V.E.  ORLANDO. 
     D. LLOYD GEORGE. 
     WOODROW WILSON. 
     G. CLEMENCEAU.

Senator KNOX.  I want the reply of Auchincloss to Nansen to go into the record.

The CHAIRMAN.  Let all that correspondence be printed in the record.

Senator KNOX.  Dr. Nansen’s proposition, and then the reply,

(The letters referred to are inserted above.)

Mr. BULLITT.  The Nansen letter was written in Mr. Hoover’s office.  Nansen made the proposition.  I wrote the original of a reply to Dr. Nansen, which I believe would have led to peace.  Col.  House indicated his approval of it, but wished to have it considered from the international legal standpoint, which was then done by Mr. Auchincloss and Mr. Miller, who proposed a reply that had no resemblance to my proposal.  I then objected to that as it was on its way to the President.  It was not sent to the President, and I was ordered to try to doctor it up.  I attempted to doctor it up and produced a doctored version which was finally made the basis of the reply, with the change of two or three words which made it even worse and even more indefinite, so that the Soviet Government could not possibly conceive it as a genuine peace proposition.  It left the whole thing in the air.

Senator KNOX.  We would like to have you see that these documents to which you have just now referred are inserted in the record in the sequence in which you have named them.

Mr. BULLITT.  Yes, I shall be at the service of the committee in that regard.

Senator HARDING.  Lest I missed something while I was out of the room I am exceedingly curious to know why the Soviet proposal was not given favorable consideration.

Senator KNOX.  Mr. Bullitt has stated that.

KOLCHAK’S ADVANCE CAUSES REJECTION OF PEACE PROPOSAL

Mr. BULLITT.  The principal reason was entirely different.  The fact was that just at this moment, when this proposal was under consideration, Kolchak made a 100-mile advance.  There was a revolt of peasants in a district of Russia which entirely cut off supplies from the Bolshevik army operating against Kolchak.  Kolchak made a 100-mile advance, and immediately the entire press of Paris was roaring and screaming on the subject, announcing that Kolchak would be in Moscow within two weeks; and therefore everyone in Paris, including, I regret to say members of the American commission, began to grow very lukewarm about peace in Russia, because they thought Kolchak would arrive in Moscow and wipe out the Soviet Government.

Senator KNOX.  And the proposal which you brought back from Russia, that is the Soviet proposal, was abandoned and dropped, after this last document to which you have just referred.

Mr. BULLITT.  Yes; it was.  May I say this, that April 10 was the final date when their proposition was open.  I had attempted every day and almost every night to obtain a reply to it.  I finally requested the commission to send the following telegram to Tchitcherin.