A curious explanation has been issued of the statement published
last week on official authority that the Supreme Council at Paris had adopted "the British policy of evacuation" in Russia. No sooner had the statement made on official authority been " released," as Press Censors and film-owners say, than the representatives of France, America, and Italy declared that the subject of Russia had not even been discussed at the meeting of the Supreme Council. The explanation offered to British newspaper readers was that at the end of the meeting of the Council Mr. Lloyd George, when preparing to depart, had thrown out the remark that he supposed his foreign colleagues agreed with his policy of evacuation in Russia. As nobody present made any comment, Mr. Lloyd George—so we are told— naturally assumed that his policy was unanimously approved of. Hence the misleading announcement. Even if all this be re- garded as natural and satisfactory, it remains to be explained how the oorrespondents in Paris could have been authorized to state that the acceptance of the British policy by the rest of the Allies was based on " profound conviction." There does not seem to have been much opportunity for the expression of any conviction, profound or otherwise.
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