his suggestion
and upon your report?

Mr. BULLITT. It was acted upon in a very lengthy, long-drawn-out
manner.

Immediately on my return I was first asked to appear before the
American Commission. First, the night I got back I had a couple of
hours with Col. House, in which I went over the whole matter. Col.
House was entirely and quite decidedly in favor of making peace, if
possible, on the basis of this proposal.

The next morning I was called before the other Commissioners, and I
talked with Mr. Lansing, Gen. Bliss, and Mr. Henry White all the
morning and most of the afternoon. We had a long discussion, at the
end of which it was the sense of the commissioners' meeting that it
was highly desirable to attempt to bring about peace on that basis.

BREAKFAST WITH LLOYD GEORGE

The next morning I had breakfast with Mr. Lloyd George at his
apartment. Gen. Smuts and Sir Maurice Hankey and Mr. Philip Kerr were
also present, and we discussed the matter at considerable length, I
brought Mr. Lloyd George the official text of the proposal, the same
official one, in that same envelop, which I have just shown to you. He
had previously read it, it having been telegraphed from Helsingfors.
As he had previously read it, he merely glanced over it and said,
"That is the same one I have already read," and he handed it to Gen.
Smuts, who was across the table, and said, "General, this is of the
utmost importance and interest, and you ought to read it right away."
Gen. Smuts read it immediately, and said he thought it should not be
allowed to lapse; that it was of the utmost importance. Mr. Lloyd
George, however, said that he did not know what he could do with
British public opinion. He had a copy of the Daily Mail in his hand,
and he said, "As long as the British press is doing this kind of thing
how can you expect me to be sensible about Russia?" The Daily Mail was
roaring and screaming about the whole Russian situation. Then Mr.
Lloyd George said, "Of course all the reports we get from people we
send in there are in this same general direction, but we have got to
send in somebody who is known to the whole world as a complete
conservative, in order to have the whole world believe that the report
he brings out is not simply the utterance of a radical." He then said,
"I wonder if we could get Lansdowne to go?" Then he immediately
corrected himself and said, "No; it would probably kill him." Then he
said, "I wish I could send B