The new volume on The Murder of the Romanovs, with
its long foreword by M. Kerensky, first Minister of Justice in the Provisional Government formed after the March revolution in Russia, and afterwards Prime Minister, is likely to revive discussion on the reasons 'why the Tsar and his family did not escape death by taking sanctuary in England. That they were invited here after Nicholas II's abdication is common ground. The Tsar, after all, was a first cousin of King George. Mr. Lloyd George, in his War Memoirs, implies that the invitation was kept permanently open, and he quotes with effect a sentence from the memoirs of Sir George Buchanan, British Ambassador at St. Petersburg, • which declares that it " was never withdrawn." M.
• Kerensky, on the other hand, states explicitly that after semi-official indications that the Russian royal family would not be welcome in England Sir George came " with tears in his eyes " to the Foreign Minister to say • definitely that the Tsar was not wanted. There is no doubt that the Government, for various reasons, thought ' better of the invitation it had extended, but on how • far it banged the door further evidence is still needed. *
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