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Hiss: I will testify that to the best of my knowledge and recollection I have never seen Crosley in the apartment of Henry Collins.
Nixon: Well, of course, you are leaving open the possibility that you might have seen him in the event that that should come out in the proof before the committee.
Hiss: You can put it that way if you choose, Mr. Nixon.
Nixon: You won't say categorically that you did not see him in the apartment of Henry Collins?
Hiss: I do not see how one can say categorically that one has not seen anybody. If he was attending social functions, if there were a large number of people at some occasion and he was present, I could not testify with absolute positive finality.
Incriminatory Car. Hiss also could not testify with absolute finality about the disposition of his 1929 model A Ford roadster. Chambers had testified that the car had been turned over by Hiss to the Communist Party for the use of some hard-up organizer. Hiss said he had turned it over to "Crosley" in 1935. But the committee showed Hiss a transfer of the Ford's ownership to one William Rosen executed almost a year later.
Had Hiss ever got the car back from "Crosley"? He could not remember if "Crosley" had kept it or if it "came back" to him. Hiss agreed that the signature on the photostat of the transfer looked like his, but he still had no memory of the transaction.
(One day later, in closed session, the committee heard a witness named William Rosen, a Washington valet-shop operator. When he was asked about the car he refused to answer on the constitutional grounds that he might incriminate himself. This was also his reply when he was asked if he had ever been a Communist. He said he did not know Hiss.)
Under protracted questioning, Hiss could offer no additional evidence to back up his contention that Chambers was "Crosley." He was unable to name anyone but his wife who had ever seen them together or anyone who knew Chambers as "Crosley." But he had some angry counter-questions of his own. He wanted the committee to ask Chambers if he had ever been treated for a mental illness. He also dared Chambers to come out from behind the shield of congressional immunity, and make his accusations again, so that Hiss could sue for slander or libel.
"A Tragedy of History." Then, while Hiss took a seat among the reporters, the committee summoned Chambers to the witness chair. What had Chambers thought of Hiss's testimony? Said Chambers: "Mr. Hiss is lying." Had he ever been in a mental hospital? "I have never been treated for a mental illness—period."
Chambers was asked what motive he could have for accusing Hiss of being a Communist. Chambers' voice was close to breaking, and some of his listeners thought that he was close to tears as he answered: "The story has spread that ... I am working out some old grudge or motives of revenge or hatred. I do not hate Mr. Hiss. We were close friends, but we are caught in a tragedy of history. Mr. Hiss represents the concealed enemy against which we are all fighting, and I am fighting. I have testified against him with remorse and pity, but in a moment of history in which this nation now stands, so help me God, I could not do otherwise."