Sentence:  Its ground for this recommendation was that , while petitioner <WSD>claimed</WSD> before the local board August 17 , 1956 ( as evidenced by its memorandum in his file of that date ) , that he was devoting 100 hours per month to actual preaching , the headquarters of the Jehovah's Witnesses reported that he was no longer doing so and , on the contrary , had relinquished both his Pioneer and Bible Student Servant positions . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  assert or affirm strongly; state to be true or existing