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| Memorandum for€™ eq from L. B. Nichols . 1told both Mr, Cary and Hoskins that we very much preferred to conduct our own interviews and report results of the interview, Mr. Cary {again pointed out that he had full confidence in Bureau Agents and certainly he had -- - no question whatsoever as to their integrity, but that in a big organization there can be degrees of competence and the report as written back in the office might vary from the report as intended, c - Jimmediately asked Cary if he could site a single instance wherein Bureau Agents had misquoted anyone. He stated that he could not; that this was not even the problem and they hoped that they would not be misunderstood, I told them that one could draw but one conclusion, plainly that they were lacking in confidence in our ability to correctly report facts given to us and that in all fairness they should give us a bill of particulars, Both got a little flustered on this point and protested that they had no such-intention; that they just wanted to safeguard against any such incident occurring, At this point Mr. Cary, who impressed. me as being somewhat aged, all of a sudden blurted out that he had one experience that worried him and troubled him. He thep*pointed out that one of our Agents went to hiS company, which he then identified as/Leeds and Northrop Manufacturing Company. (They make electrical measuring devices and have classified contracts.) This contact was. about 18 months to two years ago. They wanted to review the personnel records . + os . . " for the Pprpose of picking out individuals whoa would be suitable to acting 2s stool pigeons." I challenged Cary at this point anc told him that he had to be ine “ror because "stool pigeons" were words that were not in our vocabulary; that i meant pztriots to whom we could go in cases of emergency for information, then that was entirely different. He then pointed out that the Agent who made the contact stated that ifthey did not-supply the names then-the Government-would take the name of—.——~ the firm of Leeds and Northrop off the list of Government suppliers and he stated this was exactly what happened and they had to come to Washington and see Congress~ man Hugh Scott who, after approximately a month, was able to get their name back on the list. , Itold Mr. Cary that I was astounded at his statement; that I could not conceive of a Bureau Agent threatening to have their name taken off the list of suppliers because we had no authority or power to do this; that I could conccive of a Bureau Agent making a contact for the purpose of determing the identities of a lrmited number of people who might be contacted in an emergency. J asked Cary yee orate Sel iar oh Saatieiednantt a Tait Rae ae ote