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.
I proposed to send this telegram to the American consul at Helsingfors
[reading]:
APRIL 10, 1919.
AMERICAN CONSUL, Helsingfors:
Please send Kock or other reliable person immediately to
Petrograd to Schklovsky, minister of foreign affairs, with
following message for Tchitcherin:
"Action leading to food relief via neutrals likely within
week.--Bullitt."