rn to a state of peace would be futile and would
be impossible to consider.

Under such conditions as we have outlined, we believe that
your plan could be successfully carried into effect, and we
should be prepared to give it our full support.

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, announc