your testimony that you were probably sort of independent in this matter of following the Communist Party line as handed down from Soviet Russia, and that was probably one of the chief reasons why you were expelled. Is that not right? You would not follow the party line? You thought for yourself. Mr. DENNETT. I thought I was following the party line, and I thought the leaders around here were zigzagging all over the lot, and they didn’t know what the line was. They thought I was nuts. I thought they were nuts. Mr. VELDE. Maybe you were just like Trotsky or Lovestone. You just didn’t happen to be in the ruling class as far as the party line was concerned.